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Date:      Thu, 2 May 1996 13:45:37 -0700 (MST)
From:      Don Yuniskis <dgy@rtd.com>
To:        wilko@yedi.iaf.nl (Wilko Bulte)
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freefall.FreeBSD.org (FreeBSD hackers)
Subject:   Re: using DLT drive on FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <199605022045.NAA29327@seagull.rtd.com>
In-Reply-To: <199605021801.UAA01622@yedi.iaf.nl> from "Wilko Bulte" at May 2, 96 08:01:19 pm

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> Hi there
> 
> I 'found' myself a DEC TZ87 DLT drive destined for the scrapyard. This

Hold onto it... I think the 2000 series is being discontinued...

> is a 10/20Gb device (the 20Gb is using the optimistic 2:1 compression).
> Quantum calls this a DLT2000. Apart from solving my backup needs for
> the foreseeable future :-) I also have a few questions:

Don't count on it!  My 2500xt (15/30G) is already starting to max out
when doing level 0 dumps.... :>  Plus, the tapes are quite expensive
and DON'T EVER DROP ONE!
 
> First of all, the drive works just fine on my Asus P90/NCR810
> The main problem is that I cannot set the buffersize used by 'dump'
> to a high enough value to keep the tape streaming. These puppies need
> 1.3 - 2.5 Mbyte/second to keep streaming OK. The actual required rate is
> dependent on how good the data compresses. An experiment @ work with a
> Sun Sparc20 revealed a 1.9Mbyte/second transferrate while dumping the
> /usr Solaris filesystem. Side note: I had to put the drive on a seperate
> SCSIbus/adapter to make this work.

I wouldn't even try to keep them streaming -- unless you've got a really
fast disk subsystem *and* the DLT on a separate (FAST) SCSI adapter
with nice short cables...

> I think the 2.1R limit is 32kbytes. In the recent past there was a
> discussion about this on this list (in relation to DAT drives??). Didn't
> pay too much attention at the time because I did not have the drive then.
> Is there any way to increase this value (seem to remember there was not.?)
> 
> It is of course also possible that the HD & tape being on the same NCR810
> are hurting the streaming operation.

Unfortunately, the you can't just issue a COPY command to the drive and
give it the DLT as the destination!!!  :>
 
> NB looks like I also have to hack a bit into 'mt' to allow the density/
> compression settings to work. WIll dig up the device spec to see what
> that has to say
> 
> Comments?

Look at amanda, too.

--don



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