C.2 Product Notes for Sun
This section describes how to include the TLZ09 DAT tape drive or TLZ9L
autoloader in a Sun SPARC system running Solaris 2.3 (or later) or SunOS
4.1.x. The information covers configuration of the host system to communicate
with the tape drive.
C.2.1 General Information
NOTE
This tape drive supports a variable block size and a small number
of fixed block sizes. Maximum performance is obtained by using the
variable block size mode whenever possible. Selecting this mode is
based on two variables in the configuration file (st_conf.c and st.conf) -
"block size", which should be set to 0, and the "ST_VARIABLE" switch
which must be OR’d with the other switches. Depending on your
version of the Solaris operating system, you may not be able to use the
variable block size mode.
If your operating system version is:
•
SunOS 4.1.x or Solaris 2.3, set the block size in the tape
configuration file to 8192.
•
Solaris 2.4 or 2.5, set the block size in the tape configuration file to
0.
These recommendations are for use with system utilities. For third
party software, follow the recommendations of the manufacturer. Use
the following steps to implement this information.
You must rebuild your kernel, with the parameters given, to ensure that your
device functions properly.
When using the dump utility under SunOS 4.1.x, you must supply the correct
"d bpi" (density code) and "s size" tape length for dump to calculate the correct
number of tapes required. The "b factor" (blocking factor) is of less importance,
and we recommend a value of 128 for that parameter.
Compression can be enabled/disabled at any time by selecting the appropriate
device file. See the following sections on "st_conf.c" and "st.conf" for details on
how we configure density codes.
Product Notes for Non-Digital Platforms C–3
