Use a tape in Solaris
Generally you don't need to mount a tape. You access it as a device.
tar tvf /dev/rmt/0
will show you the contents of a tarfile on the tape in the first tape drive. If the tape was written in a different format, you will need a different command to read and retrieve the data. It might also be ufsrestore / ufsdump and possibly a compressed tar archive.
1) Rewinding a tape
# mt –f /dev/rmt/0 rewind
2) Display the status of a tape drive
# mt –f /dev/rmt/0 status
It displays information as tape is loaded, offline, total files, blocks etc.
3) Retensioning a tape
# mt –f /dev/rmt/0 retension
Before backing up data on a device, you must understand the tape device-naming schema:
First tape device name: /dev/rmt/0
Second tape device name: /dev/rmt/1
rmt = raw magnetic tape device
You can also add special character letter to specify density using following format
/dev/rmt/ZX
Where
* Z is tape drive number such as 0,1..n
* X can be any one of following (as supported by your device, read the manual of your tape device & controller to see if all of them supported or not):
* l - Low density
* m - Medium density
* h - High density
* u - Ultra density
* c - Compressed density
* n - No rewinding
For example to specify the first, drive with high-density with no rewinding use device /dev/rmt/0hn.
