powervault scsi tape drive

[McDougall, Marshall (FSH)]

 It appears to me that the fundamental problem is that you can't find
where your tape drive lives.  Try downloading a util called lshw.  It
works much like hp-ux ioscan and should be able to tell you exactly
where your tape drive is.  HTH.

Regards, Marshall

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com
[mailto:linux-poweredge-bounces at dell.com] On Behalf Of Eric Lease Morgan
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 2006 5:46 PM
To: linux-poweredge at dell.com
Subject: powervault scsi tape drive


I'm looking for a kind soul who will help me get my PowerVault SCSI  
tape drive to back up data using tar on my PowerEdge 1800.

I own a brand new PowerEdge 1800 with a factory installed PowerVault  
100T internal tape drive connected to a 39160 (SCSI?) adaptor card.  
The machine came to me perfectly clean, and I have installed Fedora 5  
as the operating system.

Attempts to tar files to /dev/st0 fail with errors like "no such  
device":

   # tar cf /dev/st0 /
   tar: /dev/st0: Cannot open: No such device or address
   tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

After RTFM on the CD accompanying the tape drive, I learned that by  
default the tape drive lives on SCSI ID 6. After using MAKEDEV to  
create a tape device I get the same errors:

   # cd /dev
   # ./MAKEDEV st6
   # tar cf /dev/st6 /
   tar: /dev/st6: Cannot open: No such device or address
   tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

I even created bunched o' st[0-7] devices in /dev hoping ID 6 was not  
the default. All with the same errors.

I have opened up the computer, seated, and re-seated the cables.  
Still no luck.

The CD comes with a utility (TapeRx.lx) allowing you to diagnose  
problems with the drive. The utility can not find any devices. "If no  
tape devices are recognized..." It suggests using the following  
commands and trying again, but the utility still does not find anything:

   rmmod ide-tape
   rmmod ide-scsi
   modprobe ide-scsi

Using dmesg doesn't tell me very much. Maybe it tells you something:

   # dmesg | grep scsi
   scsi0 : ioc0: LSI53C1030, FwRev=01032300h, Ports=1, MaxQ=255, IRQ=185
   sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
   scsi1 : ata_piix
   scsi2 : ata_piix
   sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
   scsi 0:0:6:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 3

   # dmesg | grep -e '^st'
   st: Version 20050830, fixed bufsize 32768, s/g segs 256

Looking in proc is just as illuminating, but it does point out  
something living on ID 6, a processor:

   # more /proc/scsi/scsi
   Attached devices:
   Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
     Vendor: SEAGATE  Model: ST3300007LC      Rev: D704
     Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 03
   Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 06 Lun: 00
     Vendor: SDR      Model: GEM318P          Rev: 1
     Type:   Processor                        ANSI SCSI revision: 02

What am I doing wrong? Where is my tape drive? What can I do to use  
tar to back up my data?

-- 
Eric Lease Morgan
Infomotions, Inc.

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