12-6 Dell PowerVault 720N, 740N, and 760N System Administrator and Command Reference Guide
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The dump command transfers a number of blocks of data at a time to an output file
on tape. This section provides information about how the command writes and stores
these blocks of data, which helps you decide the dump command format appropriate
for your backup.

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A tape block is 1 kilobyte of data. In the dump command, you can specify the number
of tape blocks that are transferred in each write operation. This number is called the
blocking factor.
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A tape file is a dump output file on tape. It can also be an entire tape. You can back up
a dump path to one tape file on a tape, multiple tape files on a tape, or multiple tape
files on multiple tapes.
In the dump command, you can specify the maximum size of the tape file in terms of
tape blocks. For example, if you want the maximum tape file to be 2 GB, specify
2,097,151. (That is, the largest tape file can contain 2,097,151 tape blocks, which are 1
kilobyte each.)
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When the data being backed up exceeds the capacity of a tape, the dump command
automatically writes to the next tape file specified in the command. If the current tape
file is the last tape file listed on the dump command, the filer prompts you to load
another tape.
If you specify the maximum tape file size in the dump command, the command
writes to the next tape file when the backup data reaches that size, regardless of the
amount of space left in the current tape.