> Error number 16 may indicate the tape is already busy, you havn't got
> TAPEDEV and LTAPEDEV pointing at the same device?

Nope.


> Also check block
> sizes, use dd to write to the tape and specify bs= whatever block size
> you have in your onconfig file.

That works.

informix@moa:~> dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/st0 bs=4096 count=4
4+0 records in
4+0 records out
16384 bytes (16 kB) copied, 11.7499 seconds, 1.4 kB/s


> You don't mention platofrm, o/s or IDS.

Linux 2.6.x, 10UC4

ontape isn't failing with the specific error anymore, now it just says:

informix@moa:~> ontape -s
Please enter the level of archive to be performed (0, 1, or 2) 0
Please mount tape 1 on /dev/st0 and press Return to continue ...
could not write archive tape.
Please mount tape 1 on /dev/st0 and press Return to continue ...

And nothing useful in the log.

I do have a down chunk (but the chunk has a mirror). Does that prevent
ontape from working? (Wouldn't it just backup the mirror?).

> > Doing a simple "ontape -s" and getting the following -
> > "function write to tape failed code -1 errno 16"
> > Anyone know what that means?
> > Permissions are OK, I can tar/untar from the tape device as user
> > informix. Tape drive and tape seem fine.