SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

[Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link]

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Hi,

We have several older SGI hard drives we are trying to recover data from. However, since these drives came from an SGI Onyx running IRIX 6.2, it uses the older version 1 XFS file system. I can see the SCSI drive on my Linux box (CentOS 5.11) and I know data is on the drive, I can list out some of the info using dd, cpio or strings, but cannot copy the data off of it. I have tried using xfs_copy to a version 2 XFS partition, but it just converts the target partition to version 1, which I cannot mount. I have also looked at xfs_dump/restore, but those require mounted filesystems.

Is there any script or program or option I can use to copy the data off of the un-mounted SGI XFS partition. I'm guessing some combination of the cpio and dd, but I have not figured out the right combination yet.

Thanks,
Ed



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Re: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

[Ben Myers]

Hi Edmund,

On Wed, May 06, 2015 at 03:12:59PM +0000, Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link
wrote:
> We have several older SGI hard drives we are trying to recover data
> from. However, since these drives came from an SGI Onyx running IRIX
> 6.2, it uses the older version 1 XFS file system. I can see the SCSI
> drive on my Linux box (CentOS 5.11) and I know data is on the drive, I
> can list out some of the info using dd, cpio or strings, but cannot
> copy the data off of it. I have tried using xfs_copy to a version 2
> XFS partition, but it just converts the target partition to version 1,
> which I cannot mount. I have also looked at xfs_dump/restore,
> but those require mounted filesystems.
> 
> Is there any script or program or option I can use to copy the data
> off of the un-mounted SGI XFS partition. I'm guessing some combination
> of the cpio and dd, but I have not figured out the right combination
> yet.

Apparently CentOS 5.11 should be a 2.6.18 kernel.  It looks like it
should still have support for version 1, so I'm surprised you're having
trouble.  Could you provide a little more information?  

1) dmesg output when you try to mount the filesystem
2) xfs_info output, e.g.
	xfs_info /dev/sda5
3) hexdump of the superblock, e.g. 
	dd if=/dev/sda5 count=1 | hexdump -C

Thanks,
	Ben

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RE: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

[Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link]

Hi,

We are in a thunderstorm right now so we had to shut down, be a while until we get things back up. We're in Utah with a rolling t-storm coming through. 

We did find documentation that XFS version 1 was pulled out of the linux kernel around or after kernel 2.4. and the messages kind of support that. I'm looking into digging up an old Red Hat OS to see if it is old enough to have the version 1 XFS in it.

While it was up, we've done the blkid command and it recognizes at least 1 partition on the SGI drive to be xfs, others were efs. We also used the hardware browser and got the same readings.

I did try using cpio on the one xfs partition it does recognize and got off some info, mainly only an indy patch directory and files. When I did a dd, cpio or a strings command and just let it stream from the partition, I could see a lot more information and files that I recognized as being the normal info that would be on that partition.

It's almost like I need to have some sort of combination of cpio, dd or strings in a script to strip the data off of the old partition without getting the filesystem info and save it into a desired directory.

We've also tried to make a disk image. If I try to mount the image on the linux computer, it will essentially give me the same error about version 1 xfs. Not that this was unexpected, it should error out just like the drive did. I also happen to have an O2 up and running, so I copied the image over to the O2 expecting to try and mount the image so it would/should automatically handle the xfs issue, but it looks like the O2 mount command does not have the loop or knows how to handle mounting an image like the Linux does. Right now I cannot restore the image, because it would wipe out my one good O2 drive, at least until I get some clones made up. You also might be thinking to just mount the Onyx drive to the O2, but the O2 does not have the interface to handle a wide differential high voltage SCSI interface.

If it's not one thing it's something else. I guess it would be boring if not for things like this.

I'll get the info you requested later when we come back up.

Thanks for the help,
Later,
Ed

-----Original Message-----
From: Ben Myers [mailto:bpm@sgi.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2015 11:12 AM
To: Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link
Cc: xfs@oss.sgi.com
Subject: Re: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

Hi Edmund,

On Wed, May 06, 2015 at 03:12:59PM +0000, Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link
wrote:
> We have several older SGI hard drives we are trying to recover data 
> from. However, since these drives came from an SGI Onyx running IRIX 
> 6.2, it uses the older version 1 XFS file system. I can see the SCSI 
> drive on my Linux box (CentOS 5.11) and I know data is on the drive, I 
> can list out some of the info using dd, cpio or strings, but cannot 
> copy the data off of it. I have tried using xfs_copy to a version 2 
> XFS partition, but it just converts the target partition to version 1, 
> which I cannot mount. I have also looked at xfs_dump/restore, but 
> those require mounted filesystems.
> 
> Is there any script or program or option I can use to copy the data 
> off of the un-mounted SGI XFS partition. I'm guessing some combination 
> of the cpio and dd, but I have not figured out the right combination 
> yet.

Apparently CentOS 5.11 should be a 2.6.18 kernel.  It looks like it should still have support for version 1, so I'm surprised you're having trouble.  Could you provide a little more information?  

1) dmesg output when you try to mount the filesystem
2) xfs_info output, e.g.
	xfs_info /dev/sda5
3) hexdump of the superblock, e.g. 
	dd if=/dev/sda5 count=1 | hexdump -C

Thanks,
	Ben

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Re: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

[Ben Myers]

Hey Ed,

On Wed, May 06, 2015 at 07:47:51PM +0000, Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link
wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We are in a thunderstorm right now so we had to shut down, be a while
> until we get things back up. We're in Utah with a rolling t-storm
> coming through. 
> 
> We did find documentation that XFS version 1 was pulled out of the
> linux kernel around or after kernel 2.4. and the messages kind of
> support that. I'm looking into digging up an old Red Hat OS to see if
> it is old enough to have the version 1 XFS in it.
> 
> While it was up, we've done the blkid command and it recognizes at
> least 1 partition on the SGI drive to be xfs, others were efs. We also
> used the hardware browser and got the same readings.
> 
> I did try using cpio on the one xfs partition it does recognize and
> got off some info, mainly only an indy patch directory and files. When
> I did a dd, cpio or a strings command and just let it stream from the
> partition, I could see a lot more information and files that I
> recognized as being the normal info that would be on that partition.
> 
> It's almost like I need to have some sort of combination of cpio, dd
> or strings in a script to strip the data off of the old partition
> without getting the filesystem info and save it into a desired
> directory.
> 
> We've also tried to make a disk image. If I try to mount the image on
> the linux computer, it will essentially give me the same error about
> version 1 xfs. Not that this was unexpected, it should error out just
> like the drive did. I also happen to have an O2 up and running, so I
> copied the image over to the O2 expecting to try and mount the image
> so it would/should automatically handle the xfs issue, but it looks
> like the O2 mount command does not have the loop or knows how to
> handle mounting an image like the Linux does. Right now I cannot
> restore the image, because it would wipe out my one good O2 drive, at
> least until I get some clones made up. You also might be thinking to
> just mount the Onyx drive to the O2, but the O2 does not have the
> interface to handle a wide differential high voltage SCSI interface.
> 
> If it's not one thing it's something else. I guess it would be boring
> if not for things like this.

I hear you.  Gotta love working on that old hardware though.  My
colleague Troy suggested that you are probably referring to directory
naming version 1, and not superblock version 1.

Dir v1 was removed in commit v2.6.17-rc6-55-gf6c2d1f:
https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=f6c2d1fa6310a71b1c2e05fc6d9ff9b91489fa0e

It's looking like your best bet is 2.6.16 or to mount it up on an irix
box.

> I'll get the info you requested later when we come back up.

Good luck with the storm.  ;)

Thanks,
	Ben

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Re: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

[Dave Chinner]

On Wed, May 06, 2015 at 07:47:51PM +0000, Scott, Edmund J @ SSG -
Link wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We are in a thunderstorm right now so we had to shut down, be a
> while until we get things back up. We're in Utah with a rolling
> t-storm coming through. 
> 
> We did find documentation that XFS version 1 was pulled out of the
> linux kernel around or after kernel 2.4. and the messages kind of
> support that. I'm looking into digging up an old Red Hat OS to see
> if it is old enough to have the version 1 XFS in it.

You'd be talking about the directory version, then, not the version
of the filesystem? Irix 6.2 introduced Version 4 filesystems, but
version 2 directories didn't come along until a couple of years
later. See Slides 6-7 here:

http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/dchinner-xfs-there-and-back.pdf

As it is, the dirv1 removal commit says "Never functioned on Linux,
just pure bloat".

http://oss.sgi.com/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=archive/xfs-import.git;a=commitdiff;h=b84149405b9c2ecbc445d2684053e4acc03342ee

So I suspect that the only way you are going to be able to read
those filesystems is with an Irix machine....

> While it was up, we've done the blkid command and it recognizes at
> least 1 partition on the SGI drive to be xfs, others were efs. We
> also used the hardware browser and got the same readings.

Yeah, that's old ;)

> We've also tried to make a disk image. If I try to mount the image
> on the linux computer, it will essentially give me the same error
> about version 1 xfs. Not that this was unexpected, it should error
> out just like the drive did. I also happen to have an O2 up and
> running, so I copied the image over to the O2 expecting to try and
> mount the image so it would/should automatically handle the xfs
> issue, but it looks like the O2 mount command does not have the
> loop or knows how to handle mounting an image like the Linux does.

http://www.nekochan.net/wiki/Loopback_Filesystems

Nekochan is the place to go for information about old SGI boxes.
It might be worth posting there to see if there is anyone local to
you with working hardware that would enable you to pull the
information off the disks....

Cheers,

Dave.
-- 
Dave Chinner
david@fromorbit.com

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RE: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

[Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link]

Hi,

Yep, you are right in that it is the directory version not the filesystem version. We are rapidly coming to the same conclusion about figuring a way to connect to an SGI box to get the info off. The drives are from the Onyx Stampede drive system that uses the high voltage SCSI, so it's kind of tough to interface to. We'll have to figure out if it is worth it. I think we might have some tapes around that may have the info. The tape part we already have figured out, it's just the drives would have been faster.

Oh well, where's my hammer.......

Thanks for the info, If I figure something out, I'll pass it along,
Ed


-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Chinner [mailto:david@fromorbit.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 2015 3:58 PM
To: Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link
Cc: Ben Myers; xfs@oss.sgi.com
Subject: Re: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

On Wed, May 06, 2015 at 07:47:51PM +0000, Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> We are in a thunderstorm right now so we had to shut down, be a while 
> until we get things back up. We're in Utah with a rolling t-storm 
> coming through.
> 
> We did find documentation that XFS version 1 was pulled out of the 
> linux kernel around or after kernel 2.4. and the messages kind of 
> support that. I'm looking into digging up an old Red Hat OS to see if 
> it is old enough to have the version 1 XFS in it.

You'd be talking about the directory version, then, not the version of the filesystem? Irix 6.2 introduced Version 4 filesystems, but version 2 directories didn't come along until a couple of years later. See Slides 6-7 here:

http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/dchinner-xfs-there-and-back.pdf

As it is, the dirv1 removal commit says "Never functioned on Linux, just pure bloat".

http://oss.sgi.com/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=archive/xfs-import.git;a=commitdiff;h=b84149405b9c2ecbc445d2684053e4acc03342ee

So I suspect that the only way you are going to be able to read those filesystems is with an Irix machine....

> While it was up, we've done the blkid command and it recognizes at 
> least 1 partition on the SGI drive to be xfs, others were efs. We also 
> used the hardware browser and got the same readings.

Yeah, that's old ;)

> We've also tried to make a disk image. If I try to mount the image on 
> the linux computer, it will essentially give me the same error about 
> version 1 xfs. Not that this was unexpected, it should error out just 
> like the drive did. I also happen to have an O2 up and running, so I 
> copied the image over to the O2 expecting to try and mount the image 
> so it would/should automatically handle the xfs issue, but it looks 
> like the O2 mount command does not have the loop or knows how to 
> handle mounting an image like the Linux does.

http://www.nekochan.net/wiki/Loopback_Filesystems

Nekochan is the place to go for information about old SGI boxes.
It might be worth posting there to see if there is anyone local to you with working hardware that would enable you to pull the information off the disks....

Cheers,

Dave.
--
Dave Chinner
david@fromorbit.com

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Re: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

[Eric Sandeen]

On 5/6/15 4:58 PM, Dave Chinner wrote:
> On Wed, May 06, 2015 at 07:47:51PM +0000, Scott, Edmund J @ SSG -
> Link wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> We are in a thunderstorm right now so we had to shut down, be a
>> while until we get things back up. We're in Utah with a rolling
>> t-storm coming through. 
>>
>> We did find documentation that XFS version 1 was pulled out of the
>> linux kernel around or after kernel 2.4. and the messages kind of
>> support that. I'm looking into digging up an old Red Hat OS to see
>> if it is old enough to have the version 1 XFS in it.
> 
> You'd be talking about the directory version, then, not the version
> of the filesystem? Irix 6.2 introduced Version 4 filesystems, but
> version 2 directories didn't come along until a couple of years
> later. See Slides 6-7 here:
> 
> http://events.linuxfoundation.org/sites/events/files/slides/dchinner-xfs-there-and-back.pdf
> 
> As it is, the dirv1 removal commit says "Never functioned on Linux,
> just pure bloat".
> 
> http://oss.sgi.com/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?p=archive/xfs-import.git;a=commitdiff;h=b84149405b9c2ecbc445d2684053e4acc03342ee
> 
> So I suspect that the only way you are going to be able to read
> those filesystems is with an Irix machine....

IIRC it worked, FSVO "worked" - I forget the issues, but you will
at least be able to mount it and get some data, I think.

-Eric

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Re: SGI Version 1 XFS on Linux

[Emmanuel Florac]

Le Wed, 6 May 2015 15:12:59 +0000
"Scott, Edmund J @ SSG - Link" <edmund.scott@l-3com.com> écrivait:

> Hi,
> 
> We have several older SGI hard drives we are trying to recover data
> from. However, since these drives came from an SGI Onyx running IRIX
> 6.2, it uses the older version 1 XFS file system. I can see the SCSI
> drive on my Linux box (CentOS 5.11) and I know data is on the drive,
> I can list out some of the info using dd, cpio or strings, but cannot
> copy the data off of it. I have tried using xfs_copy to a version 2
> XFS partition, but it just converts the target partition to version
> 1, which I cannot mount. I have also looked at xfs_dump/restore, but
> those require mounted filesystems.
> 
> Is there any script or program or option I can use to copy the data
> off of the un-mounted SGI XFS partition. I'm guessing some
> combination of the cpio and dd, but I have not figured out the right
> combination yet.

Alternatively if you can't find a solution and the data isn't
particularly confidential, I have an Octane and an Indy lying around and
a couple of 9GB drives that fit inside, so I could restore a disk image
or xfs_dump if you can publish it somewhere.

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Emmanuel Florac     |   Direction technique
                    |   Intellique
                    |	<eflorac@intellique.com>
                    |   +33 1 78 94 84 02
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