Configuring HP-UX For Peripherals

184 Chapter7
Configuring Tape Drives
Selecting Device Drivers for a Tape Device and Interface
Selecting Device Drivers for a Tape Device
and Interface
The following sections will help you identify the device drivers needed to
configure a tape drive. Choose the drivers based on the interface to which
the tape drive is being connected.
SCSI Tape Drive Configuration Guidelines
Each single-ended SCSI interface card has a maximum of eight SCSI
addresses, ranging in order of decreasing priority from 7 to 0, with SCSI
address 7 reserved for the host adapter card. Use 0, the lowest priority
address available, for low-performance tape-drive configuration.
High-performance tape drives will need a higher priority.
When using an STK 3480 tape drive, connect the device to its own
external SCSI host adapter in the SPU to prevent the possibility of data
corruption if the bus glitches when the tape drive is powered down.
Follow manufacturer's recommendations in hardware manuals.
3480 devices are supportedas "reference" devices on HP-UX; that is, they
are supported to a limited degree. A third-party application is needed to
read/write IBM-compatible tapes on HP-UX systems. (See mt (7)) in the
HP-UX Reference for additional limitations.)
Where possible, connect the 7980S/SX and C2463F/R tape devices to
their own external SCSI bus, to prevent possible data corruption from
controller glitches.
NOTE By default, insf creates device special files that write tapes with data
compression enabled if the tape drive doing the writing supports data
compression. If you have to write a tape on a tape drive that supports
data compression, but you need to read it on a tape drive that does not
support data compression, you must create the tape using a device
special file with data compression disabled, using mksf. See “Creating
Customized Device Special Files for Tape Devices”, later in this chapter,
for an example.
Table 7-1, “SCSI Tape Drive Configuration Requirements,” shows the