Topic: 5.6 and Onstream Tape

[Geoff]

Just installed 5.6 and am having problems with an IDE 30GB Onstream tape drive.
Here's a few details:

[root@kylie root]# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: OnStream Model: DI-30            Rev: 1.09
  Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 02

[root@kylie root]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
printer                 8160   0  (unused)
usbcore                71904   0  [printer]
appletalk              24172  12  (autoclean)
8139too                16448   1
mii                     2408   0  [8139too]
st                     29108   0  (unused)
ide-scsi                9664   0
ide-cd                 30272   0
cdrom                  32032   0  [ide-cd]
scsi_mod              109424   2  [st ide-scsi]
ext3                   67328   2
jbd                    49496   2  [ext3]

[root@kylie root]# flexbackup -newtape

flexbackup version 0.9.8
/etc/flexbackup.conf syntax OK

|------------------------------------------------
| Trying "mt defblksize" instead of "mt setblk"
Error setting block size
Neither of these commands worked:
  mt -f /dev/nst0 setblk 0
  mt -f /dev/nst0 defblksize 0

So - it seems there's blocksize problems.... This is a completely clean install - I've not adjusted anything. Anyone have any clues? Acording to this: http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=15465.msg59429#msg59429 , it should work off the shelf...

Any help/thoughts much appreciated.
Geoff

[Geoff]

Well, I tried "rmmod st" then "insmod osst" - still no joy, I get the same "Error setting block size" error.

Tried following Step 6 of this to set the blocksize and buffering; no change - same error as above.

Any clues anyone? Should I be submitting this as a bug bearing in mind the following:

Charlie Brady wrote:
> FWIW, the RedHat 7.3 kernel includes the osst.o module and
> that's the kernel we will be using with version 5.6. From
> limited testing backup works out of the box with the OnStream
> DI-30 drive.
>
> Charlie

Cheers,
Geoff

[Jeff Hopper]

Here's what I remember... for what it's worth.

I used a DI-30 on a RH linux box. I remember that the drive was inflexable on it's block size requirement.  I remember finding the proper block size in a FAQ (I believe it was at Onstream's website.)

Hope this helps... sorry about the lack of specifics, but it's been a few years...

[chris snow]

If I insmod ide-tape, I can access the tape drive using:

[root@sme root]# mt -f /dev/ht0 status
SCSI 2 tape drive:
File number=0, block number=-1, partition=0.
Tape block size 32768 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default).
Soft error count since last status=0
General status bits on (1000000):
 ONLINE

my modules:

[root@sme root]# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
ide-tape               54880   2
printer                 8160   0  (unused)
usb-ohci               20576   0  (unused)
usbcore                71968   0  [printer usb-ohci]
appletalk              24172  12  (autoclean)
sis900                 15268   1
ide-cd                 30272   0
cdrom                  32064   0  [ide-cd]
ext3                   67296   2
jbd                    49496   2  [ext3]

How can I modify /etc/flexbackup.conf to use /dev/ht0 instead of /dev/nst0 ?

Thanks,

Chris

[Charlie Brady]

chris snow wrote:

> How can I modify /etc/flexbackup.conf to use /dev/ht0 instead
> of /dev/nst0 ?

/sbin/e-smith/config setprop backup Device /dev/nht0
/sbin/e-smith/signal-event conf-backup

Note that you need to use the non-rewind device (nht0) for backup to work correctly.

Regards

Charlie

[Chris Snow]

Where can I find documentation on the list of properties that are accepted by /sbin/e-smith/config ?

Thanks,

Chris

[Daniel]

Does this help?

I have st0 with data sense errors, but no such device for ht0, which is weird because it's IDE.

I'll try this:

http://lists.insecure.org/lists/linux-kernel/2001/Sep/0050.html

But can anyone explain what's going on with ide tapes on e-smith?

[chris snow]

I gave up on my onstream on the end - I was fitting it for a customer and didn't have time to find out what went wrong.  I followed the howto, but it still didn't work.  In the end it cooked the mirrored hard drives.  Luckily, there was enough data on one of the drivers to do a restore.

What I was finding was that whenever the backups kicked in, the uptime figures where around '2' (normally 0.x).  I don't know what was happening, but the drives were very hot!

When I get some more time to figure th e problem I will take a look at it, but in the meantime, I will avoid the onstream.  I have fitted four different backup drives now and all but the onstream worked fine without too much messing around.  

Chris