[1339] in linux-scsi channel archive
Re: Auto Loader tape drive
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Tim Jones)
Tue Jan 28 10:17:29 1997
To: submit-linux-dev-scsi@yggdrasil.com
From: Tim Jones <tjones@estinc.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1997 08:13:05 -0700
To: Dan Merillat <Dan@Merillat.org>
Dan Merillat wrote:
>
> Ok, the subject says it all... I have an auto-loading drive,
>
> Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 05 Lun: 00
> Vendor: ARCHIVE Model: Python 28849-XXX Rev: 4.CM
> Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
>
> As a tape drive, it works no problem... But what mt commands can I use
> to get it to swap tapes?
You can just issue am "mt -f /dev/st0 rewoff" and the Python will unload
the current tape and load the next one in the series.
> The idea is to use the 48 raw gig on a news server
> so I don't have to wipe it every time I change the size of the raid0
> filesystem. So, I'm looking at a (tar/cpio/whatever) solution to start
> at tape 1 and go on. Programming is possible but I figured someone has
> done it already.
>
Not trying to be too "marketing" here, but, our product, BRU, will do
just what you're looking for. We automatically manage the end of each
tape volume and execute a series of commands that you define (we provide
examples). Additionally, BRU will backup your News volume in raw mode,
eliminating the filesystem latency involved with all of those 2K disk
seeks. With the Python, you should be able to get around 20MB/min onto
tape in uncompressed mode, but you can't get that backing up news when
you have to seek/stat/open/read/close all of those little files. The
raw backup mechanism will move data from your disk system to the Python
at the maximum allowable level of the tape drive. This will sure beat
waiting a full day to finish a file by file backup of News. Many of our
ISP customers use BRU in this manner because if you need to restore
news, it's an all or nothing event (are you really going to try and pull
ONE news article back for a user?).
> I think part of the problem is that I will need to use both the /dev/st0 and
> /dev/sg devices, right?
Using BRU and it's device control, you only need /dev/st0
> Oh yea, command line stuff is prefered over a pretty 'GUI' based archive
> system, since I have an old mono monitor as the console for the news server.
BRU is primarily a command line product. We do offer an X11 interface
in the upcoming 15.0 release, but the current version (14.3) is strictly
command line with full cron/background operation support. Drop by our
webpage for more details, or give me a call at the number below.
---
Tim Jones tjones@giza.estinc.com
Vice President of Development Visit our Tape Backup Web page:
Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc. http://www.estinc.com/
(602) 820-0042 voice (602) 491-0865 fax
