HPUX Tape Driver issue

[YAKEN]

Hi

     I Have LTO3 Drvie *4 , LTO4 Drive*2 , Check tape drive use "ioscan -funC tape" and "ioscan -fnNC tape" the status not the same , how can I fix this problem, thanks

[Torsten.]

Why is this an issue?

IMHO this is pretty normal (one instance is claimed by stape, the other by estape).

[Patrick Wallek]

There is no issue here.  You are looking at 2 different views of your tapes.  

In your first screen shot you have the legacy view with the legacy hardware paths and device files (/dev/rmt/*)

In your 2nd screen shot you have the new agile view (part of the new I/O stack in 11.31) with the new agile path and agile device files (/dev/rtape/tape*).

Here's an example from one of my 11.31 systems.  Notice that the 'I' column is different on mine as well.

atl6-11.31 root /root # ioscan -funC tape
Class     I  H/W Path  Driver S/W State   H/W Type     Description
==================================================================
tape      3  0/2/1/0/4/0.1.3.255.0.0.1  stape   CLAIMED     DEVICE       HP      Ultrium 3-SCSI
                      /dev/rmt/3m            /dev/rmt/3mn           /dev/rmt/c4t0d1BEST    /dev/rmt/c4t0d1BESTn
                      /dev/rmt/3mb           /dev/rmt/3mnb          /dev/rmt/c4t0d1BESTb   /dev/rmt/c4t0d1BESTnb


atl6-11.31 root /root # ioscan -fnNC tape
Class     I  H/W Path  Driver S/W State   H/W Type     Description
===================================================================
tape      4  64000/0xfa00/0x22  estape   CLAIMED     DEVICE       HP      Ultrium 3-SCSI
                      /dev/rtape/tape4_BEST    /dev/rtape/tape4_BESTb   /dev/rtape/tape4_BESTn   /dev/rtape/tape4_BESTnb

[Bill Hassell]

The I column is a bookeeping number and refers to the order in which the device was added to the kernel's internal tables. The letter I refers to instance.

ioscan does not report any device status except its connection to the driver (ie, S/W State such as CLAIMED) and Description which is returned by the tape drive itself.
To see the tape drive status, use the mt command as in:

# mt -f /dev/rmt/1m status
Drive:  HP Ultrium 3-SCSI
Format:
Status: [0]
File:   0
Block:  0

# mt -f /dev/rmt/8m status
Drive:  HP C1537A
Format: DDS-3 format
Status: [41112500] BOT online compression immediate-report-mode
File:   0
Block:  0

So the first tape device /dev/rmt/1m is installed and connected but there is no tape in the drive (status [0]). The second tape device /dev/rmt/8m has a tape installed. BOT means Beginning Of Tape so the tape is currently rewound.