This blog contains experience gained over the years of implementing (and de-implementing) large scale IT applications/software.

Tag: device

HP MSL 2024 LTO Tape Library on Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.7 (RHEL 5.7)

Whilst working on a HP ProLiant ML370 G6 server running Linux kernel 2.6.18 (Oracle Enterprise Linux 5.7), I was trying to get the O/S to see an HP MSL 2024 LTO-4 tape drive and library.

After a reboot, there was still no sign of the “st” device in /dev:

> ls -l /dev/st[0-9]*

And no SCSI device listed other than the DVDROM:

> cat /proc/scsi/scsi

Attached devices:
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: hp Model: DVDROM DH40N Rev: IS01
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 05

I found the following “page” very helpful:
https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/blockdev/cciss.txt

It mentioned the HP Smart Array driver, also known as cciss.
I checked I had one of these puppies:

> lspci |grep Array
05:00.0 RAID bus controller: Hewlett-Packard Company Smart Array G6 controllers (rev 01)
1b:00.0 RAID bus controller: Hewlett-Packard Company Smart Array G6 controllers (rev 01)

Yep, I had two.
I checked the Kernel module for cciss was loaded:

> lsmod | grep cciss
cciss 125033 3
scsi_mod 199129 12 be2iscsi,ib_iser,iscsi_tcp,bnx2i,libcxgbi,libiscsi2,scsi_transport_iscsi2,sr_mod,sg,libata,cciss,sd_mod

Yep, it was loaded.
Also notice that the scsi_mod has 12 modules referenced.

So my problem was probably like the “page” I pointed out suggested:

“Additionally, note that the driver will not engage the SCSI core at init
time. The driver must be directed to dynamically engage the SCSI core via
the /proc filesystem entry which the “block” side of the driver creates as
/proc/driver/cciss/cciss* at runtime. This is because at driver init time,
the SCSI core may not yet be initialized (because the driver is a block
driver) and attempting to register it with the SCSI core in such a case
would cause a hang. This is best done via an initialization script
(typically in /etc/init.d, but could vary depending on distribution).”

Note the words “dynamically engage”.
They are not written like that for fun. Guess what was required? Yep, I need to engage the SCSI core:

> ls -l /proc/driver/cciss
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 15 14:16 cciss0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Mar 15 14:16 cciss1

> echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss0
> echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss1

Now load the “st” tape module into the Kernel:

> modinfo st
filename: /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.0.0.0.1.el5/kernel/drivers/scsi/st.ko
alias: char-major-9-*
license: GPL
description: SCSI tape (st) driver
author: Kai Makisara
srcversion: AA839FAA66A7758BC7A5C9D
depends: scsi_mod
vermagic: 2.6.18-274.0.0.0.1.el5 SMP mod_unload gcc-4.1
parm: buffer_kbs:Default driver buffer size for fixed block mode (KB; 32) (int)
parm: max_sg_segs:Maximum number of scatter/gather segments to use (256) (int)
parm: try_direct_io:Try direct I/O between user buffer and tape drive (1) (int)
parm: try_rdio:Try direct read i/o when possible (int)
parm: try_wdio:Try direct write i/o when possible (int)
module_sig: 883f3504e2dbc6ac74ff6cf7d76a7e6112d2d09e302b4a8f57e42688cd5258668b7a3044163799609e32cd3dacb7e842b9a84ef2d2032f542f69e866

> insmod /lib/modules/2.6.18-274.0.0.0.1.el5/kernel/drivers/scsi/st.ko

Check that it’s loaded:

> lsmod | grep st
st 72805 0
scsi_mod 199129 13 st,be2iscsi,ib_iser,iscsi_tcp,bnx2i,libcxgbi,libiscsi2,scsi_transport_iscsi2,sr_mod,sg,libata,cciss,sd_mod

You will see on the above output that the scsi_mod now has accessed the “st” module (in the list) and shows 13 (yours maybe different) modules.

Check we have a SCSI device:

> cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: hp Model: DVDROM DH40N Rev: IS01
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi3 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
Vendor: HP Model: Ultrium 4-SCSI Rev: U55W
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi3 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 01
Vendor: HP Model: MSL G3 Series Rev: 5.50
Type: Medium Changer ANSI SCSI revision: 05

Bingo!

We can confirm what DMESG sees:

> dmesg | tail
scsi2 : cciss
scsi3 : cciss
Vendor: HP Model: Ultrium 4-SCSI Rev: U55W
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
st 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi tape st0
st0: try direct i/o: yes (alignment 512 B)
st 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 1
Vendor: HP Model: MSL G3 Series Rev: 5.50
Type: Medium Changer ANSI SCSI revision: 05
scsi 3:0:0:1: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 8
st0: Block limits 1 - 16777215 bytes.

And there at the end is the confirmation that we should now have a /dev/st0 device:

> ls -l /dev/st0
crw-rw---- 1 root disk 9, 0 Mar 15 12:50 /dev/st0

With a tape confirmed as in the tape drive (through the web based HP MSL tape library web GUI), we can do a basic backup using TAR:

> echo "Hello Darryl" > /tmp/dmg.txt
> tar -cvf /dev/st0 /tmp/dmg.txt

Or to not rewind the tape after, we could use nst0:

> tar -cvf /dev/nst0 /tmp/dmg.txt

Then read the file back from the tape device:

> rm /tmp/dmg.txt
> tar -tvf /dev/st0
-rw-r--r-- root/root 13 2013-03-15 14:54:20 tmp/dmg.txt

> tar -xvf /dev/st0 tmp/dmg.txt