Using the Tape Drives: DAT, DLT-8000, Exabyte
DAT drive
There is a DDS-4 4mm DAT drive on grus in 501B. The DAT drive device name is
/dev/rmt/1
This drive can be used with the following options
/dev/rmt/1l- low density
/dev/rmt/1m- medium density
/dev/rmt/1h- high density
/dev/rmt/1u- ultrahigh density
/dev/rmt/1c- compressed density
All of the above also support the b (for Berkeley style devices) and no rewind n appended on the end, e.g.
/dev/rmt/1hn- high density, no rewind
/dev/rmt/1cbn- compressed, "Berkeley" device, no rewind
This drive will read DAT tapes from DDS-2 to DDS-4 format and will write all these formats as well. It works like any other tape drive.
DLT-8000
This drive is installed on grus in 501B. The DLT drive device name is
/dev/rmt/0
This drive can be used with the following options
/dev/rmt/0l- low density
/dev/rmt/0m- medium density
/dev/rmt/0h- high density
/dev/rmt/0u- ultrahigh density
/dev/rmt/0c- compressed density
All of the above also support the b (for Berkeley style devices) and no rewind n appended on the end, e.g.
/dev/rmt/0hn- high density, no rewind
/dev/rmt/0cbn- compressed, "Berkeley" device, no rewind
See: Instructions for Using DLT
Exabyte Drive
There is an Exabyte drive but it is currently offline. Please contact Kelley if you need to use the Exabyte drive.
Making a tar tape
To make a tar tape of a directory (and the entire directory tree below that point), do the following:
- Whether you choose DAT, Exabyte or DLT - or CD-R for that matter -
will depend on how much disk space you need to backup. To get
an idea of how much space you've got, cd to the top of the directory.
Then enter:
du -ks . The unit is Kbytes. - Procure tape(s)
- Make sure tape drive is not in use.
- If Exabyte isn't in use but lights are blinking, ask Kelley for a cleaning tape.
- Insert tape.
- Login to machine to which tape drive is connected (you can ssh from your office computer).
- cd to top of directory-tree.
- Suppose tape drive is /dev/rmt/0. Enter:
tar cvf /dev/rmt/0 . - If you intend to put multiple tar files on a single tape, repeat the last two steps for each, but instead of /dev/rmt/0, use: /dev/rmt/0n (the n being for no-rewind).
- To eject tape, enter: mt -f /dev/rmt/0 offline.
To suggest changes, additions, clarifications in this documentation, contact Central Services: central@astro.
$LastChangedDate:: 2008-02-15#$