Tape drive

[Khalid Shakoor]

Dear All
I am new in Linux. I am using Proliant Server DL380 with RHES4.Now I have a tape drive and attached with server .kindly guide me the procedure what I need to do to make this tape drive functional with server.Thanks in Advance

[Alexander Chuzhoy · Accepted solution]

Hm,
in most cases, once the drive is connected (and the system is rebooted) - it's available for use.
What backup software do you use?
Most gui backup tools (Netbackup in my case)will have a window where you can see the status of your drive.

If you don't have a software, then I'd use the `mt` tool.

For example insert a backup tape into the drive.Then issue the command `mt eject`.
This suppose to eject the media from the drive. If it works - then it's fine. If not -what message do you get?

[Hemmetter]

Hi Khalid,

check if tape driver is present:

$ lsmod | grep ^st
if it is not listed load it
$ modprobe st

dmesg should show some output like:

Attached scsi tape st0 at ...


rgds
HGH

[Khalid Shakoor]

Dear Alexander,Hemmetter

Thank you for Quick Response.Alexander I am trying to take backup by using mondorescue. Please share with me the link of download utility (Netbackup).And Hemmetter the output of Command is "$ lsmod | grep ^st"is nothing. After applying second command the output is
#lsmod | grep ^st
st 40157 0
Please guide me what I need next to do

[Alexander Chuzhoy]

what happens when you execute `mt eject`?
do you see lights on your tape drive, or do you get some error message?

Netbackup is a Symantec product. You actually need to purchase it. Stay with what you have (unless you wanna spend some certain amount).

[Hemmetter]

Hi Khalid,

next try to get status info from tape:
$ mt -f /dev/st0 status

this should output something like:

$ mt -f /dev/st0 status
drive type = Generic SCSI-2 tape
drive status = 1073741824
sense key error = 0
residue count = 0
file number = 0
block number = 0
Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x40 (unknown).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (41010000):
BOT ONLINE IM_REP_EN

/dev/st0 or dev/nst0 are the devices for your backupsoftware to use.

e.g.
tar xvf /dev/st0 /home

rgds
HGH

[Khalid Shakoor]

The output is
# mt eject
/dev/tape: No such file or directory

mt -f /dev/st0 status
/dev/st0: No such file or directory

kindly guide me what i need to do.

[Alexander Chuzhoy]

run
cdrecord -scanbus and print the output.
It's a SCSI tape drive right?

[Khalid Shakoor]

Cdrecord-Clone 2.01-dvd (i686-pc-linux-gnu) Copyright (C) 1995-2004 Jà ¶rg Schilling
Note: This version is an unofficial (modified) version with DVD support
Note: and therefore may have bugs that are not present in the original.
Note: Please send bug reports or support requests to http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla
Note: The author of cdrecord should not be bothered with problems in this version.
scsidev: 'ATA'
devname: 'ATA'
scsibus: -2 target: -2 lun: -2
Linux sg driver version: 3.5.27
Using libscg version 'schily-0.8'.
cdrecord: Warning: using inofficial libscg transport code version (schily - Red Hat-scsi-linux-sg.c-1.83-RH '@(#)scsi-linux-sg.c 1.83 04/05/20 Copyright 1997 J. Schilling').
scsibus0:
0,0,0 0) 'TSSTcorp' 'CD-ROM TS-L162C' 'N204' Removable CD-ROM
0,1,0 1) *
0,2,0 2) *
0,3,0 3) *
0,4,0 4) *
0,5,0 5) *
0,6,0 6) *
0,7,0 7) *

[Stuart Browne]

The output of the 'cdrecord' shows us that the tape drive can't be seen.

What type of tape drive is it?

What interface is it connected to?

Have you rebooted yet?

Generally, SCSI devices that are plugged in externally don't (always) show up immediately. They usually need to have their bus re-scanned.

Some SCSI adapters can do this with a bit of tom-foolery in the /proc/ filesystem, others.. not so much.

If it's not SCSI, then that's whole story, and a reboot is usually the only way for the device to show up!

[Hemmetter]

Hi Khalid,

some Questions?

What kind of tape do you have?
How is it attached? SCSI, Fibre or USB?
Did you reboot since it was attached?
Is it power on and cable checked?

rgds
HGH

[Khalid Shakoor]

Kind of tape is DDS and Connected by SCSI cable and System Reboot 2 to 3 time,Tape power is ON

[Alexander Chuzhoy]

What about choosing the available SCSI ID and termination?

[Hemmetter]

Hi Khalid,

by the way, a helpful tool is lsscsi

$ lsscsi
[0:0:8:0] process SDR GEM318P 1 -
[0:2:0:0] disk MegaRAID LD 0 RAID1 12G 515H /dev/sda
[0:2:1:0] disk MegaRAID LD 1 RAID1 22G 515H /dev/sdb
[0:2:2:0] disk MegaRAID LD 2 RAID5 858G 515H /dev/sdc
[1:0:0:0] tape IBM ULTRIUM-TD2 4AP0 /dev/st0


http://sg.torque.net/scsi/lsscsi.html


greets
HGH

[Stuart Browne]

Or you can just 'cat /proc/scsi' and look for a 'SEQUENTIAL ACCESS' device.

[Jared Middleton]

I used to have to add this to /etc/rc.d/rc.local... maybe it will help:

# In order for the SCSI tape drive to work with the Compaq SMART
# Array Controller, the Compaq cciss driver must dynamically engage
# the SCSI core via the /proc filesystem after initialization.
# For more information see:
# /usr/share/doc/kernel-doc-2.4.18/cciss.txt

for x in /proc/driver/cciss/cciss[0-9]*; do
echo "engage scsi" > $x
done

-Jared

[Khalid Shakoor]

Dear All
Thank you
Issue resolved by switch the SCSI Switch to "1".