topic Re: tar command on ultrium sb920c tape blade in Operating System - Linux

tar command on ultrium sb920c tape blade

maurizio di salvo — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 10:48:02 GMT

Good morning, i have installe on c3000 tape blade the installation is ok. on the blade server ( the partner server of tape is a node of cluster ) i have red hat os i want know the command for backup file or directory. how to know the tape device ?? es: /dev/rmt0? or /dev/st0? and hoe to use the tar command ??

thanks for all

Re: tar command on ultrium sb920c tape blade

Matti_Kurkela — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:10:00 GMT

If you have RHEL 5, you can use the "lsscsi" command to see a listing of all SCSI and SCSI-like devices (FibreChannel, USB, Firewire, SATA...). It's very useful.

The "lsscsi" command is not installed by default; use "yum install lsscsi" if you don't have it installed yet.

With older versions, run "dmesg | less" to look at the kernel message buffer: when the kernel detects the tape drive, it prints out a message that includes the device name.

Most likely the "base" device name is /dev/st0. There is typically also /dev/nst0, the "no-auto-rewind" version of the device.

If you use /dev/st0, the tape is automatically rewound back to the beginning after each tape-access command is completed. Depending on what you're doing, you may or may not want that.

On the use of the tar command: use the command "man tar" to read the manual. The "tar" command has a *lot* of options.

MK

Re: tar command on ultrium sb920c tape blade

Michael Steele_2 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:48:26 GMT

Hi

Use 'tar' in conjunction with 'mt'

'mt'

http://man.he.net/?topic=mt&section=all

'tar'

http://man.he.net/?topic=tar&section=all

All Linux Man pages

http://man.he.net/

Example:
Use /dev/nst0 - no rewind as well as /dev/st0.

cd dir
tar -cvf /dev/st0 *.*
tape finishes

Verify tape
tar -Tvf /dev/st0

Use mt like so

mt /dev/nst0 fsf 1 (* move tape one record ahead *)

mt /dev/st0 rew (* rewind *)

Re: tar command on ultrium sb920c tape blade

maurizio di salvo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:34:24 GMT

thanks now is ok. the device is st0 and i have use tar command tar -cvf /dev/st0.

Re: tar command on ultrium sb920c tape blade

maurizio di salvo — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:37:00 GMT

tha