backup using tape drive

[Rick Stevens]

Toto Gamez wrote:
> Hi
> Im using RH9 on compaq proliant 1600 with 4/8 dat drive. how do I use my 
> tape drive to backup using tar? what device do I have to use, Im kind a 
> lost here, someone told me that tape drives are not usualy mounted like 
> any harddisk. I tried to use "tar cvf /dev/rsa1/test.tat /etc" hoping 
> that my scsi1 would be rsa1 just like from what I googled scsi0=rsa1, 
> scsi1=rsa1 and also tried sda and sdb. I also found on googled to know 
> if my tape drive realy installed issue:
> cat /proc/scsi/scsi
>  
> output:
> Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 06 Lun: 00
>   Vendor: COMPAQ   Model: SDT-7000         Rev: 3.04
>   Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 02
> please advise

Your tape drive will be identified as /dev/st0 normally.  You can check
by doing:

	# mt -f /dev/st0 status

That should return the current status of the drive.  My HP 4GB DAT shows
up like this:

	[root at prophead root]# mt -f /dev/st0 status
	SCSI 2 tape drive:
	File number=-1, block number=-1, partition=0.
	Tape block size 0 bytes. Density code 0x0 (default).
	Soft error count since last status=0
	General status bits on (50000):
	 DR_OPEN IM_REP_EN

Now, as to using tar:  tar to tape works, but it's pretty dumb.  The
simplest form is:

	# cd /some/directory
	# tar cfpv /dev/st0 *

with /dev/st0 being the tape drive.

I'd highly recommend you use Amanda (comes with RH9) to do your backups.
It's a fully functional backup system and can save you worlds of grief
with backups and restores.
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- Rick Stevens, Senior Systems Engineer     rstevens at vitalstream.com -
- VitalStream, Inc.                       http://www.vitalstream.com -
-                                                                    -
-   Never test for an error condition you don't know how to handle.  -
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