How to identify an 8mm tape drive

[Cherokeejones]

Hi,

I have an RS6000 44p 170 that came with an 8mm internal tape drive. On the faceplate of the tape drive it states;

Recognition Systems 20.0

Does anyone have any idea on what capacity 8mm tapes I need to buy to use this drive?

Thanks
Cherokeejones

 

[andy61]

Have you tried running lsattr -El rmtX ? There should be the field size_in_mb

 

[columb]

Try

lscfg -vpl rmt0

which will give you a clue. For example our 4mm tape drive returns

#lscfg -vpl rmt0
  DEVICE            LOCATION          DESCRIPTION

  rmt0              1Z-08-00-0,0      SCSI 4mm Tape Drive (20480 MB)

        Manufacturer................HP
        Machine Type and Model......IBM-C568303030!D
        Device Specific.(Z1)........C209
        Serial Number...............2133D726
        Device Specific.(LI)........A1700292
        Part Number.................19P0798
        FRU Number..................19P0802
        EC Level....................H27417
        Device Specific.(Z0)........0180020283000038
        Device Specific.(Z3)........L1


  PLATFORM SPECIFIC

  Name:  st
    Node:  st
    Device Type:  byte

and, as you can see, it's a 20Gb drive.

BTW, be warned, I believe that IBM 8mm drives need special cleaning tapes - can anyone else confirm?

On the internet no one knows you're a dog

Columb Healy

 

[KenCunningham]

We have a VXA-2 8mm tape drive and it certainly requires special cleaning tapes. It also seems to need cleaning more often than any other DDS type drive I've known!

I want to be good, is that not enough?

 

[Cherokeejones]

# lscfg -vpl rmt0
rmt0 P1/Z1-A2 SCSI 8mm Tape Drive (20000 MB)

Manufacturer................EXABYTE
Machine Type and Model......IBM-20GB
Device Specific.(Z1)........41eA
Serial Number...............60196773
Load ID.....................A0000004
Part Number.................59H4119
FRU Number..................59H4120
EC Level....................E30396
Device Specific.(Z0)........0180020283000030
Device Specific.(Z3)........


PLATFORM SPECIFIC

Name: st
Node: st
Device Type: byte

 

[columb]

We have one of those and
[ol]
[li]It does need the special cleaning tapes[/li]
[li]We use IBM 170 Meter tapes - reorder # 59H2678[/li]
[/ol]

On the internet no one knows you're a dog

Columb Healy

 

[Cherokeejones]

Last question;

For purposes of playing around with mksysb tapes, can I use video 8mm tapes in this drive? They are about 1/10 the price of a data 8mm tape.

Thanks
Cherokee

 

[columb]

I only use IBM supplied tapes - if we don't it messes up our support contract. Does anyone out there know?

On the internet no one knows you're a dog

Columb Healy

 

[Cherokeejones]

The standard 8mm video tapes do not appear to work. I booted the server and ran "smit mksysb". Here is the errors

Creating information file (/image.data) for rootvg.

Creating tape boot image.....
bosboot: Boot image is 36887 512 byte blocks.

0301-161 bosboot: dd failed to copy /dev/rmt0.1.

0301-165 bosboot: WARNING! bosboot failed - do not attempt to boot device.

0512-016 mksysb: Attempt to create a bootable tape failed:
bosboot -d /dev/rmt0.1 -a failed with return code 48.

 

[p5wizard]

Well, if I remember correctly, I once tried that also. Now you have to first clean the tapedrive in order to get it working again. It's something to do with the different magnetic layer on "standard" 8mm video/data grade cartridges and the 20GB grade cartridges. It completely messes up the tapedrive's read/write head.

I'm not even sure there's read compatibility with 5GB/7GB grade cartridges for that type of drive.

Data cartridge: IBM# 59H2678
Cleaning cartridge: IBM# 35L1409

I'm sure there's other vendors for these type of cartridges, but make sure you get the 20/40GB 170m version. And I wouldn't go for anything other than the IBM version for the cleaning cartridge.

Google for "8mm mammoth data cartridge 20GB"


HTH,

p5wizard

 

[DukeSSD]

p5, the mammoth drive is 60GB.

For the 20GB drive you can get (from IBM) 2.5GB or 20GB tapes.

8mm 2.5GB AME Cartridge 22m (72 ft).............. 59H2671
8mm 20GB AME Data Cartridge 170m (558 ft)........ 59H2678
8mm AME Cleaning Cartridge....................... 35L1409

Don't use the 59H2898 (MP) cleaning tape.

NOTE 1:
The 20/40GB 16-Bit 8mm Internal Tape Drive is only READ compatible with the 2.3GB, 5GB or 7GB capacity tape cartridges. The drive cannot write to a tape in the 2.3GB, 5GB or 7GB format.


NOTE 2:
If this tape drive is used for reading 2.3GB, 5GB or 7GB Metal Particle (MP) media, the user will receive a message to clean the tape drive.
Clean the drive with a cleaning cartridge prior to using a 20GB Advance Metal Evaporated (AME) cartridge media.

 

[DukeSSD]

This link has lots of handy nfo for rs6k tape drives:

http://techsupport.services.ibm.com/server/mdownload/tapewhdr.html

 

[p5wizard]

Well at least I got the part numbers right.


HTH,

p5wizard