Create tapes-what to use

[Tom Gore]

We generate reports on our HP9000. We need to copy these reports to a tape that will be sent out to a third party source. The third party source will then print and distribute the reports. What do I use to create the tapes: fbackup, ftio, tar, Omniback, etc. We use Quantum DLT8000 drives. Additionally, we have two DLT8000 drives with two "tape drawers" with eight tapes in each "drawer". How do I designate which tape cartridge to use from which "tape drawer"?

[Robert Hoey]

Tom,

I would setup the DLT8000 in Omniback. You will then be able to setup each tape in the "two drawers" with names and such via the device name and media pools. Then, you can setup a backup schedule for the tape and specify which files, directories, file systems, or host that you need to backup.

See the following link for Omniback documentation:
http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv/

-Rob

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Hi Tom,

First of all, I would avoid DLT8000; it's too new and not that many sites have it (although it can write in the older formats). You need to check with your 3rd party and see what they have or are willing to purchase. I would avoid OmniBack since it is a non-standard format. Use tar or cpio 'c' format; everyone can read that. Because of tape imcompatabilties, I keep an old DDS (pre DDS2) DAT drive around - it's the lowest common denominator. Any DAT drive can read it. As for manipulating a tape library or exchanger, you can use the Omniback command 'uma'. You can use uma to load and unload tapes while still backing up with tar or cpio. Man uma for details.
Have you considered transfer via the internet? You could compress the files and then transfer them via ftp or even email attachment unless these puppies are really big.

My 2 cents worth, Clay

[Joseph C. Denman · Accepted solution]

Clay made some really good points. The bigest one being, get with your third party to see what format/tape devices they will have the ability to use.

...jcd...

[Tom Gore]

Clay & Joesph,

I agree...find out what the third party can read. That is what I said from the start. Now we are contacting them to find out. Once we are past that, does it make any difference what I use to backup the reports? If they don't have a UNIX system can they still read that tapes?

[Thierry Poels_1]

hi,
I agree No. 1 option is "just ask".

tar on a DDS-2 (or a CD!) will probably have the best chances on being read by a third party.
regards,
Thierry.

[A. Clay Stephenson]

Tom, there are commercial and freeware versions of tar and cpio for PC's. One of the best commercial versions which includes many unix tools (sh, awk, tar, cpio, grep, etc.) is the MKS Toolkit.

Clay

[Joseph C. Denman]

If they don't have a unix box, you will probably need to capture the files on a cd. I believe winzip will read tar files.

really don't have enough info to answer with reasonable certainty.

...jcd...

[Tom Gore]

Thanks to all for your help. As it turns out, the third party can't read DLT or DDS tapes. They informed me they can only read 3480/3490 cartridge tapes. The immediate solution is to ftp to our AS400, cut a 3480 tape and send that to them. We are looking into ftp'ing directly to them or, if the CD in our HP9000 is a RW, creating a CD. :>)