Detailed instructions for use are in the User's Guide.
[. . . ] Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System
Purpose Scope Conventions Used in This Guide Reference Documents Setting Up Communication with the Tape Drives
5 5 5 6 7
Before Installing the Tape Drive. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Installing the Tape Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Verifying the st Module is Loaded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Verifying Communication with the Tape Drives
9
Displaying the Kernel Initialization Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Reviewing the Kernel Initialization Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Identifying the Tape Devices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 What To Do if Device Information is Missing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Obtaining Device Information Using /proc/scsi/scsi
10
What is the /proc File System?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Viewing /proc Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Document 6464215-01 Rev. B, January 2006
1
Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System Document 6464215-01 Rev. B January 2006
Accessing Devices Using /dev/st* Device Nodes
11
Generating a List of Device Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Reviewing the List of Device Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 What To Do if a Device Node is Missing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Interpreting the Device Node File Listing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Identifying Device Nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Identifying Device Modes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Creating Device Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Creating Auto-Rewind Device Nodes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Creating No-Rewind Device Nodes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
mt-st Linux RPM Package
17
Verifying mt-st is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Installing mt-st . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
mt Tape Device Tool stinit and stinit. def
17 18
Tape Device and Parameter Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 Identifying Tape Devices and Parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Common Tape Device Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Common Parameter Keywords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
mtx Tape Library Tool
20
Verifying mtx is Installed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Installing mtx. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Appendix A Tape Drive and Cartridge Compatibility
22
Tape Drive and Cartridge Compatibility DLT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Tape Drive and Cartridge Compatibility SDLT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Tape Drive and Cartridge Compatibility VS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Tape Drive and Cartridge Compatibility LTO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Tape Drive and Cartridge Compatibility DDS/DAT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Contents
2
Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System Document 6464215-01 Rev. B January 2006
Appendix B Linux Reference Documentation Appendix C Sample stinit. def Definitions File
25 26
Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Sample File. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Appendix D Troubleshooting
31
Contents
3
Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System Document 6464215-01 Rev. [. . . ] This is always root (root is the name of the superuser account).
disk
Identifies the group associated with these device nodes. This is always disk.
9, n
Identifies the major and minor numbers for that node. The minor number serves as a device driver parameter defining various characteristics such as compression, block size, and density. For a complete definition of all the major and minor numbers, see device. txt at
/usr/src/linux-<kernel revision>/Documentation/device. txt.
Accessing Devices Using /dev/st* Device Nodes
13
Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System 6464215-01, Rev B January 2006
Column Sixth column Seventh column, section heading
Text Format
Mmm DD YYYY (n)stna n represents
Description Date. This is also the actual file name.
(n)st identifies the device node as either auto-rewind or no-rewind as
a numeric character; a represents an alpha character. In the example:
follows:
· st identifies the device node as auto-rewind. See Creating Auto-Rewind Device Nodes on page 16 for more information. See Creating No-Rewind Device Nodes on page 16 for more information.
n (the numeric character) identifies the tape device. "0" identifies the first device; "1" identifies the second device; "2" identifies the third device, and so forth. (No alpha character means
(n)st0*
mode 1. ) See Identifying Device Modes for a list of modes.
Identifying Device Nodes
0
Linux supports up to 32 tape devices [(n)st0* through (n)st31*). Each operating system presets a certain number of device nodes as follows. The following table shows two examples: Operating System RHEL3 SuSE9 Preset Device Nodes (n)st0* through (n)st31* (n)st0* through (n)st7*
Accessing Devices Using /dev/st* Device Nodes
14
Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System 6464215-01, Rev B January 2006
Identifying Device Modes
0
Each node has four modes. Auto-Rewind Node (example)a
st0 st0l st0m st0a
Mode 1 2 3 4
No-Rewind Node (example)
nst0 nst0l nst0m nst0a
Alpha Character Identification no character lowercase l lowercase m lowercase a
a. The "0" in this table is an example representing the device. In actual practice, this numeric character may be any number from 0 to 31 depending on the node.
Creating Device Nodes0
This section shows each stinit mode and its corresponding device node identification parameters. The next two sections -- Creating Auto-Rewind Device Nodes and Creating No-Rewind Device Nodes -- show examples of the codes you use to create device nodes. The following table shows the numbering you use to identify the first tape device in each mode. To identify a second tape device, increment the tape device number and minor number by one, and so on for each successive tape device. Tape Device Number for first tape device (increment by one for each successive device)
0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Mode Mode 1 (Auto-Rewind) Mode 2 (Auto-Rewind) Mode 3 (Auto-Rewind) Mode 4 (Auto-Rewind) Mode 1 (No-Rewind) Mode 2 (No-Rewind) Mode 3 (No-Rewind) Mode 4 (No-Rewind)
Alpha Character Mode Identifier none lowercase l lowercase m lowercase a none lowercase l lowercase m lowercase a
Minor Number of first tape device (increment by one for each successive device)
0 32 64 96 128 160 192 224
Accessing Devices Using /dev/st* Device Nodes
15
Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System 6464215-01, Rev B January 2006
Creating Auto-Rewind Device Nodes 0
Use the mknod commands as shown in the following table to create autorewind device nodes. For instructions on numbering more than two, see Creating Device Nodes. Mode 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 SCSI Tape Device First Second First Second First Second First Second Command
# mknod -m 666 /dev/st0 c 9 0 # mknod -m 666 /dev/st1 c 9 1 # mknod -m 666 /dev/st0l c 9 32 # mknod -m 666 /dev/st1l c 9 33 # mknod -m 666 /dev/st0m c 9 64 # mknod -m 666 /dev/st1m c 9 65 # mknod -m 666 /dev/st0a c 9 96 # mknod -m 666 /dev/st1a c 9 97
Creating No-Rewind Device Nodes
0
Use the mknod command as shown in the following table to create no-rewind device nodes. For instructions on numbering more than two, see Creating Device Nodes. [. . . ] This section shows you how to determine if mtx is installed and how to install it.
The use of mtx is beyond the scope of this document. To verify mtx is installed, execute the following command: Verifying mtx is Installed0
# rpm -qa mtx
This command returns the name of the package followed by a version number (for example, RHEL2. 1 returns mtx-1. 2. 13-1). If you are running RHEL 3. 0, you will not be able to use the mtx module.
mtx Tape Library Tool
20
Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System 6464215-01, Rev B January 2006
Installing mtx
0
mtx is typically included on your Linux installation CD-ROMs (except for
RHEL3. 0).
To install mtx, execute the following command:
# rpm -ivh mtx*
where the asterisk represents the remaining portion of the file name (in this case, it is the version number). For a detailed description of these access modes, refer to the appropriate product manual for your DLTtape mini-library.
mtx Tape Library Tool
21
Installing a DLT, SDLT, VS, LTO, or DAT Tape Drive Into a Linux Operating System 6464215-01, Rev B January 2006
Appendix A Tape Drive and Cartridge Compatibility
This section provides information about tape cartridge and tape drive compatibility. [. . . ]