DLT tapes & FAQ's or manuals

[lisa yates_1]

We now have a DLT8000 connected to our unix box. I have never used a tape drive on a unix box. Can someone point to any documentation about how to read and write to tape and discussions about which method to use when, etc.
TIA

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi:

Whenever you begin to use a new device, it's best to startwith the simple commands.

1) You first task is to identify the actual tape device files:
ioscan -C tape -fn

2) I would next do a tar. Let's assume that your tape device is /dev/rmt/1m.
cd /home
tar cvf /dev/rmt/1m .

This will backup everything in the /home directory.

3) Now, let's read the tar tape back but not restore.
tar vtf /dev/rmt/1m

4) You might want to do the same with the cpio command.
cd /home
find . -print | cpio -ocBv > /dev/rmt/1m
To read the conents back:
cpio -icBvt < /dev/rmt/1m

The tar and cpio commands will establish the basic operation of your drive and until you get those working, go no further. Aftyer that you can move on to the much more efficient 'fbackup' command or a more robust package like OmniBack II.

Man tar, cpio, fbackup, dd for details.

[Helen French]

Hi Lisa:

There are lot of other threads which you can find from the forums about this topic. Invoke the search and you will find out a lot of useful information about this.

You need to configure the drive first, add the driver, find out the device status ( ioscan) and device name. You can then start using this drive using any backup software - Omniback, Legato, fbackup. Or use it with commands like cpio, tar, dd etc.

See this site for a product description and other config details:

http://www.hp.com/products1/storage/products/tapebackup/dlt_tapedrives/dlt8000_drives/index.html

HTH,
Shiju

[Bill McNAMARA_1]

Here's a link to the docs.hp.com site that discusses this.

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B2355-90053/00/00/1-con.html

Later,
Bill

[David Ruska]

FYI, the above document link is for 10.01 systems.

Here's the equivalent link for a 11.0 and 11.i:

http://docs.hp.com/hpux/onlinedocs/B2355-90698/B2355-90698.html