RE: PC Backup to IFS

[Scott Klement <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Can you expand on this Scott ? What kind of tape drive are you using and how
> are you writing to it from the PC ?

Sure...

I use the Unix TAR ("tape archiver") program to create an archive of data
on the PC.  TAR comes with FreeBSD, I didn't have to write that piece.
TAR has the ability to write it's output to a pipe instead of an actual
tape drive...

I wrote a program for FreeBSD that reads the pipe (TAR's output) and
uses the socket API to copy that data over the network to the iSeries.  So
the FreeBSD command looks something like this:

  tar -C /dos -cvf - | as400tape -S -U userid -P passwd -s seq# -v
volumename -d TAP01 as400.example.com

Though, actually I use a shell script to hide the complexity from the
user.

On the iSeries, I have an RPG program (also written with the socket API)
that reads the network data and copies it to a tape file.  The tape file
was created using the CRTTAPF command on the iSeries...

The drive is a 6396. I don't the model of the tape drive matters, though.
As far as I know, you can create a tape file with CRTTAPF for any
iSeries supported tape drive and write to it from an HLL..

If I had to do it all over again, there are a number of things that I'd do
differently.

  -- Rather than require the user to know all of the config info (tape
      drive name, volume name, where the hard drive is on the PC, etc), I'd
      put it in a file on the iSeries, so that a profile name is all
      that's needed from the PC.

  -- Make the parms to as400tape more userfriendly.  Instead of

          as400tape -S -U bob -P passwd as400.example.com

          as400tape save --user=bob --host=as400.example.com
            (and have it prompt for the password)

I've also toyed with the idea of writing a remote tape server for the
iSeries so that the as400tape command is completely unneccesary.  Then you
coudl just do:

     tar -C /dos -cvf as400.example.com:/tap01

But, alas, I just don't have time to rewrite things...