OSF1 configuration of EXB-8505XL tape drives

SCSI addresses

Place the drives at addresses starting with 0 (or the lowest available address). We spent months at E831 tracking down very strange problems when our two drives were at addresses 1 and 2.

/sys/data/cam_data.c

Edit /sys/data/cam_data.c to include Exabyte device, density and mode information. This is not strictly necessary unless you wish to select the density and compression mode when writing tape.

Include this code at the appropriate places in cam_data.c

Rebuild the kernel

Here is the procedure I'm following to rebuild the kernel. You may have your own preferences.

cp /vmunix /usr/products/OSF1/unix/vmunix.19960830
- Saves a copy of the kernel
cp /sys/conf/EA831 /usr/products/OSF1/unix/EA831.19960830
- Saves a copy of the configuration
shutdown -h now
Power cycle the system
- Lets the hardware see any new tapes placed on the bus.
boot -fl s
- Boots to single user mode
bcheckrc
- Does necessary fsck's
doconfig
- Starts the kernel configuration
  - choose 'y' to replace the existing configuration file
  - choose 13 to select all options
mv /sys/EA831/vmunix /vmunix
- Moves the new kernel into place
rm /dev/*mt*
- Removes all existing tape device files
/dev/MAKDEV tz8 tz9
- Makes device files for SCSI 0 and 1 addresses on bus 1
- The tz number for a drive is ( 8*bus + scsi )
shutdown -h now
power cycle the system
boot