porttiki@cs.Helsinki.FI (Anssi Porttikivi) (05/04/90)
Hi! A week ago I asked here, if anyone knows how to make the IBM external tape streamer faster when used with the IBM Tape Utilities software. Nobody answered. Does anyone know how to contact the Sytron company which makes the software for IBM? -- -- -- Anssi
clarke@acheron.uucp (Ed Clarke/10240000) (05/05/90)
From article <5272@hydra.Helsinki.FI>, by porttiki@cs.Helsinki.FI > A week ago I asked here, if anyone knows how to make the IBM external > tape streamer faster when used with the IBM Tape Utilities software. > Nobody answered. > Does anyone know how to contact the Sytron company which makes the > software for IBM? Ah Ha! You didn't say that you were using DOS under AIX! The SY-TOS utilities were developed for an operating system that does not normally support tape devices (DOS). You can contact Sytron at: Sytron Corporation 135 Maple Street Marlboro, MA 01752 If you're going to back up AIX filesystems, you might do better with the AIX backup or tar commands. I admit that they're not as nice to use as SY-TOS, but they work fairly well if you use a big enough block size. Another method that I've seen is to pipe the tar or backup output through the 'dd' command to the tape drive. 'dd' seems to block things a little better. Perhaps some AIX guru would be kind enough to give an exact sequence of commands for this? -- | 'shasha', the word for 'senile', meant not just old Ed Clarke | and weak-minded, but also implied impotence, incontinence, acheron!clarke | coprophagic habits and a tendency to indulge in a desire | to practice fellatio on dead sheep. Among other things.
jim@applix.UUCP (Jim Morton [ext 237]) (05/07/90)
In article <1990May5.043843.1659@acheron.uucp>, writes: > From article <5272@hydra.Helsinki.FI>, by porttiki@cs.Helsinki.FI > > Does anyone know how to contact the Sytron company which makes the > > software for IBM? > > Ah Ha! You didn't say that you were using DOS under AIX! The > SY-TOS utilities were developed for an operating system that does > not normally support tape devices (DOS). You can contact Sytron at: > > Sytron Corporation 135 Maple Street Marlboro, MA 01752 They moved about a year ago, they're now here in Westboro with us at: Sytron Corp. 117 Flanders Rd. Westboro, MA 01581 (508) 898-0100 By the way, they have native AIX-RT and AIX-PS/2 versions of SY-TOS, I think that's what the original poster was talking about. -- Jim Morton, APPLiX Inc., Westboro, MA ...uunet!applix!jim jim@applix.com
markw@airgun.wg.waii.com (Mark Whetzel) (05/08/90)
In article <5272@hydra.Helsinki.FI>, porttiki@cs.Helsinki.FI (Anssi Porttikivi) writes: > Hi! > > A week ago I asked here, if anyone knows how to make the IBM external > tape streamer faster when used with the IBM Tape Utilities software. > Nobody answered. > > Does anyone know how to contact the Sytron company which makes the > software for IBM? > > -- > -- > -- Anssi I don't know if this the same for the AIX /PS2 folks, but the SY-tos software by sytron for the AIX-RT shows the following addresses: Sytron Corporation 117 Flanders Road P.O. Box 5025 Westboro, MA 01581-5025 U.S.A The preceeding address is from the operations manual. The following address is from the registration card (which we never sent in :-) Sytron Corporation 117 Flanders Road Westboro, MA 01581-9909 U.S.A Their phone number is available for limited support if you have sent in the registration card at: 1-508-898-0100 I have no other information about the product, as we don't use it on the RT's, we just have one copy to be able (if needed) exchanges backup tapes with our PS-DOS based machines running the DOS version of the same product. good luck. -- Mark Whetzel My comments are my own, not my company's. Western Geophysical - A division of Western Atlas International, A Litton/Dresser Company DOMAIN addr: markw@airgun.wg.waii.com UUNET address: uunet!airgun!markw
jw@pan.UUCP (Jamie Watson) (05/08/90)
>If you're going to back up AIX filesystems, you might do better with >the AIX backup or tar commands. >Perhaps some AIX guru would be kind enough to give an exact sequence of >commands for this? You are correct, using 'dd' and a large block size makes writing tapes under AIX reasonably fast. A typical command is: $ tar cf - files | dd obs=512k of=/dev/rmt0 The block size can be a large (or small) as your system memory allows; actually there is only marginal gain above something like 256k. I would absolutely not recommend using the AIX backup commands if there is any chance that you will ever need to read the backup tapes on any non-AIX system. This is yet another example of IBM inventing a "better" solution for something that already has several perfeclty adequate alternatives generally available. jw