kevin@msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter) (09/25/89)
Does anyone have the magic numbers for a 6157-002 tape drive? I'm looking for the fun stuff that the backup command needs like tracks, density, etc. I have looked in the AIX doc, which assumes that your tape drive doc provides the info. I have looked in the tape drive doc, which assumes you are running in a DOS environment, and you have software which knows. WHat are the numbers, and where are they documented (where did I fail to look)? -- Kevin Kleinfelter @ Management Science America, Inc (404) 239-2347 gatech!nanovx!msa3b!kevin
jackv@turnkey.gryphon.COM (Jack F. Vogel) (09/27/89)
In article <1132@msa3b.UUCP> kevin@msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter) writes: >Does anyone have the magic numbers for a 6157-002 tape drive? >I'm looking for the fun stuff that the backup command needs like >tracks, density, etc. I have looked in the AIX doc, which assumes that >your tape drive doc provides the info. I have looked in the tape >drive doc, which assumes you are running in a DOS environment, and >you have software which knows. >WHat are the numbers, and where are they documented (where did I fail >to look)? Kevin, the place you want to look I believe (the problem is that I have looked in the docs for the next release and not the AIXPS/2 manual) is the man page for backup itself. The trick is in the way in which the streaming drive writes to tape, it writes in a serpentine fashion on the 9 tracks. Therefore when you specify the length with the -s flag use the tape length multiplied by 9, i.e., 600*9 = 5400. Now on density I am not completely sure, the tapes I have say "12500 ftpi" and I am not sure if that is equivalent to bpi or not but as a test I would suggest setting -d 12500 and see how it works, basically these numbers are used by backup to calculate how much data it can write on a tape and not really anything to do with the hardware, so if you get a reasonable amount on the tape fine; otherwise it will get a hardware error before it finishes. If anyone out there thinks this is a braindead way for software to behave, and why it couldn't just rely on hardware in its operation, I agree wholeheartedly :-}!! Disclaimer: my opinions only! -- Jack F. Vogel jackv@seas.ucla.edu AIX Technical Support - or - Locus Computing Corp. jackv@ifs.umich.edu
kevin@msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter) (09/28/89)
jackv@turnkey.gryphon.COM (Jack F. Vogel) writes: >In article <1132@msa3b.UUCP> kevin@msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter) writes: >>Does anyone have the magic numbers for a 6157-002 tape drive? >>I'm looking for the fun stuff that the backup command needs like >Kevin, the place you want to look I believe (the problem is that I have >looked in the docs for the next release and not the AIXPS/2 manual) is >the man page for backup itself. I am looking forward to AIX 1.2, because its doc MUST be better than 1.1. The backup command page in the manual basically shows the switches and then in italics says stuff like "density" and "length" and never gives the values for IBM's drive. (This sort of thing leads me to believe that IBM needs some sort of Q.A. testing on the AIX doc. Anyone who sits down to use the machine to take a backup is going to wind-up with the same question, unless they just let it use the defaults. My guess is that the defaults are for the older 6157, and not the 6157-002. As an aside, are these drives writing QIC format? SHould I be able to move tapes between my AIX system and my 3B2? -- Kevin Kleinfelter @ Management Science America, Inc (404) 239-2347 gatech!nanovx!msa3b!kevin
smvorkoetter@watmum.waterloo.edu (Stefan M. Vorkoetter) (09/30/89)
In article <1140@msa3b.UUCP> kevin@msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter) writes: >jackv@turnkey.gryphon.COM (Jack F. Vogel) writes: >As an aside, are these drives writing QIC format? SHould I be able >to move tapes between my AIX system and my 3B2? I have not been successful in moving tapes between my 3B2 and PS\2. I believe AT&T uses a format all their own. We do however distribute tapes made on the old 6157 to SUN users, with no problems. Stefan Vorkoetter Technical Manager Waterloo Maple Software
jackv@turnkey.gryphon.COM (Jack F. Vogel) (10/01/89)
In article <1140@msa3b.UUCP> kevin@msa3b.UUCP (Kevin P. Kleinfelter) writes: >(This sort of thing leads me to believe that IBM needs some sort of Q.A. >testing on the AIX doc. There is a certain amount of Q.A. on documentation, mainly in the form of developers receiving and reviewing it, but since that is hardly our job description and because there is such an immense amount of it, some things slip through the cracks. If you feel there is a real error in documentation whether by giving erroneous information or by omission you can call IBM level 1 support and report it. >As an aside, are these drives writing QIC format? SHould I be able >to move tapes between my AIX system and my 3B2? The answer to this is yes, it is standard QIC, I have written tapes on a PS/2 running AIX and read them just fine on turnkey, which is an AT-bus clone running 386/ix. Disclaimer: IMHO only. -- Jack F. Vogel jackv@seas.ucla.edu AIX Technical Support - or - Locus Computing Corp. jackv@ifs.umich.edu