SUMMARY: Kernel modifications, (ufs)dump options for Sony SDT-1000 DDS

jem@electriciti.com
Fri, 13 Jun 1997 09:45:07 -0700 (PDT)

Hello,

I received one reply (Thanks, Larry Zins! <lzins@sequana.com>).
His suggestion was to use the device /dev/rst8. I implemented
that change. No change. It still only appears to hold about
1.5 - 2.0 Gbytes of information.

So, does anyone else have any additional information or clues of
where I can look or what I can try?

Thanks in advance.

JohnM

## John Mendenhall
## jem@electriciti.com
## Senior Network/Systems Administrator

Original Question:

We have an "old" Sony DDS Tape Drive that we are using for backups.
It is hanging off a SparcStation 2 running SunOS 4.1.4. We currently
use the following (ufs)dump options:

volume size 6932 ft (60 meter tape)
10398 ft (90 meter tape)
13864 ft (120 meter tape)
blocking factor 96
density 108000 bpi

At a previous place of employment, I used an Exabyte 8mm tape drive.
In order to use the compressed mode, I indicated such by using a
different device name (/dev/rst0 vs. /dev/rst16 OR /dev/rst/0 vs.
/dev/rst/0c). There was also a required kernel change to support
this (SunOS 4.1.3_ui).

Does anyone have any information on how we can get the best usage
from this tape device (maximum data on a tape)? Thanks.