HP DDS/DAT tape drives UNIX, Linux and OpenVMS configuration guide (DW049-90930, May 2010)

Where stinit is available, you can also re-initialize the drive to new parameters as entered in /
etc/stinit.def without reboot by running:
stinit
Configuring non-compression device files
The following process allows the use of non-compression device files. HP recommends the use of files
with the mode identifier of “m” (such as /dev/nst0m). This sets the mode to non-compression, and
the blocksize to variable.
1. Install mt-st if not already installed. You can find this on the Linux installation CD/DVD.
2. If the stinit.def file is not on the system (usually found in /etc), you need to create and edit
it:
a. Find an example file at /usr/share/doc/mt-st-<version>/stinit.def.examples
or /usr/share/doc/packages/mt-st/stinit.def.examples.
b. Copy the file to /etc and rename it from stinit.def.examples to stinit.def.
c. Edit the DAT entry in stinit.def to change the manufacture and model details. You can
find these details by viewing the /proc/scsi/scsi file.
The example below shows how to edit the file for a DAT 72 drive:
# A compressing DAT (DDS-1-DC or DDS-[234])
manufacturer=HP model = "C7438A" {
can-bsr can-partitions auto-lock
mode1 blocksize=0 compression=1
mode2 blocksize=1024 compression=1
mode3 blocksize=0 compression=0
mode4 blocksize=1024 compression=0 }ns for different kinds of tape
d. After editing the file, execute stinit or reboot the system.
For more information on how to use stinit and stinit.def, see the man stinit page.
Verifying an autoloader has installed correctly
To verify that the autoloader has installed correctly, run the following mtx command:
mtx –f /dev/<autoloader_device_file> status
This will display the various elements in the autoloader. For more details of the mtx command, run:
man mtx.
What next?
Once the device files have been created, you should confirm that your new tape drive is working
properly. “Verifying the installation” on page 39 provides instructions on backing up and restoring
a sample file to test your installation.
Linux (kernel 2.6x) servers and workstations32