Tape backups

[John Seth]

It's recognized, here's the stat output ;)  As per another email I just
sent, apparently it is a mammoth (per the output and ExaByte's website),
and not associated by the model # they put on the case.

# mt -f /dev/nst0 stat
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 1024 bytes. Density code 0x27 (Exabyte Mammoth).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (41010000):
 BOT ONLINE IM_REP_EN

I'm going to do some rifling of tape cartridges and see if one works,
though, I'm not holding my breath at this moment.

  - Tony


On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, Darin Perusich wrote:

> is the tape drive being recognized by the system, if you cat
> /proc/scsi/scsi is the drive listed? load a tape in the device and do an
>   "mt stat", what do you get back? is this drive a dlt or mammoth tape
> device?
>
> John Seth wrote:
> > 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.
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Darin Perusich
> Unix Systems Administrator
> Cognigen Corp.
> darinper at cognigencorp.com
>
>