Tape backups

[Justin Bennett]

from your logs it looks like the tape drive doesn't like the tape. There
is no formating persay that the OS does, the tape drive does a little
initilization on the tape when it's new. Nothing the OS does or you need
to worry about. Sometimes you can't switch tapes from one tape drive to
another, even if they are the same tape type. I have a DLT80 and DLT1
drive, both use DLT4 tapes, but once a tape is placed in a DLT1 drive it
can't be used in the DLT80 with out being degaused (wiped clean with a
magnetic device) due to the initilization done by the DLT1. Not to say
thats the problem here, but have you tried other tapes? Maybe a new one,
also may want to run a cleaing tape if it's been sitting around.

John Seth said:
> Recently I've gone from a standalone PC with no SCSI, 256MB of RAM, and
> an AMD 350 CPU to a Quad Processor Xeon 733 w/ 2GB of RAM, and plenty of
> raid disk space (Dell rackmount systems).  However, this system doesn't
> have a tape backup, and isn't attached to my company's main tape
> auto-mounter.  I plugged in an Exabyte 8900T that was lying around
> collecting dust into an available scsi port and can do the rewind/eject
> thing with MT, however up to this point, I've never needed to do my own
> backups to tape (I backup my own server via FTP nightly after using
> tar/gunzip).
>
> When I try to create a new backup via tar to the tape, it crashes, or
> dumps.  When I look at the console, I get some info that makes little
> sense to me.  Since I'm basically a newbie at backing up to tape, I'm
> wondering if anyone has some ideas on where I can start.  Do I need to
> format the tape?  and if so, how do I do it?  This system is running RH
> 8.0 with no Xwin...
>
> Secondly, on my own personal system, I installed an old floppy tape
> drive, and wonder if anyone has any ideas for me on where to start with
> that... Forgive me for sounding desperate, the TLDP website is good, but
> there's just so much out there, that I'm beginning to be overwhelmed by
> opinions and ideas.  My system is running Slackware 8, so there's no
> such thing as 'amanda'...
>
> Any tips, pointers, and suggestions are welcome :)
>
> Thanks,
>
>    Tony
>
> ---
> Dell system errors from Exabyte 8900T drive:
>
> Apr  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Current
> st09:00: sense key Illegal Request Apr  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel:
> Additional sense indicates Cannot write medium - incompatible format Apr
>  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Current st09:00:
> sense key Illegal Request Apr  9 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: Additional
> sense indicates Cannot write medium - incompatible format Apr  9
> 15:26:57 ebonite kernel: st0: Error on write filemark.


-- 
-------------------------------------------
Justin Bennett
Red Hat (Linux) Certified Engineer
Network Administrator
Dynabrade Inc.
8989 Sheridan Dr
Clarence, NY 14031
716-631-0100 ext 215