brian@cimage.com (Brian Kelley/1000000) (08/29/90)
Has anyone tried to plug a non-IBM supplied Exabyte into an RS/6000? Should this work? Is there anything special about IBM's Exabytes? Thanks for any information, Brian --- Brian Kelley "I have safely used numerous kinds of fireworks brian@cimage.com in my bathroom by throwing them into the toilet." - Greg Ebert (grege@gold.gvg.tek.com) in rec.pyrotechnics
abe@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Vic Abell) (08/29/90)
In article <1990Aug28.175456.24603@cimage.com>, brian@cimage.com (Brian Kelley/1000000) writes: > > Has anyone tried to plug a non-IBM supplied Exabyte into an RS/6000? > Should this work? Is there anything special about IBM's Exabytes? A recent posting (From someone at IBM, I believe) reported that the IBM 8mm tape drive, while manufactured by Exabyte, has a special PROM.
cmaae30@uk.ac.ic.cc (Thomas Sippel - Dau) (09/12/90)
In <1990Aug28.175456.24603@cimage.com> Brian Kelly writes: > Has anyone tried to plug a non-IBM supplied Exabyte into an RS/6000? > Should this work? Is there anything special about IBM's Exabytes? I did, and found the following: On startup the RISC/6000 checks at each scsi address what devices are available, and when it finds one, it sends an enquiry command to find out what it is. Good scsi devices will reply with a specific string, which the RISC/6000 compares with the strings it has in the Object Data Base. If it finds the string, it will configure it according to the other attributes stored in the database for a device returning this string, if it does not recognise the string, it will classify the device correctly as an 8 mm 2.2 gigabyte tape drive, but not configure it, since it has no knowledge about the other attributes of this device. You must therefore define the other attributes and add them to the object database before your RISC System 6000 will make the device available to you. The trouble is: The documentation about odme, omadd & friends tells you all about how to create your own object data base, and how to generate attribute definitions, and other things you may never have dreamt of, for your object data base, but it does not tell you which attributes are used in the Object Data Base and what significance they have. This, of course, is done so that your RISC System 6000 does not use devices in an inappropriate way, and if you remember that you entrust the backup of your valuable data to these tapes, then you will certainly agree that only the correct use of tape drives will result in a reliable backup system. Many people just don't realize that only the best quality software and hardware will do for IBM customers (quoth my IBM system engineer). I will post a suitable description file once I have found the exact parameters - I will have to do similar over the next few weeks. Thomas *** This is the operative statement, all previous statements are inoperative. * email: cmaae47 @ uk.ac.ic.cc.suna (Thomas Sippel - Dau) * voice: +44 71 589 5111 x4937 or 4934 * snail: Program Advisory, Imperial College Computer Centre, * Exhibition Road, Kensington SW7 2BX, Great Britain
jerry@heyman.austin.ibm.com (Jerrold Heyman) (09/13/90)
In article <1990Sep12.192939.5099@cc.ic.ac.uk> cmaae30@uk.ac.ic.cc (Thomas Sippel - Dau) writes: >In <1990Aug28.175456.24603@cimage.com> Brian Kelly writes: >> Has anyone tried to plug a non-IBM supplied Exabyte into an RS/6000? >> Should this work? Is there anything special about IBM's Exabytes? [... description about what happens when a S/6000 is powered up ...] > >You must therefore define the other attributes and add them to the object >database before your RISC System 6000 will make the device available to you. >The trouble is: The documentation about odme, omadd & friends tells you all >about how to create your own object data base, and how to generate attribute >definitions, and other things you may never have dreamt of, for your object >data base, but it does not tell you which attributes are used in the >Object Data Base and what significance they have. > To determine what the attributes are that are used for the devices, you will find two object databases in /etc/objrepos that should be perused. These databases are PdAt (for Predefined Attributes) and CuAt (for Customized Attributes), to peruse them use the 'odmget' command. 'odmget' outputs to standard out the contents of ANY odm database in a stanza like format. This will show you what various attributes are, and what the current values are for them. As for what would be necessary to make the requested tape drive work, thats an area I know nothing about. I've never written a device driver for any Un*x based system - nor do I know what is required to write one for AIX. But the information that is necessary for configuration manager can be accessed. [... description of why tape drives work as they do ...] >I will post a suitable description file once I have found the exact >parameters - I will have to do similar over the next few weeks. > > Thomas jerry heyman -- Jerry Heyman IBM T-R: jerry@heyman.austin.ibm.com AWD Tools Development VNET : HEYMAN at AUSVMQ AWD Austin T/L : 793-3962 *** All opinions expressed are exactly that - my opinions and NOT IBM's