byron.hsu@neweb.com.tw wrote:
> Dear Expert:
> while i run tar command for backup a filesystems(PROD1157);
> systems error: There is not enough memory available now
> I restore the tape data to other directory...but some file is lost
> so, i have some file is not backup into my to tape
> i clean the tape and change the tape with new tape ;then tar
> again....but error again
> I check my paging space only 1%USED
> i check file systems space with "df -k" command ....ALL file systems is
> under 70%used
> and i check system error log:nothing is occur
> I umount the file systems; run fsc;
> then re-mount the file systems
> tar again.....error again
> I change tje tape block_size to 10240 or 1024 or 512 or "0".....try tar
> again.....error again
> I umount the file systems & varyoffvg...
> change the vg(file systems) to my testing server(6H1) ,and retry tar
> command again......error again
> MY server is 6M1...tape driver is 3581...file systems on EMC CX 300
> storage
> OS level is AIX 4.3.3-ML11
> please Help....thanks
>
> #tar cvf /dev/rmt1 /PROD1157
> a /PROD1157
> a /PROD1157/prodarch
> a /PROD1157/prodarch/topas.error 0 blocks.
> a /PROD1157/prodarch/prod50829.arc 20346 blocks.
> a /PROD1157/prodarch/lost+found
> ...
> ...
> tar: /PROD1157/prodarch/prod62437.arc: There is not enough memory
> available now.
> tar: /PROD1157/prodarch/prod62438.arc: There is not enough memory

1)
from the man page for tar on AIX 5.1
....
When writing to an archive, the tar command uses a temporary file (the
/tmp/tar*
file) and maintains in memory a table of files with several links. You
receive
an error message if the tar command cannot create the temporary file,
or if
there is not enough memory available to hold the link tables.
....


So for trouble shooting:
a)
Check if /tmp has enough space and that the file created by tar does
not growth larger then 2GB.

b)
In case the link table causes the problem then check the memory usage
by the tar command.
$ ps axv | grep tar
If the the memory usage is close to 256MB you might be out of luck with
tar imho.

c)
Check the limits ( ulimit -m )

d)
Verify that no file is larger then 2GB because tar handles only files
up to 2GB in size.

e) Keep in mind that tar does not handle sparse files very well during
extraction

Think about to use restore for backup purpose

hth
Hajo