I was asked to get a Dell PowerEdge 2600 server, out of warranty, running SCO 3.2v5.06 to perform a full backup. I spent hours researching and preparing a strategy only to fail on-site.
The only device names in /dev for a tape drive were
/dev/xStp0
/dev/xcdt0
/dev/xct0
There was no /dev/rStp0 as expected for a scsi drive, so I assumed the drive wasn't scsi. I tried all the above device names in all the commands below.
I tried many of the things would find searching online, but none worked. For example, I went into scoadmin to view the tape drive settings to verify kernel knew about it. It came back with only this
ID 0 Dat
I tried mounting the tape device but got errors about cannot access device
I tried writing a single file to tape only to get errors about cannot access device
# cd /tmp
# ls > junk
# find ./junk -print | cpio -ocaB > /dev/xStp0
I tried some tape commands and got same errors about cannot access
# tape reten /dev/xStp0 (or rewind)
# tape status same with # dtype /dev/xStp0
I tried hwconfig -h but didn't see anything that indicated the drive was recognized.
# sdiconfig -l was an unrecognized command
Since the system was in production during normal hours, I could not try mkdev tape, but even if I could, I'm not sure I'd get anywhere.
Since this is a Dell system, I'm wondering if the tape drive was ever configured correctly coming from them. The bundled internal tape drive appears to be a Dell PowerVault 100T Dat72. I determined that by looking at the service tag system configuration (shown here)
1
U1868,
Tape Backup Unit,20GB,Half Height,Internal,DDS4,Seagate V7
and by looking up the PowerEdge 2600's description at
I'm in need of your advice regarding the tape drive.
I'd also like to know the easiest way to get a full backup off of this thing as soon as possible independent of the internal tape drive. For example, it must be running NFS since a user showed me she could access files from Windows. Is there a product that can backup from Windows? Is there a way to backup to USB? The cd drive is not writable. This thing has never been backed up.
I'd try microlite if I was sure that running mkdev tape would get me anywhere, but I'd like to know why the "installed" tape drive isn't working if possible.
Thanks.