scsi tape device support

[Eric Sisler]

On Mon, 2004-07-12 at 16:29, Geoff Rainey (DSLAK) wrote:

> You are correct, after I investigated further last night, it is a compaq
> 5i smart raid array controller. These use the cciss drivers right?
> Some notes would be fabulous!

Yes, the 5i uses the cciss drivers.  The problem is the 5i card is
presented as a block device rather than a SCSI device.  What you'll need
to do is compile a custom kernel that includes optional tape drive
support for the 5xxx cards.  On my RHEL 2.1 box (which is close to RH
7.2 / 7.3) the options are under block devices.  Select "Compaq Smart
Array 5xxx support" and "SCSI tape drive support for Smart Array 5xxx". 
I built them in rather than making them modules.

Although support for the tape drive should now be available, you'll have
to actually initialize the tape drive post-boot.  I use the following
snippet of code added to rc.local:

# for x in /proc/driver/cciss/cciss[0-9]*
#        do
#                echo "engage scsi" > $x
#        done

A little overkill, but it should find the tape drive regardless of RAID
card number and/or SCSI ID.  If you see something like the following in
/var/log/messages, you should be good to go (yours may be different if
your tape drive is DLT):

preston kernel: cciss0: No device changes detected.
preston kernel: scsi0 : cciss0
preston kernel:   Vendor: COMPAQ    Model: SDT-10000         Rev: 1.16
preston kernel:   Type:   Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02
preston kernel: st: Version 20010812, bufsize 32768, wrt 30720, max
init. bufs 4, s/g segs 16
preston kernel: Attached scsi tape st0 at scsi0, channel 0, id
0, lun 0

You should also be able to see the tape drive in /proc:

[root at preston root]# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: COMPAQ   Model: SDT-10000        Rev: 1.16
  Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 02

I think this should be enought to get you going, let me know if it
isn't.

-Eric

-- 

Eric Sisler <esisler at westminster.lib.co.us>
Library Applications Specialist
Westminster Public Library
Westminster, CO USA

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