Tape drives /dev/rmt files

[Chern Jian Leaw]

HI,

I wish to load archive tapes into the tape drives. How can I view if any one of the tape drives are available or not, before loading the tapes?

And if those tape drives are available, what is the command usage to load the tapes from the loading port into the unused tape drives?

Could someone please show me an example?

Thanks.

[MANOJ SRIVASTAVA]

Hi

ioscan -fnC tape will give you list of instqalled and sensed tape drive witht the device path and the tape drive . To laod the tape all you have to do is to insert the tape and once it is loaded and the light on the drive turns green you are good to issue commands like

tar tvf < device file name>
dd if=/dev/rmt/0m
or
cpio -iBctvdumb -I /dev/rmt/0m to get the diretory of the tapedepeingon the format it is wrttien into.


Manoj Srivastava

[Michael Tully]

To check if there is a tape in the drive:

# mt -t /dev/rmt/0m stat
or
# mt -t /dev/rmt/0m rew
If there is not tape loaded you will get an error message like "no such device or address"

If is a tape library, you can load a tape using the 'mc' commands.
To load from slot 1 of your library to drive 1.

# mc -p /dev/picker -sS1 -dD1

Look at the man page on 'mc' for further options. This also assumes that you have a robot device configured correctly.

[Chern Jian Leaw]

Manoj,

How do I load the tape from the load port to the tape drive, without doing it manually? Is there a UNIX command to do this?

I'm using a ATL7000 tape library with a S-DLT 220 tape drive.

Thanks.

[Chern Jian Leaw]

Michael,

From the man pages of mc, it's a file mgr for UNIX OS, and also for screen manipulation(that's from my understanding after reading the man pages.)

What are the -sS1 and -dD1 options do? You provided those options in your reply to my initial message.

Do you mind providing some explanations on how the mc utility could be used in loading the tape from the load ports into the tape drives? I'm still unclear about the mc concept.

Thanks.

[harry d brown jr]

Chern.

You really should fix this:

This member has assigned points to 133 of 225 responses to his/her questions.

http://forums.itrc.hp.com/cm/TopSolutions/1,,CA788112!1!questions,00.html

live free or die
harry