HP DDS/DAT drives UNIX, Linux and OpenVMS configuration guide (DW049-90915, November 2009)

HP Evolution II DDS/DAT drives: UNIX, Linux and OpenVMS configuration guide 37

8 Verifying the installation

As part of the installation process, you will have installed the appropriate device driver for your

UNIX system, and created device files to communicate with the tape drive.

This section describes how you can verify that the installation has been performed correctly.

In outline, the procedure is as follows:

1. Write test data to a tape.

2. Read the test data from the tape.

3. Compare the data read from the tape with the original data on disk.

To verify the installation

1. Test the SCSI connection to the tape drive by sending a status request:

a. Ensure a tape cartridge installed in the drive.

b. Enter the following using the command line:

% mt -f <archive name> status

For example, on Linux:

% mt -f /dev/st0 status

If the response in the command line is:

mt /dev/st0: No such file or directory

the hardware installation may be faulty. Check the troubleshooting section of the User’s

Guide for help in identifying the problem.

If the response in the command line is:

mt /dev/st0: No medium found

check that a tape is loaded in the drive.

If tape drive information is returned, the tape drive has been detected correctly by the

operating system.

2. Write a sample file to tape, using ‘

tar’:

% cd /

% tar cvf <archive name> <file>

The options to tar have the following meanings:

The arguments follow the

cvf options in the command line. The arguments are as follows:

Create a new archive (backup file) on the device.

Operate in verbose mode.

Specify the archive name explicitly.

The name of the archive name to be created.

Example:

/dev/st0

<file>

The name of the file to archive, prefixed with ‘./’.

Example:

./boot/vmlinuz