Exabyte on 4/280 file server problems

From: Marcel Bernards (ecn!bernards@relay.eu.net)
Date: Mon Jan 08 1990 - 08:51:42 CST


Hello SUN managers,

A few months agoo I purchased a exabyte for our 4/280 server.

At that time our 4/280 was running 4.0 and the exabyte did not work properly
with that OS level. SUN advised to upgrade to 4.0.3.
Apart from problems during upgrade , the current level seems to improve the
interaction with the exabyte, but when i try to do subsequent dumps on /dev/nrst1
the file positioning is really _BAD_

The first dump is OK , the second also, but when i do a mt -f /dev/nrst1 stat
it returns:
ecn# mt stat
Exabyte tape drive:
   sense key(0x5)= illegal request residual= 64512 retries= 545
   file no= 1 block no= 0
  
 Well lets do some positioning:
 
ecn# mt asf 1
ecn# mt stat
Exabyte tape drive:
   sense key(0x0)= no sense residual= 0 retries= 545
   file no= 1 block no= 0
ecn# restore if /dev/nrst1
Tape read error: I/O error

HUH ?!?

ecn# mt rew
ecn# mt stat
Exabyte tape drive:
   sense key(0x5)= illegal request residual= 64512 retries= 545
   file no= 1 block no= 0
ecn# mt -f /dev/rst1 rew
ecn# mt stat
Exabyte tape drive:
   sense key(0x0)= no sense residual= 0 retries= 545
   file no= 0 block no= 0

I don't trust the retry number
but lets see :
ecn# mt -f /dev/nrst1 asf 1
ecn# restore if /dev/nrst1
restore > ls
.:
 IT_LMNI/ ecn/ jack/ offaut/ sjaak/
 VOdemo/ essen/ janT/ operator/ soppe/
 aip/ gaby/ johnB/ oppe/ stad/
 ajs/ gert/ jos/ papa/ teun
 anybody/ gwb/ kaandorp/ peterV/ tim/
 arjen/ hans/ kees/ phamiss/ wim/
 bulder/ heijn/ klaas/ piano/ zahir/
 bwijn/ henrik/ lautenbag/ putten/
 corw/ herl/ lost+found/ quotas
 danny/ huub/ michelw/ robert/
 dick/ iede/ nik/ sam/

restore >
Wow
This is OK, But the third dump can only be done after handling the tape with 'mt'.
On a 3/50 and exabyte this will work and doing dumps with a 1/4" cartridge is OK
on a 4/280.
Does anybody know whats going on with the si and st drivers in SUNOS 4.0.3 on a
4/280 server ?????

Please E-mail

Marcel Bernards, UNIX & Net sysadm Netherlands Energy Research Foundation ECN
P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, PHONE: 09 312246 4579 EARN/BITNET:ESU0130@HPEENR51
EMAIL:bernards%ecn@{nluug.nl,uunet.uu.net},bernards@ecn.nl hp4nl!ecn!bernards
SCREAMNet : AAAAAARGHH!HUH?? : Disclaimer: "The AntiChrist is the Computer !"



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