mtx - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

mtx - control SCSI media changer devices

SYNOPSIS

mtx [-f <scsi-generic-device>] [nobarcode] [invert] [noattach] command [ command ... ]

DESCRIPTION

The mtx command controls single or multi-drive SCSI media changers such as tape changers,
autoloaders, tape libraries, or optical media jukeboxes. It can also be used with media
changers that use the 'ATTACHED' API, presuming that they properly report the MChanger bit
as required by the SCSI T-10 SMC specification.

OPTIONS

The first argument, given following -f , is the SCSI generic device corresponding to your
media changer. Consult your operating system's documentation for more information (for
example, under Linux these are generally /dev/sg0 through /dev/sg15, under FreeBSD these
are /dev/pass0 through /dev/passX, under SunOS it may be a file under /dev/rdsk).

The 'invert' option will invert (flip) the media (for optical jukeboxes that allow such)
before inserting it into the drive or returning it to the storage slot.

The 'noattach' option forces the regular media changer API even if the media changer
incorrectly reported that it uses the 'ATTACHED' API.

The 'nobarcode' option forces the loader to not request barcodes even if the loader is
capable of reporting them.

Following these options there may follow one or more robotics control commands. Note that
the 'invert' and 'noattach' options apply to ALL of robotics control commands.

COMMANDS

--version Report the mtx version number (e.g. mtx 1.2.8) and exit.

inquiry Report the product type (Medium Changer, Tape Drive, etc.), Vendor ID, Product
ID, Revision, and whether this uses the Attached Changer API (some tape drives
use this rather than reporting a Medium Changer on a separate LUN or SCSI
address).

noattach Make further commands use the regular media changer API rather than the
_ATTACHED API, no matter what the "Attached" bit said in the Inquiry info.
Needed with some brain-dead changers that report Attached bit but don't respond
to _ATTACHED API.

inventory Makes the robot arm go and check what elements are in the slots. This is needed
for a few libraries like the Breece Hill ones that do not automatically check
the tape inventory at system startup.

status Reports how many drives and storage elements are contained in the device. For
each drive, reports whether it has media loaded in it, and if so, from which
storage slot the media originated. For each storage slot, reports whether it is
empty or full, and if the media changer has a bar code, MIC reader, or some
other way of uniquely identifying media without loading it into a drive, this
reports the volume tag and/or alternate volume tag for each piece of media. For
historical reasons drives are numbered from 0 and storage slots are numbered
from 1.

load <slotnum> [ <drivenum> ]
Load media from slot <slotnum> into drive <drivenum>. Drive 0 is assumed if the
drive number is omitted.

unload [<slotnum>] [ <drivenum> ]
Unloads media from drive <drivenum> into slot <slotnum>. If <drivenum> is
omitted, defaults to drive 0 (as do all commands). If <slotnum> is omitted,
defaults to the slot that the drive was loaded from. Note that there's currently
no way to say 'unload drive 1's media to the slot it came from', other than to
explicitly use that slot number as the destination.

[eepos <operation>] transfer <slotnum> <slotnum>
Transfers media from one slot to another, assuming that your mechanism is
capable of doing so. Usually used to move media to/from an import/export port.
'eepos' is used to extend/retract the import/export tray on certain mid-range to
high end tape libraries (if, e.g., the tray was slot 32, you might say say
'eepos 1 transfer 32 32' to extend the tray). Valid values for eepos
<operation> are 0 (do nothing to the import/export tray), 1, and 2 (what 1 and 2
do varies depending upon the library, consult your library's SCSI-level
documentation).

[eepos <operation>] [invert] [invert2] exchange <slotnum> <slotnum> [<slotnum>]
Move medium from the first slot to the second slot, placing the medium currently
in the second slot either back into the first slot or into the optional third
slot.

first [<drivenum>]
Loads drive <drivenum> from the first slot in the media changer. Unloads the
drive if there is already media in it (note: you may need to eject the tape
using your OS's tape control commands first). Note that this command may not be
what you want on large tape libraries -- e.g. on Exabyte 220, the first slot is
usually a cleaning tape. If <drivenum> is omitted, defaults to first drive.

last [<drivenum>]
Loads drive <drivenum> from the last slot in the media changer. Unloads the
drive if there is already a tape in it. (Note: you may need to eject the tape
using your OS's tape control commands first).

next [<drivenum>]
Unloads the drive and loads the next tape in sequence. If the drive was empty,
loads the first tape into the drive.

position <slotnum>
Positions the robot at a specific slot. Needed by some changers to move to and
open the import/export, or mailbox, slot.

AUTHORS

The original 'mtx' program was written by Leonard Zubkoff and extensively revised for
large multi-drive libraries with bar code readers by Eric Lee Green <[email protected]>. See
'mtx.c' for other contributors.

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