Please excuse the late summary to my question about migrating IBM
mainframe tapes. I had asked about the availability of hardware and
software for use on an Alpha workstation running Digital Unix 4.0b or
later to read and translate IBM 3480 mainframe tape cartridges.
Here's some of the responses I received:
Marc Picard suggested that I find out if DEC's TA90 tape drive was
available for this purpose. Marc said it used to do what I want, but
on VMS systems. My check into this possibility came up dry.
Nathan Grass suggested that I check with IBM about the possibility of
connecting an IBM 3080 tape drive to an RS/6000 AIX workstation. If
nothing else turns up, I will follow through with Nathan's suggestion
because we do own two of those boxes.
Blake Roberts referred to a software package called REELexchange by
StorageTek that does what I want. This looks very interesting.
Steve Walling suggested that we utilize our network to transfer files from
our IBM mainframe to our Alpha cluster instead of going the tape route. We
definitely intend to utilize our network as much as possible for this
migration, however, its a foregone conclusion that some of our users will
want data transferred from 3480 tapes after our IBM mainframe has been
taken out of service and is thus, no longer available.
Chad Price suggested using NFS to transfer the files from our IBM to our
Alpha cluster. That's a great idea, but I am trying to plan for the time
when our IBM mainframe is no longer in service. Unfortunately, we cannot
force our users to all accommodate our schedule. I should have specified
that in my original message.
Sean McGlynn suggested hooking up a 3480 tape drive directly to an
Alphaserver and than using the DD command. This idea is well worth my
consideration.
Gary George suggested what amounts to us writing routines in house to
handle the data conversion. An interesting idea, but we don't have the
staff to do it (its a long story).
Gary Manna referred my question to some of his colleagues who suggested
that what I want to do isn't possible. Thanks Gary, but, as you can see
from my summary, the consensus of opinion differs from your colleague's
views. If you want more specific details on what I find out by
investigating these other possibilities, let me know and I will be glad to
share my findings with you.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my question and I apologize for the
delay in posting this summary.
Received on Wed Jul 29 1998 - 15:08:02 NZST