/dev/rmt0 Device busy

If you are an Administrator and especially a backup administrator there is a very high chance that you get stuck with this error message with your backup.

If you do a

# mt -f /dev/rmt0n status

(infact any option with the mt or related command)

and end up with the error

/dev/rmt0n: Device Busy

then the most probable problem could be your Tape drive is still being used by the backup program or some related process.

The first thing to check would which process has locked your Tape drive. This can be done using the fuser utility.

# fuser -u /dev/rmt/0n

This will output the process ID that is actually holding the /dev/rmt0n device. The fuser can also be used against files.

Now, use

# ps -ef | grep

This will show the process. Now, kill the process using

# kill

If this fails, then use

# kill -9

if still fails, use

#pkill -9

That should do. You can check the status by using

# mt -f /dev/rmt0n status

Posted by Kumaran at 00:34

Labels: Solaris backup rmt device busy mt status fuser