info-vax@ucbvax.ARPA (06/02/85)
From: Kevin Carosso <engvax!KVC@cit-vax> The problem with backup across the network is NOT one of simple inconsistency in the functionality of DECnet or of BACKUP. The problem is that BACKUP needs to have the tape drive mounted and ready to use before it issues I/O requests to the drive. Thus, it is not a simple matter of telling BACKUP that the output device is NODE::TAPEDRIVE:. One possible solution to this is to create a simple network task that accepts a connection, allocates and mounts the desired tape drive, and then moves data from SYS$NET to the drive. Meanwhile, on the remote system BACKUP is writing it's save-set to it's network connection. You may have to use CONVERT to read the SYS$NET and write to the tape drive, since COPY may have buffer-size problems. Please note that I have NOT tried to do this, I haven't had any need to. It was proposed at a DECUS VAX Magic Session a few DECUS' ago. /Kevin Carosso engvax!kvc @ CIT-VAX.ARPA Hughes Aircraft Co.