Questions about dump

[Hongwei Li]

Hi,

I have a fc3 and a fc4 system that I use dump to backup files. My script for
dump has these lines:

/sbin/dump ${level}uf /dev/nst0  /
/sbin/dump ${level}uf /dev/nst0  /home
/sbin/dump ${level}uf /dev/nst0  /var
/sbin/dump ${level}uf /dev/nst0  /usr

then, the system cronjob sets:

 0 23 * * 5 /usr/local/bin/backup_dump_st0.sh 0
 0 23 * * 6 /usr/local/bin/backup_dump_st0.sh 9
 0 23 * * 0 /usr/local/bin/backup_dump_st0.sh 8
 0 23 * * 1 /usr/local/bin/backup_dump_st0.sh 7
 0 23 * * 2 /usr/local/bin/backup_dump_st0.sh 6
 0 23 * * 3 /usr/local/bin/backup_dump_st0.sh 5

It was working well.  Recently, since more users are added and users have more
emails received, sometimes the tape is full.  Then, the dump job got aborted. 
The message shows something like:

...
  DUMP: Volume 1 1972170 blocks (1925.95MB)
  DUMP: Volume 1 took 0:14:53
  DUMP: Volume 1 transfer rate: 2208 kB/s
  DUMP: 1972170 blocks (1925.95MB) on 1 volume(s)
  DUMP: finished in 891 seconds, throughput 2213 kBytes/sec
  DUMP: Date of this level 7 dump: Mon Jan 30 23:00:13 2006
  DUMP: Date this dump completed:  Mon Jan 30 23:15:20 2006
  DUMP: Average transfer rate: 2208 kB/s
  DUMP: DUMP IS DONE
  DUMP: Date of this level 7 dump: Mon Jan 30 23:15:20 2006
  DUMP: Date of last level 0 dump: Fri Jan 27 23:33:32 2006
  DUMP: Dumping /dev/hda3 (/var) to /dev/nst0
  DUMP: Label: /var
  DUMP: Writing 10 Kilobyte records
  DUMP: mapping (Pass I) [regular files]
  DUMP: mapping (Pass II) [directories]
  DUMP: estimated 3208240 blocks.
  DUMP: Volume 1 started with block 1 at: Mon Jan 30 23:15:29 2006
  DUMP: dumping (Pass III) [directories]
  DUMP: dumping (Pass IV) [regular files]
  DUMP: 20.44% done at 2179 kB/s, finished in 0:19
  DUMP: 40.83% done at 2179 kB/s, finished in 0:14
  DUMP: End of tape detected
  DUMP: Closing /dev/nst0
  DUMP: Volume 1 completed at: Mon Jan 30 23:29:09 2006
  DUMP: Volume 1 1777190 blocks (1735.54MB)
  DUMP: Volume 1 took 0:13:40
  DUMP: Volume 1 transfer rate: 2167 kB/s
  DUMP: Change Volumes: Mount volume #2
  DUMP: fopen on /dev/tty fails: No such device or address
  DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.
...
  DUMP: Change Volumes: Mount volume #2
  DUMP: fopen on /dev/tty fails: No such device or address
  DUMP: The ENTIRE dump is aborted.

My questions are:

1. How to make the tape ejected if the tape is full so that I know to insert
the 2nd tape to continue the dump job?

2. How to make the 2nd tape continueing the dump job not finished on Volume 1
tape?  What change do I need in my script for dump?

3. Do I need to do anything on tape 2 so that the system knows that it is
Volume 2 for a specific Volume 1 tape?

4. For Volume 1 tape, when I do level 0 dump, it erases the whole tape so that
it has a fresh dump on it.  When I reuse the volume 2 tape next time (e.g.
next month), how to erase the tape's previous dumped contents so that it will
have new dump files?

Thanks a lot for any help!

Hongwei Li