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List:       tru64-unix-managers
Subject:    SUMMARY: Media Robot Utility (MRU) Version 1.1
From:       "Alan G Beardsley"<beardsa () Notes ! res ! ray ! com>
Date:       1997-06-30 18:26:40
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Question:   I have a TZ875 5-cartridge DLT tape system on an Alpha 2100
A500 MP server running DU 4.0b.  I am considering the purchase of the MRU
(Media Robot Utility) software which is supposed to allow tape spanning on
the TZ875.  Has anyone out there used this software and does it in fact
allow tape spanning across multiple tape cartridges.  I would appreciate
hearing from anyone who has utilized this software and if there are any
problems that should be anticipated.  Also, is there other software that I
should consider that will allow tape spanning during lengthy backups?

 RESPONSES:

1)  From:  My old friend Ed Murphy U.S. Surgical Corporation -  (Thanks,
Ed).  The Networker Save and Restore software that is included in NAS 200
should do what you are looking for and you most likeky already have the
software license.  The code is on the associated products CD.

  2)  From:  Joe King ( Community of Science, Inc.) - I was at a Digital
Conference and saw the MRU.  From what I saw all it did was move tapes
around and show you a status of the drive.  A normal dump command spane
tapes on my 8 mm drive.

 3)  From:  Alan@nabeth.cxo.dec.com - MRU allows you to send the SCSI-2
medium changer commands to get random access to cartridges within the
TZ875.  It also allows you to find out which slots have cartridges in them
and whether or not the drive is empty (Show).  It has nothing to do with
the data path of the tape drive.

            For backup programs that prompt for the next tape when reach
EOT, I think you can expect to look for the prompt, do a tape change and
then send back the response to get it to continue.  If you're writing your
own data, then you need to handle the tape changes yourself, though MRU
will give you random access.  The next version will probably have an API
for controlling the changer, where today you have to use system(3) or a
fork/exec pair.

 4) From:  Danno (Daniel S. Notov) - The MRU software is now at Version
1.2.  You can get a field test version of the software at
http://www.service.digital.com:80/sms/mru/
A Software Product Description (SPD) may be found at
ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/SPD/64-44-XX.txt    The full
information on functionality is in that document.
 However, all MRU really buys you is the ability to manipulate the tape
library by selecting, loading, and ejecting specific tapes.  I believe the
default behavior of the library is to span individual tapes incrementally
as you go.  If you are looking for intelligent management of your tapes,
you will need Network Save & Restore (NSR) and a Tier I Jukebox license.


Thank you all for the good information, It will be very helpfull.

  Al Beardsley
  BeardsA@Notes.res.ray.com

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