krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (04/06/89)
I've been talking to a Sun user who has an Exabyte tape drive hooked up to his system. He tells me that due to differences in the SCSI controllers and drivers used by the various vendors who offer the drive on Sun systems, tapes written on one system are not necessarily readable on another system. Various things such as maximum blocking factors, short vs. long file marks, etc. have been mentioned on the Sun users mailing list (ie. Sunspots) as causes of incompatible tapes. Has anyone tried swapping tapes with the various Apollo vendors of the Exabyte drive? Will a wbak (or tar) tape written on a drive from Danford be readable on a drive from Workstation Solutions? If anyone who has the Danford drive and would like to try swapping tapes for a test, let me know (I've got a drive from Workstation Solutions which I am about to purchase). -- David Krowitz krowitz@richter.mit.edu (18.83.0.109) krowitz%richter@eddie.mit.edu krowitz%richter@athena.mit.edu krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet (in order of decreasing preference)
weaver@prls.UUCP (Michael Weaver) (04/07/89)
I posted earlier saying that the 8mm drive would support RBAK/WBAK and RWMT. I was told this by an Apollo field engineer. I have now been told by another Apollo employee that this is incorrect, so be warned. I am going to check this carefully. Michael Weaver.
krowitz@RICHTER.MIT.EDU (David Krowitz) (04/07/89)
Sigh ... this is getting to be far too typical of Apollo ... announcing enticing products with brouchures that leave many unanswered questions (shipping date, minimum hardware and software requirements, *recommended* hardware and software requirements, etc.). Then, when I call the sales office or the field service office (depending on whether it's a new product or a change in service), I find that even the sales force and/or the field service managers don't have the information available ... My best information to date is this: The exabyte drive reportedly is supported only by a new magtape library which is different from the current magtape library used by wbak/rbak, rwmt, and tar. Thus, only programs which call the new library (ie. Omniback) can use the exabyte tape drive. I have heard no information about whether or not Apollo is going to update the current magtape utilities to make use of the new library. Would someone in Chelmsford who reads this list *please* forward this message to the appropiate marketing and sales managers and beat them over the head with it? The poor communication within the sales and marketing force, and hence between the sales force and the customers, it what set off all of the flaming about SR10. -- David Krowitz krowitz@richter.mit.edu (18.83.0.109) krowitz%richter@eddie.mit.edu krowitz%richter@athena.mit.edu krowitz%richter.mit.edu@mitvma.bitnet (in order of decreasing preference)