Sometimes, for instance after adding a new tape drive to a Solaris server, you need to rescan the SCSI chain to make sure the tape is correctly recognized.
To do this, use the devfsadm command under Solaris 8 and following versions.
For instance, here is this command in action, scanning a machine only for new tape drives:
galactus:/sauvegarde > devfsadm -v -c tape devfsadm[5257]: verbose: removing node /devices/pci@8,700000:devctl. invalid st_rdev devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@8,700000:devctl 0l/3l/20600 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: removing node /devices/pci@8,700000:devctl. invalid st_rdev devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@8,700000:devctl 0l/3l/20600 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: removing node /devices/pci@9,700000:devctl. invalid st_rdev devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000:devctl 0l/3l/20600 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: removing node /devices/pci@9,700000:devctl. invalid st_rdev devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000:devctl 0l/3l/20600 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: removing node /devices/pci@9,600000:devctl. invalid st_rdev devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,600000:devctl 0l/3l/20600 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: removing node /devices/pci@9,600000:devctl. invalid st_rdev devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,600000:devctl 0l/3l/20600 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0: 0l/3l/20666 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: symlink /dev/rmt/2 -> ../../devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0: devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:n 0l/3l/20666 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: symlink /dev/rmt/2n -> ../../devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:n devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:b 0l/3l/20666 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: symlink /dev/rmt/2b -> ../../devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:b devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:bn 0l/3l/20666 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: symlink /dev/rmt/2bn -> ../../devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:bn devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:l 0l/3l/20666 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: symlink /dev/rmt/2l -> ../../devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:l devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:m 0l/3l/20666 devfsadm[5257]: verbose: symlink /dev/rmt/2m -> ../../devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:m devfsadm[5257]: verbose: mknod /devices/pci@9,700000/pci@2/scsi@5/st@4,0:h 0l/3l/20666 [... etc ...]
The easiest way to do this is to use the mt command:
galactus:/sauvegarde > mt -f /dev/rmt/2cn status IBM Ultrium Gen 4 LTO tape drive: sense key(0x0)= No Additional Sense residual= 0 retries= 0 file no= 0 block no= 0 galactus:/sauvegarde > echo $? 0
PLEASE NOTE The following has only been tested on Solaris 8 server. You may need to adapt this for a Solaris 10 machine. You have been warned! Take a look at the reference under the 'See Also' section for more information.