Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!gatech!bloom-beacon!think!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!INDYVAX.BITNET!IMHW400
From: IMHW400@INDYVAX.BITNET
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re:  BACKUP
Message-ID: <8803272008.AA19602@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 22 Mar 88 16:56:00 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 41

Frank Simmons writes:

>             This has led me to a broader question: Is it possible to manage
>tapes sensibly on VMS?  I used a CDC Cyber for many years and I cannot find
>anything under VMS to approach the LABEL command under NOS.

The answer to your question is "no".  MTAACP seems to be designed for a
shop consisting of four or five guys who are friendly and cooperative, and
have offices or workbenches in the same room with the machine.  Cyber gurus
aren't the only ones who find VMS lacking in this area:  our site also runs
a DECSYSTEM20 whose labelled-tape subsystem is five to ten years ahead of
VMS'.

>                                                             In general, I am
>concerned about the issue of security and device allocation and deallocation.

You should be:  anybody can override tape label "security" at any time.
We take the approach used by a certain other vendor:  we just don't tell
our users how to do it.

>Have you addressed these issues in your shop, or do you know of anything
>on the DECUS tapes or commercially available that addresses this issue?

I wish I did.  The extent of our efforts here has been to build a (rather
hokey) tape staging system that feeds our backup jobs.  (It would be
interesting to know why BACKUP seems purposely designed *not* to be able
to run reliably in batch.  System backup is *not* an interactive task.)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The good news is that there are believable rumors of significant improvement
in tape handling for a future unmentionable release.  I have heard that
a tape management system will be available as a layered product, and our
site is waiting impatiently to see what it turns out to be.  The rumors
also speak of improvements in the base system, including BACKUP.
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Mark H. Wood    IMHW400@INDYVAX.BITNET   (317)274-0749 III U   U PPPP  U   U III
Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis  I  U   U P   P U   U  I
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