spagnolo@ncs.dnd.ca (Joe Spagnolo) (04/12/91)
Is anyone successfully using an Exabyte 8mm tape drive on a Ultrix 4.1 system ? Our MicroVax II crashes when we try to write to the tape. Sometimes the crash occurs immediately but on other occasions the "tar" command runs for one hour before crashing the system. The same Exabyte controller and tape drive functioned properly using Ultrix 3.0. Any infromation would be appreciated. Thanks; Joe Spagnolo spagnolo@crc.sofkin.ca
GEOMAGIC@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu (Daniel OConnell) (04/16/91)
>Is anyone successfully using an Exabyte 8mm tape drive on a >Ultrix 4.1 system ? Our MicroVax II crashes when we try to write >to the tape. Sometimes the crash occurs immediately but on other >occasions the "tar" command runs for one hour before crashing the >system. The same Exabyte controller and tape drive functioned >properly using Ultrix 3.0. Any infromation would be appreciated. >Thanks; >Joe Spagnolo >spagnolo@crc.sofkin.ca Sort of... We have an Exabyte 8200 8mm attached to a CMD 220 controller on a DECsystem 5400 under Ultrix 4.1. Tar works (well, we have had one read error failure), but attempts to read variable record size tapes using dd or a software package all fail. Of course all our attempts to read variable length records on our TK70, Cipher 990, and Exebyte now fail under Ultrix 4.1. The TK70 and Cipher 990 could read variable record size tapes under Ultrix 3.1C (we installed the Exebyte under Ultrix 4.1). The same variable record size tapes can be read from SCSI tapes drives under Ultrix 4.1, but all fail when using our Q-bus controller based tape drives. Have some bugs been introduced in the Ultrix 4.1 tms drivers? The tz drivers appear to work fine. My dream (fantasy) is that someone at DEC would respond to the above question. Dan O'Connell geomagic@geo1s.mps.ohio-state.edu geomagic@kcgl1.eng.ohio-state.edu
ajc@thendara.pa.dec.com (AJ Casamento) (04/18/91)
> My dream/fantasy is that someone from DEC would answer this question.
Well, the best I can tell you is that I'm not aware of a problem for the
Exabyte. We use the Exabyte 8mm drives almost exclusively for backup here in
the design group on DS5000/200 file servers running Ultrix v4.1 and I haven't
heard any complaints. Of course, we're not running off the CMD 220 controller
on a Q-bus either. But, if the bug were in the SCSI driver I would expect it
to fail anyway.
I know that we've had people working with Cipher on a couple of products
in their tape drive line but I'll have to check on which ones.
As for the TK70, I'm afraid that I don't know much about the ST506 type
tape drives, just the SCSI products.
If I could ask you to tell me the Firmware version of your Exabyte 8200
drives, it would be a help. We've spent a lot of time with the Exabyte folks
to make sure there won't be any problems on our SCSI interfaces. I hope that
it will be a simple fix. I'd also appreciate model and firmware variants on
the Cipher product as well.
You might want to suggest to the folks at CMD that they give us a shout
in one of the following modes:
800.678.OPEN
triadd@decwrl.dec.com
415.853.0155 FAX
I've no clue at the moment where the problem actually is. But, we would be
happy to work with CMD to try and figure it out. You can either post your own
respones here or send them to me (or the program) by email.
I hope that this helps.
Thanx,
AJ
**********************************************************************
* AJ Casamento "The question isn't whether or *
* Digital's TRI/ADD Program not the opinions are mine; but *
* 100 Hamilton Ave. UCO1-B rather, which of my personalities *
* Palo Alto, CA 94301-1616 they belong to?" *
* 415.853.6744 *
* ajc@decwrl.dec.com *
**********************************************************************