Re: [cobalt-users] RAQ2 - Restore Help!

[Duncan Laurie <duncan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

This has all been said before in one way or another, but it apparently isn't
catching on...

<rant>

Jeff Bilicki is NOT affiliated with Cobalt's tech support department.  At one
time he *was* our first (and for a long time, only) support employee, through
our early months with the qube1/raq1, but since then has moved on (up?) and
currently is very busy with product development and engineering.  If he posts
to this list then he, like any other Cobalt employee, is doing so out of
kindness and for the benefit of YOU and others like you.  None of us get any
encouragement from within Cobalt to watch this list, or contribute time to
answering questions, etc..  What little time we do devote comes out of our
evenings, weekends, and (many) late nights.

I would be suprised to learn that anyone from our support department reads this
list--its hard enough to keep up with the traffic from support@xxxxxxxxxxx 
Consequently most of the Cobalt people you see on here are engineers, and we
are all working as hard as possible--though usually on future products...  Why?
because Cobalt is a corporation, and like any other corporation it is expected
to make money.  The investors demand it, the shareholders demand it, and
therefore the executive staff and management demands it from us.  This means we
have barely enough time to finish a product (and in some cases not enough time)
before it is shipped out the door and we are already heavily involved in the
next project.... This (and minimal quality SQA testing) results in bugs--none
of us are proud of that.  But while would like to address it personally and
immediately, to do so would mean losing even more of our already precious free
time--beleive me Cobalt does not give us free time.  So instead we must wait
while an OS update is prepared and bugs are fixed, and then wait again while it
passes SQA--which hasn't been very effective lately.

Do I like this?  No, of course not.  But Cobalt is full of disappointments and
dislikes, even from within.  Such is life--deal with it accordingly.

That disclaimer aside, I find it rude and completely uncalled for to attack
Jeff in a public forum about a private problem that should be handled in a
private matter.  If it is a legitimate support question then contact Cobalt
support--and then get angry if you are not satisfied with the response. 
Comments like these, probably the result of a misunderstanding or
miscommunication of some sort, are exactly what will drive people like Jeff and
I away.  He has done more for this list than any other Cobalt employee since
Lyle, who you might recall was also unhappy at public bashing of himself before
he decided to step back and reevalute his commitment to this list (hint,
hint)..

Threats to contact his manager will not be kindly received, and will most
likely result in his manager coming down on him for involving himself in our
"unsupported" mailing lists when he should be devoting his free time to his
"money making" projects, and to leave support to the support department.  That
would not be very helpful for you or your problem.  Instead, I suggest you
reconsider your attitude, maybe have a drink or two (it always helps my
attitude), and then try contacting Jeff in a calm and appreciative manner if
you really want his help.  

</rant>

As for the restore problem...

until you get an "official" answer try uploading the backup file to your raq,
opening it with vi, and deleting the header (text that begins with
%%BACKUP_HEADER and goes to %%END_INDEX).  then you can view/extract the
contents with tar:  "tar -tzvf backupfile.raq" to view, and "tar -xzvf
backupfile.raq file1 file2 ..." to extract.  (you will most likely get errors
about "trailing garbage" but tar ignores these and so can you)


-duncan


Ali & Charlie wrote:
> 
> well, hate to say this but I am talking about Nov 25/99. I think it is
> pretty rude to bend over backwards to help them, give them access to a
> machine, make sure they have all the files they need and then they just
> forget about you and not bother answering any of your requests on how things
> are going. This problem has plagued all of us in regards to not being able
> to restore a server from the backup created with the Cobalt software. If we
> do not get some sort of reply on this soon Jeff, I will just bombard the
> Cobalt management with emails until all of us get this resolved! Sorry that
> it has to come to this sort of thing, but enough is enough............
> 
> Worse part is, you want us to buy more servers, why not service what you
> already have out on the market?
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of RHLinux- WHN
> > Sent: 04 February 2000 20:37
> > To: cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: Re: [cobalt-users] RAQ2 - Restore Help!
> >
> >
> > Jeff Bilicki is too busy with other projects right now
> >
> > He was helping me with my server two days ago, yesterday he said
> > he was too
> > busy to help me and told me he would hand me off to his manager.
> > The manager
> > has yet to call or email me. go figure
> >
> > Gary
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Ali & Charlie" <dynamicduo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > To: <cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > Sent: Friday, February 04, 2000 10:14 AM
> > Subject: RE: [cobalt-users] RAQ2 - Restore Help!
> >
> >
> > You know Jeff, if you are listening could you address this issue?????
> > We were kind enough to let you in one of our servers in the end
> > of November
> > to address this issue for everyone and you never bothered to answer any of
> > our emails to follow-up on your progress with this.
> >
> > We were kind enough to extend the courtesy to you and respond to your
> > request for help with this, how about extending that same
> > courtesy to us!!!!
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > [mailto:cobalt-users-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Bruce Kiley
> > > Sent: 04 February 2000 19:03
> > > To: cobalt-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Subject: [cobalt-users] RAQ2 - Restore Help!
> > >
> > >
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I needed to rebuild my RAQ2.  Now when I try and restore my
> > > backups, they do not work!  I comes back saying that it could not
> > > restore/very close to 95% of the files.  It looks like to does
> > > not restore anything other than files owned my the admin account.
> > >  So in other words, it won't restore anything that has root or
> > > httpd ownership.  So the restore dies.
> > >
> > > What can i do to force the restore?
> > >
> > > Bruce
> > >