Backupios fails with error "tar: 0511-194 Reached end-of-file before expected."

Troubleshooting

Problem

backupios fails with error "tar: 0511-194 Reached end-of-file before expected."

Symptom

$ backupios -file /home/padmin -nomedialib

Backup in progress.  This command can take a considerable amount of time
to complete, please be patient...

tar: 0511-194 Reached end-of-file before expected.

Cause

The backupios image is too large for the specified directory in /home file system.

Environment

VIOS 2.2

Diagnosing The Problem

Determine if there are user created file systems in rootvg.

In the following example, there are two user-created file systems totaling 55 GB in size (/repo/lnx_repo and /backup/vio), plus the VIOS Virtual Media Repository, /var/vio/VMLibrary:

$ df -g
Filesystem    GB blocks   Free  %Used    Iused %Iused Mounted on
/dev/hd4           2.00   1.71    15%    14728   4% /
/dev/hd2           8.00   3.23    60%    85885  10% /usr
/dev/hd9var        5.00   4.38    13%     9504   1% /var
/dev/hd3           5.00   4.99     1%      144   1% /tmp
/dev/hd1          10.00   9.77     3%      220   1% /home
/dev/hd11admin     0.50   0.50     1%        5   1% /admin
/proc                 -     -      -         -   -  /proc
/dev/hd10opt       3.00   2.13    29%    13617   3% /opt
/dev/livedump      0.50   0.50     1%        4   1% /var/adm/ras/livedump
/dev/slelnx_lv    25.00   21.98   13%        9   1% /repo/lnx_repo
/ahafs                -      -     -        34   1% /aha
/dev/bkup_vio_lv  30.00   14.26   53%        7   1% /backup/vio
/dev/VMLibrary    20.00   1.40    93%       11   1% /var/vio/VMLibrary

backupios will automatically backup all mounted file systems.

The -nomedialib flag prevents the contents of the VIOS media repository, /var/vios/VMLibrary, from being saved as part of the backupios process.

However, the contents of any other user-created file systems will be automatically backed up causing the backup image to be larger than expected.

The purpose of the VIOS partition is to allow virtualization of the physical resources. Creating file systems on a VIOS partition via oem_setup_env shell is not supported. For more details, see What is the purpose of oem_setup_env in PowerVM VIOS?

Resolving The Problem

Unmount/remove any user-created file systems in rootvg, then retry backupios command.

If the VIOS has the virtual media repository mounted, use the -nomedialib flag to exclude it from the backup, i.e.

$ backupios -file /home/padmin -nomedialib

Related Information

Backupios error: "0511-432 A write error occurred: There is not enough space in…

Document Location

Worldwide

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