Re: TS3310Tape Mini- Monster

Paul,

We have that beast, with 6 physical drives. We have the 5U main unit and
one 9U extra unit. We have a three of the drives assigned to a Linux
partition running Tivoli Storage Manager. We have one drive shared
between two i lpars. We have another drive used by one i lpar. And one
other drive used by another single i lpar.
Forget "sequential" mode - not supported at all.
Consultant began every third sentence with "well, with BRMS we would ...".
These library type systems are really intended for the likes of BRMS, TSM
and other software in that genre.
However we were able to use it plain jane by getting familiar with
commands like: WRKTAPCTG, ADDTAPCTG, RMVTAPCTG, SETTAPCGY. We have typed
up instructions on how to unload and reload the daily tapes. They are
quite detailed as four different people are cross trained in it's
operations.

The only time you will ever use a TAPxx device instead of a TAPMLBxx
device is when using it as a alternate installation device on a full
system restore in restricted state. And, I am not so sure that it's using
the TAPxx device versus the TAPxx resource name directly. I make sure
that all my TAPxx devices are set to not vary on at IPL.

If you decide to get BP support to get this working best for you, I've had
good luck with Sirius.

Rob Berendt