Question : Problem: How do I write data to a tape in the changer?

Good afternoon,

So we have just bought a Overland ArcVault 24 with 2 Half Height (HH) drives in it (LTO4).  I have read a lot of documents and they all said that I should be able to tar a folder and write it to the tape in the library.  I want to test about this functionality before I move on to configuring our enterprise backup software.  

Here is my cat of /proc/scsi/scsi:

 cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 02 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: DELL     Model: PERC 5/i         Rev: 1.03
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi0 Channel: 02 Id: 01 Lun: 00
  Vendor: DELL     Model: PERC 5/i         Rev: 1.03
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: HP       Model: Ultrium 4-SCSI   Rev: U24H
  Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi2 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 01
  Vendor: OVERLAND Model: NEO Series       Rev: 0510
  Type:   Medium Changer                   ANSI SCSI revision: 05

I know that I can at least see the changer and drive(s).  I can also run "mtx -f /dev/changer status" and get good values.  I can run "mtx -f /dev/changer load 3" to load the tape in the third slot to the drive...no problem there.  So the HP Sc44Ge HBA card is working fine that is talking to the OS and library.  If I do "ll /dev/st0", I definitely see that device as I got this from "dmesg | grep st0".  The problem comes in when I try and run " tar cv -b 512 -f /dev/nst0 etc.tgz /etc" like it states in this article on the Overland site:

http://support.overlandstorage.com/jive/entry.jspa?externalID=6843&categoryID=322

At the end of the tar process I get "tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors" but there is nothing in /var/log/messages.

I also updated the mptlinux driver to the latest and greatest...doesn't seem to have fixed it.  I have been in talks with Overland for the past few days.  Please let me know if anyone can help me.

Thank you

Answer : Problem: How do I write data to a tape in the changer?

You don't need to erase LTO tapes to use them.

Try writing a large file to the drive and see if that works - I suspect it's bombing out because of the 'etc.tgz' error.