Using HP SureStore DAT8 with FC5

[starkweatherr]

Yes, I'm the one who started learning Linux yesterday.

I had a crazy idea that there would be some software available for FC5 that would read DAT tapes made with an old version of Novastor, which I still use on my Windows boxes.

After returning to reality, I started thinking that it would be nice to be able to use the tape drive with FC5, especially since it is built into this computer. I looked around in the file browser for a while, and not surprisingly, there wasn't any tape access software installed that I recognize. (When the drive doesn't have a tape in it, it shuts off as if it were external. I certainly wouldn't expect FC5 to find it while it is off.)

So I did an add software, my first, and it came up with something called MakeDev, I think, and something that sounded like tape backup software. So I clicked apply and it did everything it is supposed to do, I guess.

After all that, my question is where should I look for that software? Its a standard package, I assume, so a lot of people are probably using it, but I don't know where it is or how to start it. Is it something that I would have to run from the terminal, or could it be on a menu in the GUI?

I'm so confused. :confused: BTW. When I add a smiley, why does the message window automatically scroll up to the top so that I can't see it?

[Jman]

You could try amanda (http://www.amanda.org/), it's a quite sophisticated tape backup tool I hear. Run yum install amanda

[starkweatherr]

I think I already did that, but I don't know how to start it. If it is installed, would it show up somewhere in the GUI or is it a terminal application?

[tscheez]

before jumping in on a tool like amanda which can be complicated, make sure that you can access the drive.

mt is the command line tool to access a tape drive.

as root and with a tape in the drive, type mt status it may complain that /dev/tape doesnt exist, in that case try mt -f /dev/st0 status if it shows soemthing like this

SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=0, partition=0.
Tape block size 512 bytes. Density code 0x32 (AIT-3).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (81010000):
BOTONLINE IM_REP_EN
you should be good.

try tar first after making sure you can access the drive
tar cvpf /dev/st0 /home

then try to read it -- to just show what is on the tape type
tar tvpf /dev/st0
replace the t option with x to actually pull things off the tape

with tar beware where you are extracting files. you dont want to be in / when or you'll write to the actual path and overwrite the existing files.

after all that if you still want to try to play around with amanda, go for it, but it'll be easier if you know the drive works.

[starkweatherr]

That worked exactly as you said except for a few minor differences that I'll get to in a minute. Is there a tape backup application that you recommend?

The differences were that on this line:
Tape block size 512 bytes. Density code 0x32 (AIT-3).

I got a block size of 0. The density code was different, but reasonable.

On this line:

General status bits on (81010000) I got a 4 instead of an 8. Once again, I doubt that is significant.

The other difference was that 'mt status' said there was no device. I'm new to Linux, so, although it appears that this is not an issue (Your instructions worked perfectly) do you know what this indicates? I assume that the drive is not mounted, or at least not mounted automatically.

Thanks for your help,

Rory

[tscheez]

the status information you got back is what your drive says it is. my example was from my AIT3 drive on my fileserver here at work. was there a tape in the drive? i believe the block size is what the tape reports so if there was no tape in the drive it may report 0, i dont remember all my drives have tapes in them right now.

the tape drive never is mounted, being linear in nature and not a block device like a harddrive it cant really be mounted.

if mt status says there is no device, you are probably missing a link to /dev/tape since that is the default setting.
ln -s /dev/st0 /dev/tape should take care of that.

another thing worth mentioning is that there are actually 2 entries in /dev that refer to your drive /dev/st0 and /dev/nst0, or at least they should be. the difference being /dev/nst0 does not rewind the tape when an operation completes. depending on your purposes, you may want to create that link to /dev/nst0 instead.

as far as programs for backing up, tar is a good starting point which is what i use here. it's pretty easy to get exactly what you want backed up quickly and is easy to retreive. and if you need to read the tape on another machine, it's not a problem as long as it's the same drive type.