unable to access SCSI Tape drive in redhat 9.0 2

[cpumd]

I have an older Compaq(hp) DL380(1Ghz) with a smart array controller and a compaq 12/24GB DAT tape drive. During the boot process, the tape drive and associated hard drives are detected. However, I am unable to write to this tape device with a tar command (tar cvf /dev/st0 <files>). The error reported is:

tar: /dev/st0: Cannot open: No such device
tar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now

I have looked at the modules.conf and have an entry for the alias scsi_hostadapter cpqarray with the following information contained in the ida0 file:

ida0: Compaq Integrated Array Controller
Board ID: 0x40400e11
Firmware Revision: 1.42
Controller Sig: 0xad360efe
Memory Address: 0xf8837000
I/O Port: 0x2000
IRQ: 10
Logical drives: 1
Highest Logical ID: 0
Physical drives: 4

Current Q depth: 0
Max Q depth since init: 128

Logical Drive Info:
ida/c0d0: blksz=512 nr_blks=213367680
nr_allocs = 99601
nr_frees = 99601

Is it possible that I don't have a necessary module loaded or that by having the tape drive attached to the array controller I am creating problems for myself? I have been through the linux.org, hp.com and redhat online support sites and have been unable to find a cause for the problem.

Any assistance would be appreciated

 

[mrregan]

is there an st0 device in /dev? if not, you can make one and see if it works.
mknod /dev/st0 c 9 0

 

[aixmurderer]

Compaq had special drivers available for download to make this to work (CCISS drivers), I had the same issue on the same hardware using RH 7.2 which I have resolved successfully.

A quick search got me to this page, you will have to hunt around and see if RH 9 is supported at all.

http://h18007.www1.hp.com/support/files/server/us/download/18859.html

Just one word of caution if you manage to get it going, the drivers are kernel release specific, so any kernal version update breaks it.

IBM Certified Confused - MQSeries
IBM Certified Flabbergasted - AIX 5 pSeries System Administration
MS Certified Windblows Rebooter

 

[kschut]

can you dd something to st0?

example:

cd /home
tar cvf /usr/tmp/myhome.tar myhome
dd if=/usr/tmp/myhomw.tar of=/dev/st0

Cheers

 

[mrunix]

i haven't tried dd ( hmmm ... ) but i do use cpio