How to format a DLT tape 2

[lsantos]

Can anyone tell me if there is a AIX command to format a DLT tape?

Thank you,
LS

 

[MoshiachNow]

Try:

tctl -f /dev/rmt1 erase

However,If you use any standard backup packages,you are better off doing from the package GUI.

"Long live king Moshiach !"

http://www.7for70.com/

 

[KenCunningham]

Be aware that erase can take forever. Why are you formatting it in the first place? Any data you write to the tape will replace anything on it anyway. Admittedly, there are probably utilities which might be able to recover the overwritten data, but it depends how you assess the risk of this happening.

 

[lsantos]

Thank you for the info. I checked tctl command, however there is no format parameter. My problem is that when we buy DLT tapes they are not formatted. We currently use another server's DLT drive to format new tapes using a GUI program, however we are about to phase out that server, reason why I need to format from AIX on dev/rmt1

Thx.

 

[unixfreak]

Tapes don't need formatting, you just use them.
Formatting means creating a filesystem which tapes doesn't have since they're sequential access devices.

Cheers

 

[KenCunningham]

Not strictly true, though formatting is probably a misnomer - we have an old server which won't accept a tape unless it has been 'formatted' by a special script written for the purpose (some kind of header record is created I think, though I haven't looked into it in detail). What does your GUI program do to the tape and can you replicate that on your new machine? Incidentally, levw wasn't suggesting there is a format option to tctl, just that erasing the tapes is essentially the same.