Solaris: Configuring a SCSI tape drive on the enterprise server

Not every place running Solaris operating System has the resources to backup the solution, and they don't even need those resources, such as expensive tape-changer, tape library, or Tape Silo. What is usually needed is a backup or ufsdump of the root file system, an important database, or a small development entry code. In these cases, external devices such as SCSI DDS tape drives are usually sufficient.

The following information is useful for configuring external devices on most Sun Enterprise servers with external SCSI connections. This information can be applied to the Solaris 7 OS or newer versions.

Configuring the Solaris operating System for the tape drive

When you add an external SCSI tape drive, you must modify the Solaris OS profile/kernel/drv/st.conf.

As Root comes to the/kernel/drv/directory and establishes a backup of the st.conf file.

# CP st.conf St.conf.bak

Open the file using the editor (such as VI) and navigate to the following line:

# tape-config-list=

If it has not yet uncomment, delete the # to cancel the comment for that line.

The following sections of the file include configuration settings for some of the common tape drives. They appear in three enclosed in quotation marks and comma-separated fields. If you happen to be installing a tape drive in the list, you can scroll to the appropriate line and uncomment it.

For example, if you are installing a WangDAT 3400, this line should look like this:

# "WangDAT Model 3400", "WangDAT 4mm DAT", "WangDAT",

If it has not been uncomment, delete the # and uncomment the line. Also, if this is the last or only tape drive you want to configure, change the comma at the end of the line to a semicolon.

Important: The configuration line (that is, the last non-comment line) of the last tape drive that is enabled must end with a semicolon. Represents the end of the enabled tape drive list. All enabled tape drives that appear before the last enabled tape drive are closed with commas. Otherwise, an error occurs when you perform a reconfiguration reboot.

Scroll to the next section of the file and find a row where the field that precedes the equal sign "=" matches the previous mentioned field in the third quotation mark in the tape drive configuration line. Continue wangdat The example of a tape drive, looking for a line that starts with a wangdat, like this:

#WangDAT = 1,0x2b,0,0x659,1,0x00,0;

Cancels the comment for the line. Note that if there is more than one match, you may need to find the item that produces the best results.

Now save the edited file.

Please note that if the st.conf file does not contain configuration information for the type of tape drive you are installing, you will need to obtain the configuration entry from the manufacturer.