topic Re: checking tape drive. in Operating System - HP-UX

checking tape drive.

UnixT — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:09:18 GMT

/usr/sbin $ sudo ioscan -fnC tape
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
=====================================================================
tape 2 0/0/1/0.1.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE HP C1537A
/dev/rmt/2m /dev/rmt/2mnb /dev/rmt/c0t1d0BESTn /dev/rmt/c0t1d0DDSb
/dev/rmt/2mb /dev/rmt/c0t1d0BEST /dev/rmt/c0t1d0BESTnb /dev/rmt/c0t1d0DDSn
/dev/rmt/2mn /dev/rmt/c0t1d0BESTb /dev/rmt/c0t1d0DDS /dev/rmt/c0t1d0DDSnb
tape 3 0/0/1/0.3.0 stape CLAIMED DEVICE HP C1537A
/dev/rmt/3m /dev/rmt/3mnb /dev/rmt/c0t3d0BESTn /dev/rmt/c0t3d0DDSb
/dev/rmt/3mb /dev/rmt/c0t3d0BEST /dev/rmt/c0t3d0BESTnb /dev/rmt/c0t3d0DDSn
/dev/rmt/3mn /dev/rmt/c0t3d0BESTb /dev/rmt/c0t3d0DDS /dev/rmt/c0t3d0DDSnb
Server:
/usr/sbin $ sudo crontab -l

=====
I want to check whether the tape drive is functional or not.. May I know the how? tar -tvf failed saying no such device or address. Tape is in the drive

Re: checking tape drive.

Michael Mike Reaser — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:15:07 GMT

tar -tvf...what?

Can you give us the full contetns of the tar command you used?

Re: checking tape drive.

Steven E. Protter — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:18:28 GMT

Shalom,

There needs to be a tape in the drive without write protection to check it.

Then a tar attempt, or even a simple dd command is sufficient.

Try tar cvf, make the tape device part of the file name.

A daily backup job is enough to test this as well.

backup_command
rc=$?

if [ $rc -ne 0 ]
then
echo "Tape job failed..."
else
echo "Tape drive good..."
fi

SEP

Re: checking tape drive.

Patrick Wallek — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:19:24 GMT

# mt -f /dev/rmt/2mn status

# mt -f /dev/rmt/3mn status

Will show the status of each drive. If one of the drives has a tape in it, you will see that too.

Re: checking tape drive.

Avinash20 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:19:26 GMT

Os: 11.11 # mt -t /dev/rmt/0m fsf 1
OS: 11.23 # mt -f /dev/rmt/0m fsf 22

# tar -tvf /dev/rmt/0mn