Tech Note 009
Title: Slow transfer rates using AIT3 on Solaris
Updated: May 2005
 

This problem is caused by having an incorrect configuration table for third party tape devices.

The st tape driver has a built-in configuration table for all Sun supported tape drives. To support the addition of third party tape devices or to override a built-in configuration, device information can be supplied in st.conf as global properties that apply to each node, or as properties that are applicable to one node only.

The st driver looks for the property called "tape-config-list." The value of this property is a list of triplets, where each triplet consists of three strings.

To set the configuration table for AIT-3 device in Solaris:

1. Using an appropriate text editor (like vi) edit the file
    /kernel/drv/st.conf
It is important to use the exact spelling, case and punctuation when entering the information in to the st.conf file. It may be useful for the user to read the man pages on st prior to editing any files.
Add the following in st.conf:

    tape-config-list=
    "SONY SDX-700C", "SONY AIT3 8mm", "SONY_AIT3";
    SONY_AIT3 = 1,0x36,0,0xd679,4,0x00,0x00,0x00,0x00,0;

2. After editing and saving the new st.conf file, shut down the system and reboot with the following command.
   >boot -rv

The switch -r forces the compiling of the kernel and switch -v is verbose. As the system boots , it will recompile the kernel and recreate the special files in /dev to communicate with the tape drive. Switch v causes the scsi targets to be displayed during the boot. It will display whatever value is entered in the second string of the associated tape-config-list entry defined in step1.

 

 ==END==

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