HPlogo Communicator 3000 MPE/iX Release 6.5 (Non-Platform Software Release C.65.00) > Chapter 4 Data Center Management

Announcing DLT8000 Differential Tape Support on MPE/iX

MPE documents

Complete PDF
Table of Contents
Index

By Tina Wang, CSY Labs and
Dave Black, MPE/iX Expert Center

MPE/iX now supports the following Differential DLT Tape drive (this is in addition to the previously announced DLT4000 and DLT7000):

DLT8000 (C6378A) F/W SCSI interfaceStand-Alone
DLT8000 (C6379A) F/W SCSI interfaceRack-Mount

Software Requirements

Customers wishing to use this new DLT device must be running on either MPE/iX 5.5 or 6.0 (and later releases):

  • On 5.5 (Release C.55.00, MPE/iX 31900C.05.08, with patch MPEKXU0)

  • On 6.0 (Release C.16.01, MPE/iX 31900C.16.01, with patch MPEKXU0)

MPEKXU0 allows the software device driver to recognize the vendor ID or the support of the DLT8000.

The DLT8000 is not supported by Predictive.

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:
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.

Physical connection of these devices is accomplished via Fast/Wide/Differential SCSI Cables such as C2911A, C2924A, C2925A, C2905A, C2911A, C2924A 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 supporting the DLT Libraries for normal MPE/iX operations such as BOOT, FCOPY or STORE. DLT Libraries will be supported only when used in conjunction with a third party software package, Legato's NetWorker. Inquiries about DLT Library support should be made directly to Legato.

Product Overview

Product: DLT8000
Standard, Non-compressed Capacity with DLT IV:40 Gbyte
Average Maximum Data Transfer Rate To Tape:~6 Mbyte/sec
Average Maximum Data Transfer Rate On SCSI Bus:~10 Mbyte/sec
Maximum Devices Per Bus:1

The DLT8000 drive accepts the new CompacTape IV cartridge. When this cartridge is used the amount of data you can store on a tape can be up to 40.0 GB native, or an expected 80.0 GB of data using the compression mode for the DLT8000. The actual amount of data stored in compression mode is dependent on the nature of the data being stored; i.e., text files tend to be highly compressible while code files are not. The device can also use the CompacTape III cartridge. The amount of data you can store on this tape cartridge can be 10.0 GB native capacity or 20.0 GB compressed.

Configuration

Here is an sample configuration as it should be on the HP 3000 for the DLT8000: 

  io> ld 91
  LDEV:    91  DEVNAME:               OUTDEV:      0    MODE:
  ID: DLT8000                          RSIZE:     128   DEVTYPE: TAPE
  PATH: 4/4.3.0                      MPETYPE:      24   MPESUBTYPE: 8
  CLASS: TAPE     DLTTAPE  DDUMP

  io> lp 4/4.3.0
  PATH:  4/4.3.0                               LDEV:   90
  ID:  DLT8000                                 TYPE:   TAPE
  PMGR:  SCSI_TAPE2_DM                      PMGRPRI:   10
  LMGR:  LOGICAL_DEVICE_MANAGER              MAXIOS:    0

  io> lp 4/4.3
  PATH:  4/4.3                                 LDEV:
  ID:  PSEUDO                                  TYPE:   DA
  PMGR:  TRANSPARENT_MGR                    PMGRPRI:   6
  LMGR:                                      MAXIOS:   0

  io> lp 4/3
  PATH:  4/3                                   LDEV:
  ID: HP28696A                                 TYPE:   DA
  PMGR:  SCSI_DAM                           PMGRPRI:    6
  LMGR:                                      MAXIOS:    0



DLT4000/DLT7000 Differential Tape Support on MPE/IX

TERMDSM: User Interface Change under System Diagnostics