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From: jlucas@uvi.edu (John Lucas)
Subject: Re: Exybytes Tape Drive
Message-ID: <DqzKMs.ExI@tigger.jvnc.net>
Sender: news@tigger.jvnc.net (Zee News Genie)
Organization: University of the Virgin Islands
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References: <4mjqhg$6et@flood.xnet.com>
Date: Mon, 6 May 1996 13:37:55 GMT
Lines: 67
In article <4mjqhg$6et@flood.xnet.com>, vchiu@quake.xnet.com wrote:
>Hi, all,
>
>I'm newbie to FreeBSD and since I can not get any help or hint from
>the FAQ, so I ask help here.
>
>I use FreeBSD 2.1R and has a Exybytes 8205 tape drive connected tp
>Adaptec 2940 SCSI adapter, during the bootup the kernel successfully
>detects it as a "st0" device.
>
>My question is :
>
>1. How can I make sure the tape drive is working? If any Unix command
>I can issue to check?
>2. I heard the tape must be preformatted before it can be used. If
>this is true how can I format the tape under FreeBSD?
>3. Do I need to rewind the tape when I every time "tar" the files to
>backup? Is the command "mt" to serve this?
>
1. try writing something small to tape and read the listing back:
cd /
tar -vcf /dev/rst0 ./etc
tar -tvf /dev/rst0
2. The tapes do NOT have to be preformatted. A special case is when the tapes
have already been used in a different model (different density) Exabyte, in
which case you need to erase the tape (bulk eraser is best).
3. There are both "rewinding" and "non-rewinding" devices:
/dev/rst0 - rewinds automatically on close.
/dev/nrst0 - non-rewinding, must be rewound manually
4. For non-rewinding devices, use: mt -f /dev/nrst0 rewind OR
mt -f /dev/nrst0 rewoffl (rewind & eject)
I prefer to do my own rewinding, since this allows me to put more than one
backup volume on a tape. Access the different volumes with:
mt -f /dev/nrst0 fsf #
Where "#" is the number of volumes to skip over. I also prefer dump/restore
over tar for regular backups:
/sbin/dump 0ufB /dev/nrst0 2000000 /www
/sbin/dump 0ufB /dev/nrst0 2000000 /var
/sbin/dump 0ufB /dev/nrst0 2000000 /usr
/sbin/dump 0ufB /dev/nrst0 2000000 /
I use an HP DDS tape rather than the Exabyte, which has a size of 2300000 or
5000000. In the above example all filesystems fit on a single tape, if this is
not the case, split up the level 0 backups onto different tapes.
Check the man pages for:
1. tar
2. dump
3. mt
| John Lucas jlucas@uvi.edu |
| Academic Computing NIC Handle: JL423 |
| University of the Virgin Islands (809) 693-1216 |
| St. Thomas, VI 00802 http://www.uvi.edu/jlucas.html |