Disaster Recovery: Importing Cache-A catalog into new LTO5 tape deck?

[Tom Goldberg]

Kyle,

On Cache-A units, the catalog is not used when reading tapes, it is only there so humans can know what is on each tape. So importing your backup catalog wouldn’t help (even if it were possible, which it no longer is).

Any reading of a tape uses the table of contents on that tape to access files. If the loaner Prime-Cache can’t read it, either there is a problem with the unit or with the tape. Following are some things to try.

If the tapes are written with LTFS, you might want to try a more up-to-date LTFS system to recover them. If they are written as tar tapes, there is a procedure available to recover all files from any Cache-A tar tape – you can find that here:
https://www.tomgoldberg.net/Cache-A/CATechBrief-ReadCAtar.pdf
also a set of instructions for using terminal commands on a Cache-A is here:
https://www.tomgoldberg.net/Cache-A/CATechBrief-CommandLine.pdf
and if you did want a copy of the catalog, these instructions will work on your old Pro-Cache assuming it will boot:
https://www.tomgoldberg.net/Cache-A/CATechBrief-catalog-export.pdf

I hope this helps,
Tom

Tom Goldberg
TGCS
30201 Rainbow Hill Rd.
Evergreen, CO 80439
mailto:tomgoldberg@gmail.com
https://tomgoldberg.net

[Ed Murphy]

Hi Tom,

Do you know of any way to recover/export the catalog without using the Pro-Cache?
Ours kicked the bucket too and it will not boot, nor can I restore it with the recovery USB stick, but I do have a backup of the .tgz catalog file.

I really want to be able to find some way to still search our catalog, instead of having to manually restore 100+ LTO5 tapes in order to recreate it.

Thank you!

Ed Murphy
Senior Editor / Technical Director
David Lynch Foundation Television

[Tom Goldberg]

Hi Ed,

Unfortunately, the catalog backup .tgz file is no use without a Cache-A. The database contents are in there but hashed and must be loaded back into a working unit. If your Pro-Cache will boot from the recovery stick, it would be possible to use it to restore this data. If you want to pursue this, please contact me directly off forum.

Tom Goldberg
TGCS
30201 Rainbow Hill Rd.
Evergreen, CO 80439
mailto:tomgoldberg@gmail.com
https://tomgoldberg.net

[Martin Greenwood]

Hi Ed,

We’re looking at importing Cache-A metadata into our LTFS app. If you want to email a link to your backup tgz then we can take a look and see what is possible.

Thanks,

Martin Greenwood

martin@yoyotta.com

CTO

YoYotta.com

[Tom Goldberg]

Very Cool Martin, let us all know how that goes.

Tom Goldberg
TGCS
30201 Rainbow Hill Rd.
Evergreen, CO 80439
mailto:tomgoldberg@gmail.com
https://tomgoldberg.net

[Ed Murphy]

Thank you both, Tom and Martin!

Martin, that is great news, as I am currently using the demo of YoYotta and liking it. I was able to fully restore a Cache-A tar LTO5 tape with it, but to be able to access and/or recreate our existing catalog would mean a world of difference!

Tom, I will certainly pursue that suggestion with you depending on or in tandem with what Martin has to say about my catalog file.
I’ll email you each with my specifics by tomorrow at the latest.

I will also follow up here for others with any interesting results we find.

Ed Murphy
Senior Editor / Technical Director
David Lynch Foundation Television