Communicator e3000 MPE/iX Release 6.5 (Non-Platform Software Release C.65.00 (30216-90291)

Chapter 4 103
Data Center Management
DLT4000/DLT7000 Differential Tape Support on MPE/IX
DLT4000/DLT7000 Differential Tape Support on MPE/IX
by Larry Nichoalds, CSY Labs
Jim Hawkins, SSD WTEC
Beginning with Release 5.5 Express 7, MPE/iX supports the following stand-alone
Differential DLT Tape drives:
• DLT4000 (C6382A/C6383A) - F/W SCSI interface (not a true F/W device see “Product
Overview”)
• DLT7000 (C6374A/C6375A) - F/W SCSI interface
Software Requirements
Customers wishing to use these new DLT devices must be running on MPE/iX 5.5 or
LATER version of MPE/iX. On MPE/iX 5.5 (Release C.55.00, MPE/iX 31900C.05.07) a
patch provides the critical software device driver enhancements necessary for the support
of these DLTs. Again, these devices are NOT supported on MPE/iX 5.0 (Release C.50.00,
31900B.79.06) and there are no plans to support these devices on 5.0 in the future.
Hardware Requirements
On HP 3000 S900 systems F/W SCSI Device Support is typically provided via the 28696A
NIO F/W SCSI Device Adapter Card. At the time this article was written, there are two
other possible F/W SCSI Device Adapter Cards.
NEITHER of these connection options is actually supported:
Physical connection of these devices is accomplished via “Fast/Wide/Differential SCSI”
Cables such as C2911A, C2924A, C2925A etc.
NOTE While DLT Libraries are available for purchase, support for these devices is
very limited on HP 3000 S900 systems. There are currently no plans for
Unsupported
connection
Option #1
The 9x9KS “Core I/O Card” A3453-69210 exports a F/W SCSI
interface. However, we do NOT, for performance reasons, support or
recommend that a DLT be connected via this interface. The
assumption is that this exported bus will also be shared with the
system’s internal disks and unpredictable and unacceptable
performance may be seen when disks and DLT are accessed
simultaneously (as during
STORE/RESTORE). (Please read additional
information in the Product Overview section for details on device
performance.
Unsupported
connection
Option #2
The HP-HSC F/W DA A2969A is not supported on HP 3000 S900 systems.
This card requires the existence of “Device Adapter Software” that has yet to
be written for MPE/iX.