I have just installed a WORM drive (Ultrium LTO8HH) into one of our servers and have previously only used RW media with it via LTFS. So for example, to access and use a RW tape, I would simply call:
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/usr/local/bin/mkltfs -d /dev/st0
/usr/local/bin/ltfs /mnt/tape -o devname=/dev/st0
Please note, due to the required capacity for storage, I am using LTO7 WORM tapes but in an LTO8 drive (so that we can expand into the future without needing to buy a new tape drive in X months' time) and according to the compatibility datasheet https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgece ... udrca.html, the LTO 7 WORM tapes are compatible with the LTO8 drive.
Okay so if I insert an LTO7 WORM tape into the drive and then issue the command:
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/usr/local/bin/mkltfs -d /dev/st0
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LTFS15000I Starting mkltfs, QUANTUMLTFS Standalone version 2.2.2, log level 2
LTFS15042I This binary is built for Linux (x86_64)
LTFS17087I Kernel version: Linux version 3.10.0-693.11.1.el7.x86_64 (builder@kbuilder.dev.centos.org) (gcc version 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-16) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Mon Dec 4 23:52:40 UTC 2017 i386
LTFS17089I Distribution: CentOS Linux release 7.4.1708 (Core)
LTFS15003I Formatting device '/dev/st0'
LTFS15004I LTFS volume blocksize: 524288
LTFS15005I Index partition placement policy: None
LTFS17085I Plugin: Loading "ltotape" driver
LTFS20013I Drive type is IBM ULTRIUM-HH8, serial number is xxxxxxxxxx, firmware revision is H9E3
LTFS17160I Maximum device block size is 1048576
LTFS20062E Unsupported cartridge type (LTO7WORM)
LTFS11299E Cannot format: unsupported medium
LTFS15023I Formatting failed
Okay so that (to me at least) says that in order to use a WORM tape, I should use something other than LTFS. It just doesn't specify what. I have googled the heck out of this and had no joy at all so I am reaching out to the community for some help as I guess there will be someone out there who has used a WORM tape on a Centos box - surely I am not the first person on the planet to have done so.Q: Can I Use WORM Media with Quantum LTFS?
A : No, WORM Media cannot be partitioned and so is not usable with Quantum LTFS.
Thank you for reading and I look forward to any suggestions, advice, ideas etc!