SUMMARY: EXABYTE 8200 on 280R

SUMMARY : EXABYTE 8200 doesn't function on 280R

Old Exabyte EXB-8200 drive on a 280R to rescue
some archived data from an IBM RS6000 AIX machine. 

I have tried both a terminated and unterminated Wide 
-> Narrow (Centronics) cable to connect the drive to
the machine. Both produce the following output on a
SCSI probe:

ok {0} probe-scsi-all
/pci@8,600000/SUNW,qlc@4
LiD HA LUN  --- Port WWN ---  ----- Disk description -----
 0   0   0  500000e0104239d1  FUJITSU MAP3735F SUN72G 0601
 1   1   0  500000e010407b11  FUJITSU MAP3735F SUN72G 0601

/pci@8,700000/scsi@6,1
Target 5
  Unit 0   Removable Tape     EXABYTE EXB-8200        2618

  Unit 1   Removable Tape     EXABYTE EXB-8200        2618

  Unit 2   Removable Tape     EXABYTE EXB-8200        2618

  Unit 3   Removable Tape     EXABYTE EXB-8200        2618

  Unit 4   Removable Tape     EXABYTE EXB-8200        2618

  Unit 5   Removable Tape     EXABYTE EXB-8200        2618

  Unit 6   Removable Tape     EXABYTE EXB-8200        2618

  Unit 7   Removable Tape     EXABYTE EXB-8200        2618


/pci@8,700000/scsi@6
Target 6
  Unit 0   Removable Read Only device    TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-M14011009


Peter Stokes suggested :

1) The 8200 was an early SCSI implementation and was not 
fully SCSI 2 compatible, hence caused all sorts of problems
and had many different firmware versions, with the Sun one
being one of them. Is this a plain vanilla drive or IBM
or Sun variant?

2) There are switch configs on the second board, you
may try the Sun setups as per the online handbook to
see if you get it to work.

3) AIX used fixed block sizes, so it may be worth
trying to dd the data with a large block size value
for ibs. Again this fixed block size can cause problems,
though usually on writing.

4) The multi LUN you see on the probe-scsi-all is not
really an issue, just an annoyance and should not really
affect the configuration. Do you get a /dev/rmt value
and can you use it?

Last option would be to put a later version Exabyte and
read the tapes with that.


Solution (ish):

So, in accordance with these suggestions I tried the
drive ignoring the probe-scsi-all issue. The behaviour
was much like I'd previously managed with Linux, ie.
the tape drive would respond OK to mt status and more
than likely read/write clean tapes, but it wouldn't
touch those from the RS6000.

I bit the bullet and took the DAT drive from the RS6000,
(an EXABYTE IBM-8505) connected it up and things worked
immediately. No blocksize issue, cpio worked straight
away.

I suspect the tapes were written in a manner which the
older drive could not fathom, and the SCSI oddities of
the old drive just compounded my problems.

****
Moral of the story: If someone offers you a crusty old
DAT drive, just say "No" and tell the nearest adult.
****

Thanks to Peter Stokes and Adrian Cole for suggestions.

--
Tony Howat
UNIX Network Administrator
The London Institute
Tel. +44 (0)207 514 1887
Fax. +44 (0)207 514 6170
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