henderson@hamavnet.com (09/14/90)
Hello, good people, Some time ago someone told me that it was possible to hook up SCSI disk drives to the tape port on a MicroVAX 2000. Has anyone actually done this, successfully? Any information on this subject would be appreciated, either posting here or by email (I would summarize to the net in that case). Thanks, Javier Henderson | henderson@hamavnet.com | These opinions Engineering Services | Ham Packet: N6VBG @ KD7XG-1 | are all mine. Hamilton Avnet | FIDONet: 102/632 |
alan@shodha.enet.dec.com ( Alan's Home for Wayward Notes File.) (09/15/90)
In article <1712.26ef97e1@hamavnet.com>, henderson@hamavnet.com writes: > Hello, good people, > > Some time ago someone told me that it was possible to hook up SCSI disk drives > to the tape port on a MicroVAX 2000. They probably never tried. The real rumor goes something like: The TK50 for the VS2000 is almost a SCSI tape drive. It follows that place the TK50 plugs into must be a SCSI port; right? WRONG. IF the TK50 on the VS2000 is almost a SCSI tape drive, then it was probably sufficient for the port to be almost SCSI also. I wouldn't trust it. And of course any attempts to do so will result in an unsupported configuration. If something breaks it may not be covered by any Field Service contract that you have. > > Has anyone actually done this, successfully? Any information on this subject > would be appreciated, either posting here or by email (I would summarize to the > net in that case). > > Thanks, > > Javier Henderson | henderson@hamavnet.com | These opinions > Engineering Services | Ham Packet: N6VBG @ KD7XG-1 | are all mine. > Hamilton Avnet | FIDONet: 102/632 | -- Alan Rollow alan@nabeth.enet.dec.com
terry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr) (09/17/90)
> In article <1669@shodha.enet.dec.com>, alan@shodha.enet.dec.com ( Alan's Home for Wayward Notes File.) writes... > > I wouldn't trust it. And of course any attempts to do so > will result in an unsupported configuration. If something > breaks it may not be covered by any Field Service contract > that you have. More importantly, where would you find a device driver for the disk? You'll need two, a regular one and one integrated into VMB (which is, of course, in ROM on the 2000) if you want to boot from it. Just because a controller speaks SCSI out the device side doesn't mean it is supported by the DEC generic SCSI support in later VMS V5 releases. The generic SCSI is for supported SCSI interfaces on the newer systems. If you decide to live with the restriction of the disk being a non-system disk and you do write a driver, you'll discover that the protocol is a bit different in the 2000, and you'll need the source to the disk drive's firm- ware and possibly some hardware mods to the drive. All in all, not a pretty sight. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, US terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (201) 915-9381