andrason@MAESTRO.MITRE.ORG (Jackie Andrason) (03/15/91)
We would like to purchase an external 8mm tape drive to back up files and directories on our Apollos. In talking with Apollo, I have been told that you can use the 8mm drive with Omniback ONLY. You can not use tar or wbak. Does anyone know any vendors who sell 8mm tape drives that we can use tar or wbak with? Thank you very much. Jackie Andrason The MITRE Corporation McLean, VA e-mail andrason@mitre.org
krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (03/16/91)
Apollo is mis-informed. Again. What they really want to do is to sell you a copy of Omniback in addition to your Exabyte drive. Here's the real scoop. Apollo's earlier tape utilities, including "wbak", "rbak", and "rwmt" access the tape drive directly via calls to either the magtape driver or the cartridge tape driver, depending on whether you use "-dev mt" (the default) or "-dev ct". These calls are made via the unreleased "tfp_$" calls, which then branch out to either the unreleased "mt_$" or the "ct_$" calls. All of these library routines are in /lib/tfp. When Apollo introduced their 8mm Exabyte drive, they wrote a new tape library to support the drive; and they did *not* add support for the drive to the existing "tfp:_$" library. Thus, the older Apollo programs can not access Apollo's 8mm drive. Only programs which use the new tape library can access the drive, and Omniback is the only Apollo utility that I'm aware of which does use the new library. The standard Unix utilities, such as "tar", "dd", "mt" and the like, all access the tape drive via a Unix device file (eg. /dev/rmt0). As of SR10.x, Apollo has supplied device files for SCSI tape drives attached to either the native SCSI port of the DN2500 or the SCSI port of the multi-function WD7000 disk controller used on most DN3500 and DN4500 machines. These device files are /dev/rmts8 and /dev/rmts12 (rewind and no-rewind) for SCSI tape device 0, and /dev/rmts9 and /dev/rmts13 (rewind and no-rewind) for SCSI tape device 1 [note: hardware hackers, feel free to correct me! this explanation is getting long enough to publish as an article -- I'd *hate* to get this wrong in print!!]. These device files invoke the *new* Apollo tape library, and therefore can access the 8mm Exabyte drive in addition to SCSI cartridge tapes and SCSI 9-track tapes. The device files /dev/rmt8 and /dev/rmt12, on the other hand, access the old tape library for 9-track drives; and /dev/rct8 and /dev/rct12 access the old tape library for non-SCSI cartridge tape drives. Now, there *is* a way to use "wbak" and "rbak" with the 8mm Exabyte drive: you use the "wbak -to" and "rbak -from" options to redirect I/O to a file instead of old tape library, and you use either /dev/rmts8 or /dev/rmts12 as the file name. There is a minor drawback to this: the ANSI labeled tape options such as "-fid" (file ID), "-vid" (volume ID), and "-f NN" (write to the NNth file on the tape) won't work -- you can only write an unlabled file to the current position on the tape. So much for HP/Apollo ... There *is* at least one 3rd party vendor that provides a cleaner solution. Workstation Solutions sells the Exabyte drive packaged with a version of the *old* Apollo tape library that supports the 8mm drive, and a utility program that automatically loads this library prior to running "wbak", "rbak", "rwmt", and any other program you like. The library replaces the regular Apollo 9-track tape library and makes the Exabyte drive look like the 9-track tape. Thus any program which uses the "mts_$" and "ios_$" calls to access a 9-track tape will work ... and any program which uses the /dev/rmt8 or /dev/rmt12 device files (which in turn, access the old Apollo tape library) will also work. Either way, your Apollo sales person is mis-informed. Exabyte drives *can* be used on the Apollos under SR10 with DN2500/3500/4500 machines via the SCSI tape device files; or under either SR9.7 or SR10 via either the magtape library calls or the old, non-SCSI, device files with Workstation Solutions' package on DN2500/3500/4500 with SCSI ports, or on DN3000/4000 machines with an AT-BUS SCSI adaptor card. -- David Krowitz krowitz@richter.mit.edu (18.83.0.109) krowitz%richter.mit.edu@eddie.mit.edu krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet (in order of decreasing preference)
bruce@dannet.UUCP (Bruce Hill) (03/16/91)
In article <9103141743.AA14605@maestro.mitre.org>, andrason@MAESTRO.MITRE.ORG (Jackie Andrason) writes: > We would like to purchase an external 8mm tape drive to back up files and > directories on our Apollos. In talking with Apollo, I have been told that > you can use the 8mm drive with Omniback ONLY. You can not use tar or wbak. > Does anyone know any vendors who sell 8mm tape drives that we can use tar > or wbak with? Thank you very much. > > Jackie Andrason Danford sells an Exabyte 8mm drive, SCSI card, and device driver that allows wbak/rbak and tar usage. Contact Danford at (213) 514-9334 for more info. Bruce Hill Product Manager, Danford Corp. 350 W. 5th St. San Pedro, CA 90731 Email: uunet!dannet!bruce
hanche@imf.unit.no (Harald Hanche-Olsen) (03/16/91)
In article <9103151600.AA05184@richter.mit.edu> krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) writes:
The standard Unix utilities, such as "tar", "dd", "mt" and the like, all
access the tape drive via a Unix device file (eg. /dev/rmt0). As of SR10.x,
Apollo has supplied device files for SCSI tape drives attached to either
the native SCSI port of the DN2500 or the SCSI port of the multi-function
WD7000 disk controller used on most DN3500 and DN4500 machines. These device
files are /dev/rmts8 and /dev/rmts12 (rewind and no-rewind) for SCSI tape
device 0, [...] These device files invoke the *new* Apollo tape library, and
therefore can access the 8mm Exabyte drive in addition to SCSI cartridge
tapes and SCSI 9-track tapes.
Except, for some strange reason, Apollo's mt will not work with the
Exabyte. So with the Omniback software, you get a program named
new_mt to use as a replacement. (Maybe there is a patch out for
Apollo's mt that fixes this problem?)
- Harald Hanche-Olsen <hanche@imf.unit.no>
Division of Mathematical Sciences
The Norwegian Institute of Technology
N-7034 Trondheim, NORWAYschmid@obelix.luftfahrt.uni-stuttgart.de (Georg Schmid) (03/19/91)
I really don't know why HP keeps telling that you can't use rbak/ wbak with their 8mm tape drive. We have been using it at SR10.2.p and still at SR10.3.p. As far as we are concerned all options of rbak/wbak seem to work. You just have to specify '-dev m'. Guess they just don't want to support rbak/wbak officially any further. Georg -- _________________________________________________________________ Georg Schmid ISD University of Stuttgart, Germany email: schmid@jellosub.luftfahrt.uni-stuttgart.de (129.69.57.13) _________________________________________________________________ (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they AREN'T after you)