SUMMARY: Exabyte 8505 and Sun

From: Todd L. Kindig-System Manager (tlk@micom.com)
Date: Mon Feb 28 1994 - 00:54:37 CST


Ok, the details:

I've come up with the following thru testing, old and New Sun-Managers
mail, and vendor support.

With the included mods, found later, the following devices will produce
the following results:

/dev/rst0,rst1 : Exabyte 8200 mode - non-compressed
/dev/rst8,rst9 : Exabyte 8500 mode - non-compressed
/dev/rst16,rst17 : Exabyte 8200 mode - compressed
/dev/rst24,rst25 : Exabyte 8500/8505 - compressed

How much data will each do:

8200 - ~2gigs
8500 - ~5gigs, unless its already compressed, then less
8500/8505 in compressed mode: at least 5gigs..

        How much you really get depends on the data:

My test data: /usr/openwin and my personal directory..
My personal directory has a combo of src,binary's, and compressed binary's

Total Capacity for my 8505 under above conditions: ~6.5 gigs.
        Others reported similar results.

Your mileage will vary.
-----------------------

8505 Vs. 8505C: Yo Pat :)

Some managers reported that the 8505 would only do 5 gigs and that the
8505c would do 10.

I couldn't get any vendor to admit that an 8505C actually exists.. 8505
does compression, 8505c does compression, what would be the
difference/need ??????

What will it report with an mt status command:
SCSI tape drive:
   sense key(0x6)= unit attention residual= 0 retries= 0
   file no= 0 block no= 0

Why not Exabyte 8505 8mm tape drive???????
        No one knows, but it really doesn't matter.

Sorry Mike and Dave, I tried... :)

4/330 Setup VS. Sun4c and Sun4m
-------------------------------

There is a difference, the biggest being what files to modify... the
st_conf.c and stdef.h files do not exist on the sun4 machines.
THus:
4/3xx Machine:

In /sys/sundev/streg.h: Look for the other exabyte entrys.
ADD:
#define ST_TYPE_EXB8505 0x30 /* Exabyte EXB-8505 */

In the #define ST_DRIVE_INFO section:
ADD:
/* Exabyte 8mm 5GB w/compression cartridge (half height) */ \
{ \
        "Exabyte EXB8505", 16, "EXABYTE EXB-8505", ST_TYPE_EXB8505, \
        1024, (ST_VARIABLE | ST_BSF | ST_BSR | ST_LONG_ERASE |
        ST_PHYSREC), \
        8000000, 30, 30, 30, 30, 60, 60, 60, 60, \
        0x14, 0x15, 0x90, 0x8c, 0, 0, 0, 0 \
}, \

You then rebuild your kernel..

Sun4c and Sun4m machines,

In /sys/scsi/targets/stdef.h
ADD:
#define ST_TYPE_EXB8505 0x30 /* Exabyte EXB-8505 */

In /sys/scsi/targets/st_conf.c
ADD:
/* Exabyte half-height 8mm w/Compression */
{
     "Exabyte 8505",16,"EXABYTE EXB-8505",
     ST_TYPE_EXB8505, 1024,
     (ST_VARIABLE|ST_BSF|ST_BSR|ST_KNOWS_EOD),
     5000, 5000,
     { 0x14, 0x15, 0x90, 0x8C },
     { 0, 0, 0, 0 }
}

Again, rebuild your kernel.

Another difference is during bootup... The Sun4c and Sun4m machines will
report an 8505 on st0 or st1.. The sun4 will not.

Welp, that about does it.. I sure hope this helps someone and saves em all
the time I spent making it work...

TLK

Thanks to all those who reponded:

Pat Cain (Denver) <pjc@denver.ssds.com>
M Robinson <mike@castle.ed.ac.uk>
wertz%carto@carto.ssd.itd.sterling.com (Mike Wertzberger)
David Barr <barr@pop.psu.edu>
borbridg@ac.duke.edu
danny@ews7.dseg.ti.com (Danny Johnson)
Bob Graf <graf@cse.ucsc.edu>
chris@voyager.techsource.com (J. Chris Hanson)
massie@nfka.norfolk.syr.ge.com (Gerry Massie - SysAdmin )
hank@wsm.com (Hank - Western Scientific Tech Support)

****** My original post: ************

Hi managers,
        A couple quick ones:

1) anyone check the capacity of their 8505.. mine seems to do about
5gigs.
I thought it was supposed to be capable of 10??

2) anyone have one hooked to a 4/330?? if so, what were your kernel
mods??

3) On a Sparc 2 or 10, what does an mt -f /dev/nrst25 report?? after the
kernel mods that I got from this mailing list, mine reports: SCSI tape
drive..
        Me thinks it should report: Exabyte 8505 8mm tape drive

My Setup:
        4/330, 4/75, Sparc 10 model 50, sparc 10 model 512, others but
        tape drive not attached.

        SunOS 4.1.3 on em all.

----

___ ___/ / / / O Todd L. Kindig / / / / /\, / / /___/ -|~(o) tlk@micom.com / / / \ (o) __/ _____/ __/ _/ Sparc, There is no substitute.



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