AIX 7.1 mkcd returns "0512-003 mksysb may not have been able to archive some files"

[LilRicky]

Unfortunately the output does not list any files that it couldn't backup they way mksysb normally does. The backup is readable and able to restore individual files so I'm inclined to think it's just a temporary file but I don't want to assume that without further proof. I haven't worked with backing up to dvd in quite some time and this is my first time working on AIX 7.1. Here's some other details:

- lsmksysb -f /dev/cd0 lists all of the files on the media, but unlike my AIX 6.1 mksysbs, it does not give a summary at the bottom (files archived, block size,etc).

- directing the output of the above to file and doing a line count (there are no headers/footers in the output) shows the same number of files that the backup lists it is trying to backup. This part bugs me because it looks like there are some zero byte files in the backup that should not be that way.

- not using the exclude.rootvg file

- backing up in UDF format.

- no filesystems mounted with the concurrent i/o option, however, I don't know if any files are opened that way.

- This error seems to be consistent since migrating to 7.1.

- /var/adm/ras/mkcd.log reports no error.

- no i/o or disk errors in errpt.

Any insight would be great. I'm going to add the debug option to the command string tonight with the hope of getting more info. Was just hoping someone else might have some knowledge with this in the meantime.

[Uwe Auer]

Hello,

most likely you get this error due to a file vanished during the
creation of the mksysb.The mksysb script creates an archive list at the
very beginning of execution. Afterwards it uses this archive list with
the backup command (something like this):
exec ${backup} -iqv ... -f $FIFO < $archive_lst

If during excetion a file vanishes then "backup" will return an rc=1:

Example:
$ echo "blabla"| backup -ivqf test.bk
Backing up to test.bk
Cluster 51200 bytes (100 blocks).
Volume 1 on test.bk
cannot access blabla: No such file or directory
total size: 0
Done at Sat Jul 20 20:18:59 2013; 100 blocks on 1 volume(s)

$ echo $?
1

BTW: It is absolutely no good idea to have no /etc/exclude.rootvg, if
you use the standard option of mksysb to tell backup to pack (compress)
files while backing up.

Regards,
Uwe Auer