Tape Drive ST and MT utilities

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I have a RHEL server I use for NetBackup 7.6. I ran a minimal install of RHEL 6.5 and installed NetBackup. This all works fine.

I'm now in a situation where I need to pull data from tapes with origin outside of NetBackup - created using tar and mt.

In order get the data off the tapes, I am going to need the "mt" (magnetic tape) utility.

I found that the "st" utility was already installed on the machine. I don't know whether that happened during the core install or whether the NetBackup install installed "st", either generic or it's own customized version.

Searching the RHEL yum repository, I found "mt-st.x86_64":

[root@lac-back1 ~]# yum search mt tool tape drive

rhel-6-server-rpms | 3.5 kB 00:00

N/S Matched: mt, tool, tape, drive

mt-st.x86_64 : Tool for controlling tape drives

I'm inclined to install this package, but am concerned that ...

(1) the "st" in the package - I'm guessing the "st" in package name implies "st" gets installed - might somehow screw up my existing (and functional) NetBackup installation; and

(2) if things did go south, and I ended up having to remove the "mt-st.x86_64" package, that "yum remove" would remove the "st" package (orginal and new) altogether, and I would be without a functioning NetBackup installation.

In this situation, would it be safe to yum install the "mt-st.x86_64" package?

Anything else helpful I should know.

Responses

Hi Tom,

st indicates that your tape device is a SCSI device and it will work on any tape that the device is capable of processing.

regards, Siem

As Siem Korteweg said, the "mt-st" package name means it contains a "mt" utility for Linux "st" (SCSI Tape) driver. It does not contain a tool named "st".

You can confirm this yourself by selecting "Downloads" at the very top of this page, and then "RPM Package Search" under "Software Components" near the middle of the right edge of the next page. Then search for the "mt-st" package, choose a version appropriate for your RHEL release. You'll get a page that is specific to that package version. Select "File List" on the Details tab on that page, and you'll see exactly what files are contained within the package, without installing or even downloading it.

As far as I know, "st" does not seem like a standard NetBackup component name. And NetBackup installs its binaries in /usr/openv/bin and /usr/openv/netbackup/bin, while the mt-st RPM installs its binaries to /bin and /sbin.

You might want to run "which st" to see where your "st" utility is actually located, and "rpm -qf /path/of/st" to see if it came from a RPM package.

If the first command says that "st" command does not exist in your $PATH directories, did you perhaps test for the existence of st utility by typing "man st"? If you did, you got the st(4) man page. The number (4) indicates the man page belongs to manual section 4, which describes devices and other special files, and programmatic interfaces that can be used with them. It refers to the "st.ko" kernel module and its associated /dev/st* devices.

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