Hi,
there is still a kind of a problem in using 3592 tapes in SLES10-SP1,
seemingly related to the logical block device.
When we do backups, we insert a tape media and then essentially run in a
script:
vmcp att 500 '*' 181
chccwdev -e 181
After that, however, all mt/mtst commands fail for a varying period of
time, depending on how much data there is on the tape.
It seems that after setting the tape device online, first the tape
drived detects the amount of blocks on the tape:
Jun 28 10:17:16 zlnx002 kernel: TAPE_BLOCK: Detecting media size...
...
Jun 28 10:19:02 zlnx002 kernel: TAPE_BLOCK: Found 1559081 blocks on media
during which the tape device is on IN_USE state operating FSF.
After that the tape device operates for a while in BLKUSE state
operating BLK (I mean "lstape" tells that Op=BLK). Below is more
detailed log.
I suppose the tape device initializes the first file on the disk to be
used as a block device automatically, which causes this lenghty delay in
other operations.
If I am correct, I think I would like to get the tape online only as a
locigal character device. Is there a way to do that?
We run udevd which makes all the tape device nodes available
automatically. Could this have something to do with the behaviour of the
block device? (I did not have time to test this, yet.)
We can backup, though, using enough wait time before tarring or checking
lstape output in a loop, but this is ugly and I'd really like to
understand devices and drivers well... :)
TIA,
Juha Vuori
Our script:
----------
# setupping first
# constants
TAPEDEV=/dev/ntibm0
# attach given tape device
/sbin/vmcp attach $1 '*' 181 2>&1 | logger -p local0.info
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
/sbin/vmcp msg op adminmsg - ATTACH $1 FAILED
exit 1
fi
sleep 1
# put the tape device online
/sbin/chccwdev -e 181 2>&1 | logger -p local0.info
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
/sbin/vmcp msg op adminmsg - $1 ONLINE FAILED
exit 1
fi
lstape | logger -p local0.info
sleep 200
# set compression on
mtst -f $TAPEDEV compression 1 2>&1 | logger -p local0.info
sleep 1
lstape 2>&1 | logger -p local0.info
# rewind the tape
mt -f $TAPEDEV rewind 2>&1 | logger -p local0.info
sleep 3
# put the data on tape using blocking factor 64 (means 32K blocksize)
tar --totals -b 64 -cf $TAPEDEV /bups/ 2>&1 | logger -p local0.info
fails and produces log:
----------------------
Jun 28 10:17:14 zlnx002 logger: TAPE 0502 ATTACHED TO ZLNX002 0181
Jun 28 10:17:14 zlnx002 kernel: crw_info : CRW reports slct=0, oflw=0,
chn=0, rsc=3, anc=1, erc=4, rsid=27
Jun 28 10:17:14 zlnx002 kernel: TAPE_CORE: tape device 0.0.0181 found
Jun 28 10:17:15 zlnx002 logger: Setting device 0.0.0181 online
Jun 28 10:17:16 zlnx002 kernel: TAPE_CORE: (0.0.0181): Tape has been mounted
Jun 28 10:17:16 zlnx002 kernel: TAPE_BLOCK: Detecting media size...
Jun 28 10:17:16 zlnx002 logger: Done
Jun 28 10:17:16 zlnx002 logger: TapeNo BusID CuType/Model
DevType/Model BlkSize State Op MedState
Jun 28 10:17:16 zlnx002 logger: 0 0.0.0181 3590/70 3590/10
auto IN_USE FSF LOADED
Jun 28 10:19:02 zlnx002 kernel: TAPE_BLOCK: Found 1559081 blocks on media
Jun 28 10:20:36 zlnx002 logger: /dev/ntibm0: Device or resource busy
Jun 28 10:20:37 zlnx002 logger: TapeNo BusID CuType/Model
DevType/Model BlkSize State Op MedState
Jun 28 10:20:37 zlnx002 logger: 0 0.0.0181 3590/70 3590/10
auto BLKUSE BLK LOADED
Jun 28 10:20:37 zlnx002 logger: mt: /dev/ntibm0: Device or resource busy
Jun 28 10:20:40 zlnx002 logger: tar: /dev/ntibm0: Cannot open: Device or
resource busy
Jun 28 10:20:40 zlnx002 logger: tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now
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