Tape is not seen in /dev in MAC OS 10.4.3

J

jhidayat

Registered
Hi,

I connected the tape device from my storage hardware using the ATTO iSCSI initiator. It added the tape devices fine, but when I try to see it from the /dev, they don't have anything like st0 or mt or rmt. Do any of you know how to make the tape visible on the /dev? Let me know, I really appreciate it.
 
jhidayat said:
Hi,

I connected the tape device from my storage hardware using the ATTO iSCSI initiator. It added the tape devices fine, but when I try to see it from the /dev, they don't have anything like st0 or mt or rmt. Do any of you know how to make the tape visible on the /dev? Let me know, I really appreciate it.
Click to expand...

OS X Server and OS X have little support for tape devices at all. As a matter of fact, I've never seen support for tape devices as regular drive devices on Mac OS since an OS 9 hack called Desktape, about ten years ago. It certainly sounds like your a linux admin, so you'll know that linux includes S.M.A.R.T for tape devices, whereas OS X doesn't, so I'm not surprised that iSCSI devices don't show up either in /dev. It's most likely handled internally within the Atto driver. Gratitude to Atto....

Good luck....if you need anything, drop me a line....
 
Overall, you are pretty much at the run of your backup software for controlling your tape devices, as OS X doesn't include device drivers, as the last poster mentioned.

Out of curiosity, what software do you intend on using?
 
Go3iverson said:
Overall, you are pretty much at the run of your backup software for controlling your tape devices, as OS X doesn't include device drivers, as the last poster mentioned.

Out of curiosity, what software do you intend on using?
Click to expand...

Since he's try to access the tape as a regular device, I would assume that he would try to use a regular command-line tools like ditto, cp, etc. with the drive as if it were a fixed disk. Even Amanda, which can be compiled and cajoled to run under OS X, won't work with tape devices under OS X, so maybe that's what he's trying to use..., Mr. Previous Poster.....going to MacWorld?
 
My situation right now is...

I am able to work witht the virtual tape (through iSCSI) using ISV (backup software) like Retrospect 6.1 (which I like the most). What I am trying to do now is to find out if the tape can be recognzied in the /dev so that I can write the tar ball using 'tar' command from the mac OS command line.

BTW, I found this link:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=130199&tstart=0
It shows that this person had the same problem like me, if any of you find the solutions for this. Please help. Thank you.
 
jhidayat said:
My situation right now is...

I am able to work witht the virtual tape (through iSCSI) using ISV (backup software) like Retrospect 6.1 (which I like the most). What I am trying to do now is to find out if the tape can be recognzied in the /dev so that I can write the tar ball using 'tar' command from the mac OS command line.

BTW, I found this link:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=130199&tstart=0
It shows that this person had the same problem like me, if any of you find the solutions for this. Please help. Thank you.
Click to expand...

You'd need a kernel extension or some other low-level support to get the tape drive from an iSCSI connection to /dev. Have you ever used BRU from the Tolis Group?
 
I have never used that, but I have successfully worked with NetVault and Retrospect. Is BRU working from the command line? I installed one on one of our server but just never had a chance to use that.
 
jhidayat said:
I have never used that, but I have successfully worked with NetVault and Retrospect. Is BRU working from the command line? I installed one on one of our server but just never had a chance to use that.
Click to expand...

BRU has command line tools and so does Netvault.
 
BRU, NetVault and Time Navigator all have feature rich command line tools available. Retrospect is limited to the GUI provided. On the other hand, BRU has a limited GUI.

Its really a matter of cost, features and scalability. I wouldn't use Retrospect in anything much larger than workgroup. BRU scales pretty well and is in the lower price range, but then doesn't have many features beyond backup itself.

If you just want command line tape control, you should probably just download the demo of BRU again (if yours expired) and work with it in that manner. If you want something that can handle multiple data pools and the works, you'll probably want to look elsewhere.

No, no MacWorld for me.
 
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