duplicating ignite tapes

UNIX HP-UX
1

I have a B180L controller running HP-UX 10.2 with an internal DDS2 tape drive and an external Surestore DDS (24gb) tape drive. I want to make duplicate copies of ignite tapes from one tape drive to another. What is the best way to do this?

2

I used to do those things, not for ignite but backup tapes (reels) on a 9000/855...(HP-UX 8...)
I remembered using dd, so Id go for dd:

dd if=<dev DDS-1> of=<dev DDS-2> bs=10k-64k ?

Wait I found (perhaps...) better:

#!/usr/bin/ksh

###################### DISCLAIMER #################################
# This software is provided as is with no guarantee or warranty
# expressed or implied as to its appropriateness or effectiveness.
#
# Tested configuration:
#   Machine    9000/777
#   HP-UX      10.20
#   Ignite     v1.38
#   Tape drive C1533A
#   Tape       60M
#
# Bootable tape created with:
#    make_recovery -d /dev/rmt/c1t0d0DDS1n
#
# Tape duplication steps:
#  put recovery tape in drive
#   dup_tape -u /dev/rmt/c1t0d0DDS1n -d /extra
#  put blank tape in drive
#   dup_tape -p /dev/rmt/c1t0d0DDS1n -d /extra
#
# This command takes the two sections off of a boot install tape
# and puts them in regular files. Then the command can be used to
# put them back to another tape.
#
# The boot area requires 32MB and the system archive depends on the
# amount of inclusion done for make_recovery (typical minimum is
# 300MB). So, to duplicate a tape you will need approximately 350MB
# of free disk space.
#

typeset -i upack=0 pack=0
typeset tdir tdev bootimage sysimage opt

usage (){
      print "usage: $1 [u|p] no_rewind_tape_device [d] tmp_dir"
      print "unpack example: $1 -u /dev/rmt/1mn -d /extra_space"
      exit 1
}

# check for enough command line arguments
(( $# < 4 )) && usage ${0##*/}


while getopts :u:p:d: opt
do
  case $opt in
     d) # temp dir
      tdir=$OPTARG
      ;;
     u) #unpack
       upack=1
       tdev=${OPTARG}
      ;;
     p) #repack
       pack=1
       tdev=${OPTARG}
      ;;
     *)
      usage ${0##*/}
     ;;
  esac
done

if [[ $tdev = "" || $tdir = "" ]];then
  usage ${0##*/}
fi

if [[ ! -c $tdev ]]; then
  print "$tdev not found or not a character device."
  exit 1
fi

if [[ ! -d $tdir ]]; then
  print "$tdir not found or not a directory."
  exit 1
fi

bootimage="${tdir}/image"
sysimage="${tdir}/image2"

if (( upack )) ;then
      mt -t ${tdev} rew

      print "Extracting the boot area."
      dd if=${tdev} bs=2k of=${bootimage}
      print "Boot file contents."
      lifls -l ${bootimage}

      print "Extracting the system archive."
      dd if=${tdev} bs=10k of=${sysimage}

      file ${bootimage} ${sysimage}
fi
if (( pack )) ;then
      mt -t ${tdev} rew

      print "Putting the boot area on tape."
      dd if=${bootimage} of=${tdev} bs=2k

      print "Putting the system archive on tape."
      dd if=${sysimage} of=${tdev} bs=10k

      mt -t ${tdev} offline
fi
exit 0

ITRC source:
http://www11.itrc.hp.com/service/cki/docDisplay.do?docLocale=en&docId=KNC032098003

All the best