Test the Tape Drive Device With Btape Utility

Warning

Once the drive device(s) and the Autochanger device have been created in the SD, STOP HERE. Each tape drive in the library must be tested with the btape utility by following the instructions in the box below before moving on to the rest of this document.

The goal is first to check the correct link between the tape Autochanger and btape which uses your bacula-sd.conf to test your Autochanger.

To run btape, please follow this procedure:

Load a tape in the drive you want to test. The following “mtx” command will load a tape from slot 1 into drive 0:

# mtx -f /dev/tape/by-id/dev/tape/by-id/scsi-SSTK_L700_XYZZY_A load 1 0

Important

Be sure to load an empty tape or one you can erase because all data will be lost on this tape during the test.

Type the following command to start btape, then type “test” at the “*” prompt:

# /opt/bacula/bin/btape QuantumLib1_Drv0

Tape block granularity is 1024 bytes.

19-Apr 09:41 btape JobId 0: Loaded plugin: dedup-sd.so

btape: butil.c:295-0 Using device: "QuantumLib1_Drv0" for writing.

btape: btape.c:472-0 open device "QuantumLib1_Drv0"

(/dev/tape/by-id/scsi-350223344ab000100-nst): OK   <- This is good, btape can connect to the tape drive

*test   <- Type test and hit enter to begin the tests

=== Write, rewind, and re-read test ===

I'm going to write 10000 records and an EOF
then write 10000 records and an EOF, then rewind,
and re-read the data to verify that it is correct.

This is an *essential* feature ...

[…] Long list of output snipped here […]

Each of these tests must succeed before going forward Type “quit” to return the the shell prompt If the library contains more than 1 drive, repeat these btape steps on each drive. Once all drives have been tested with btape, continue with the rest of this document.

More detailed information about testing your tape drives to obtain best performance may be found in the btape chapter and in the Testing Your Tape Drive with Bacula.