[Guide] List backups on a Tape

Last Updated: Sep 21, 2017 08:26PM CEST

Create List of backups on a Tape via command line

Case

Command server died, backing up to a tape library with multiplexing.

No idea what tape is what, and need to recover some files at this point.

Need to list all the backups done to a tape to go through and get the stamp needed to recover via command line.

Procedure

If you have nothing but a fresh DataCenter install and some tapes (and a drive of course), you are doomed.

But there is a commandline to help you list tape by tape.

The general way is that you mount a tape, run the commandline which outputs the metadata for each backup on that tape (client, timestamp, date).

The commandline is Hiback.exe and it is called like this: (Hiback reads all SVs on the tape from all nodes. Otherwise it just scans for the backups of current executing node and therefore does not find any.)

CMD TIP: Ctrl + C is used to kill a process, by other words it is a polite kill and will allow you to exit the current command.

C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback> hiback –cross *

Which Fileset ? *

Function ? ci

Device ? $server*tape|somename|A1B2S3L0

To obtain the AxBxSxLx form name of the tape device, use (from another cmd window, or before starting hiback):

C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tape> hiscsi –scan

This will give you a list of backups on that tape, list is written to:

C:\Program Files\NovaStor\DataCenter\Hiback\tmp\SCANDEV.MSG

The list has Hiback.log format.

This would need to be done for each tape.

See Also

[Guide] Direct Restore from .SV file

[Guide] Restoring an unindexed SV file from a network location