How to Determine Which Tapes to Use

1. Ask the user the approximate date the files to be recovered were last modified.

2. Refer to your backup plan to find the date of the last backup that would have the file or file system on it.

   To retrieve the most recent version of a file, work backward through the incremental backups from highest to lowest level and most recent to least recent, unless the user requests otherwise.

3. If you have online archive files, use the ufsrestore command to identify correct media.

   # ufsrestore ta archive-name ./path/filename ./path/filename

   t	List each file that appears on the tape.
   a	Reads the table of contents from the online archive file instead of the tape.
   archive-name	Identifies the online archive file name.
   ./path/filename	Identifies the file name(s) you are looking for on the online archive. If successful, ufsrestore will print out the inode number and file name. If unsuccessful, ufsrestore will print an error message.

4. Insert the media containing the backups in the drive and use the ufsrestore command to verify the correct media.

   # ufsrestore tf device-name ./path/filename ./path/filename

   Be sure to use the complete path for the filename(s). If a file is in the backup, its name and inode number is listed. Otherwise, a message says it is not on the volume.

5. If you have multiple dump files on the same tape, use the s /dev/rmt/n option to position the tape at the dump you want to use.

   # ufsrestore tfs /dev/rmt/n tape_number

Example--Determining Which Tapes to Use

If you use ufsdump to dump the /usr file system, the table of contents lists only the files and directories under /usr. The following example checks if /usr/bin/pwd is in the online archive.

# ufsrestore ta archive-name ./bin/pwd

The following example checks if /usr/bin/pwd is on the backup tape.

# ufsrestore tf /dev/rmt/n ./bin/pwd