st(1M)

NAME

st — shared tape administration

SYNOPSIS

st -f device_file [-r] [-s]

DESCRIPTION

The st command provides users with a command-line interface to check the status of a shared tape device or to reclaim a shared tape device from a host system that has failed while holding a reservation on the shared tape device. The st command can also be used for the same purpose on shared library robotic devices. To use the st command you must have root user id.

Please see examples below for usage.

Options

st recognizes the following options and arguments:

-f device_file: Specifies the tape device file or sctl/esctl pass-through device file for the shared tape/library device. This parameter is mandatory and st will report an error if -f device_file is omitted.
-r: Allows the user to reclaim a shared tape device or shared library robotic device in the case where a host failed while holding a reservation on the shared device. This option causes a bus device reset to be issued to the device specified by the -f option.
-s: Prints out the current status of the shared tape/library device specified by the -f option.

RETURN VALUE

st returns 0 upon successful completion and 1 otherwise.

EXAMPLES

st -f /dev/rscsi/st_device -s 

The following shows three examples of output from the above command.

Device is reserved by another host 

The above output indicates that the shared device is reserved by another host and is therefore unavailable at this time.

Device not ready 

The above output indicates that the shared device is not ready for use at this time.

Device is OK and available 

The above output indicates that the shared device is ready for use at this time.

To reclaim a shared tape/library device from a failed host, the following command can be used:

st -f /dev/rscsi/st_device -r 

WARNINGS

The -r option must be used with care. When reclaiming devices, it must be ensured that the host from which the device is being reclaimed has in fact failed, as data may be lost as the result of reclaiming a device that is currently in use by another host.

AUTHOR

st was developed by Hewlett-Packard.

st(1M)

Technical documentation

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