Solaris 2.6 - Add DLT 1

[SteveR77]

I know this should be simple but the admin docs for Solaris 2.6 are not available to me in my environment and I have a E450 system that I need to add a DLT drive to.

Commands such as probe-scsi do not work so I am stumped as to how in this arcane OS I can achieve what I need to.

Thanks for any direction you can provide.

 

[cndcadams]

Steve;

does probe-scsi see internal drives?

your DLT is probably differential so you would need a differential card to be able to see it with probe-scsi-all. Open the enclosure that you have the dlt in and get part #'s model#'s.

Sun dlt should have part # starting with 370-****

 

[SteveR77]

Thanks cndcadams.

The probe-scsi-all comes back clean.

The DLT drive is an external Quantum 7000.

At this moment when I perform a boot -rt the device information is not being written to /dev/rmt/0. drvconfig -i st; tapes returns a message that the st driver failed to attach. However, I have applied the patches that should have the proper driver and added the entry for the Quantum 7000 in the st.conf.

Thanks again for the assistance everyone. If this were Solaris 9 and up or better yet a Linux distro I'd be done already.

 

[blarneyme]

"Better yet Linux"

Hyperbole.

Why does it seem everyone thinks Linux is the best and only operating system on the planet? Linux is horrible.

At work we have AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, and of course, RHEL. The only servers that cause problems are the RHEL on i686. There have only been a couple of AIX servers that had hardware problems in the past 2 years. HP-UX has had some H/W problems because of age of machines but perform solidly. Solaris just sit there are run without any problems with OS or H/W.

Turn your attention to RHEL and i686 and servers constantly reboot, and then you're told it is due to firmware. The F/W gets updated and servers still reboot. Call RH for support and more often than not they don't give you any specific answer. One specific ticket we opened for SAN problems came back with an answer from RH that they don't have a EMC Symmetrix array, so they can't test. Excuse me, you are in the support business. I guarantee that IBM has Sun equip and Sun had IBM equip.

Red Hat likes to tout how they have or will have technology X in their new or next release. Many times I have heard that and express that AIX and Solaris have had that technology in their OS for a decade.

Red Hat also has twice as many vulnerabilities as Windows according to US-CERT NVD data. And everyone complains about the insecurity of Windows. Hello! RH has a WORSE record!

While golfing you don't take a 7 iron with you on the course and leave the other clubs in the trunk of your car, thinking you can do everything you need with the 7 iron. Driving, putting, chipping, sand wedge, 400 par, 100 par, the 7 iron will do it all perfectly. Same thing with Linux. It can't do it all.

 

[SteveR77]

Context blarneyme.

For me in this instance I would be done with a different distro because I could troubleshoot in an more effective manner.

In short you show me a perfect OS and I'll show you something that is either a demo or barely out of beta. I have dealt with the UNIX, Linux, OS/2 and Windows nightmares but that is all part of getting the "expert" label.

The frustration is knowing how something is supposed to work, having done everything to make it work and still having it fail with no explaination as to why.


Back to the battle with the DLT install.....

I.T. where a world of choas and confusion comes down to nothing but 1s and 0s.

 

[cndcadams]

Steve when you do probe-scsi-all do you see the tape drive? If at the OBP you do not see the tape drive the OS will never see it.

Where are you connecting the tape drive to on the system? The onbrd scsi port on back middle is fast wide.
The internal drives are driven by dual port ultra wide scsi card located in one of the pci slots.. Make sure you do not attach to this.
You really need to confirm if the DLT is differential or not. E450 did not come with any differential ports. If OBP does not see the tape drive it is most likely a differential tape drive.

So basically first we need to confirm OBP sees the tape drive. If it does then we can go in another direction.

Lastly if probe-scsi-all does see the tape drive then did you boot -r.

 

[SteveR77]

cndcadams,

Thank you once again. There is only one SCSI port to connect to on this E450 but I will have to confirm the DLT drive type.

OBP is not seeing the drive and I have done several probe-scsi-all and
boot -rv commands. My guess is as you have pointed at this is a differental tape drive and what I am attempting will never work.

Especially given I have swapped the cables and found and second DLT tape drive that has given me the same results. I will let you know the outcome and once again thank you for your assistance.




I.T. where a world of choas and confusion comes down to nothing but 1s and 0s.

 

[SteveR77]

cndcadams,

You were spot on. The DLT drives that I have are differential tape drives.

At least now I know and can explain why this "easy" thing did not work to my boss.

Thanks once again!!!

I.T. where a world of choas and confusion comes down to nothing but 1s and 0s.

 

[cndcadams]

Steve;

that is what I figured.

here is a card that is supported in the 450. it is a dual diff vhdci. did not see any single port diff cards supported in the 450

375-0006 [F] Dual Differential Ultra/Wide SCSI (UDWIS/P)(HVD)