SUMMARY: Adding a DDS1 or a DDS2 tape drive.

From: David Smith (dpsmith@lbin.com)
Date: Mon Jun 10 1996 - 13:38:59 CDT


sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov

Original post:

>Date: Thu, 6 Jun 1996 12:58:05 -0700 (PDT)
>From: David Smith <dpsmith@lbin.com>
>Subject: Adding a DDS1 or a DDS2 tape drive.
>
>Hi Sun Managers,
>
>I need advice on adding a tape drive to a Sparc 10
>running Solaris 2.3.
>
>I intend using the tape drive to do a level 0
>backup of the internal 1.2 GB HD and the external 4.0 GB HD.
>
>We have two tape drives:
>One is a Wangtek 6200HS 4mm DDS
>and the other is a HPC1533 DDS2.
>
>I presume that it would make sense to use the HP.
>- Has anyone successfully used such a 4mm DAT?
>- What did you do to get it to work?
>
>I tried using the HP before. All I got was a very
>slow transfer rate, ending in I/O and Media errors.
>
>- Do I have to edit the st.conf file to get this drive
>to work properly? What would these edits entail?
>
>- Also, can the ufsdump in Solaris 2.3 cope with dumping
>amounts greater than 2GB to tape?

Responses:

===================================================================
1:

>From: Shigeki Misawa <misawa@physics.Berkeley.EDU>

>You should be able to get the proper st.conf entry for the drive from
>the main HP DAT web page at :
>
>http://www.dmo.hp.com/tape/_cpb0001.htm
>
>Note that last I heard variable block size does not work with Solaris
>2.3 because of a kernel problem. Don't know if this has been fixed by
>patches.

===================================================================
2:

>From: Don Lewis <gdonl@gv.ssi1.com>

>Yes. I found a really good configuration guide at:
> http://www.impediment.com:80/hp/hp_technical.html
 
===================================================================
3:

>From: Tim Evans <tkevans@eplrx7.es.dupont.com>

>Here's what we use for the HP:
>
>tape-config-list =
>"HP C1553A", "HP C1533A 4mm DAT", "HP-data2";
>HP-data2 = 1,0x34,512,0x19,4,0x18,0x18,0x18,0x18,3;

===================================================================
4:

>From: Ric Anderson <ric@rtd.com>

>> - What did you do to get it to work?

>Did a
> touch /reconfigure
>shut down the system, plugged the drive in and rebooted.

>
>I then tested it with
> ufsdump 0bdsf 126 54000 12000 /dev/rmt/0hn /dev/rdsk/c0t3d0s0
>and it dumps at about 30-40mb/minute to a local HP 1533A.

He suggests that a hardware problem might be the cause of the
slow transfer rate and the errors I was getting.

>> - Also, can the ufsdump in Solaris 2.3 cope with dumping
>> amounts greater than 2GB to tape?

>I've dumped 3.7gb (largest amount of gunk I have on any one disk)
>with no problems on a single 120M tape. I've dumped three 2gb
>disks to the same 120M tape with no problem also.

===================================================================

Thanks to all the people who replied:
Ric Anderson <ric@rtd.com>
Tim Evans <tkevans@eplrx7.es.dupont.com>
Don Lewis <gdonl@gv.ssi1.com>
Shigeki Misawa <misawa@physics.Berkeley.EDU>

I have not been able to check out these suggestions, because
the HP DDS2 started reading data slowly from tape on a PC it used to
work fine on. It is now being repaired.

The response time and the quality of the replies on this
list is great.

Thanks,
Dave.

--
   David Smith,  Lightbinders, Inc.
   E-mail: dpsmith@lbin.com | WWW: http://lbin.com/
   Voice: (415) 621-5746    | Fax: (415) 621-5898



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