>Chaps, >Any suggestions on ways we could have a tape drive 3490 in a remote >location attached to our mainframe. We are talking about 1 thousand of >miles. Speed is not important
THis is very doable today. I am running CNT Channel Extension (ESCON) out 300 miles and it can go the distance of your choice. Mine was implemented back in the early 1990s. Keep in mind the Channel Extension players have dwindled. INRANGE bought Computerm, CNT Bought INRANGE, McData bought CNT, and now BROCADE bought McData (or maybe vice-versa). Right now it is running over a pair of T-1 lines with two 256kb ISDN backup lines. The traffic is all encrypted. This is running some CNT protocol. Error recovery is taken care in the CNT box. I recently looked at a few alternatives. It has worked flawlessly for 12+ years. One option was to modernize the CNT solution which can convert the protocol to run over existing IP circuits. Out to the remote location there are a number of DS-3 lines and possibly it could exploit these (reducing the T-1 and ISDN line expense). The costs "depends". Since I have staffing on the other end, I looked at some small robotic cartridge library at reduce personnel costs. Another option is to look at the reason for cartridges and eliminate them. One requirement was just some offsite storage of data files which could be achieved with a PC and quite large redundant hard drives. Then the files would be SecureFTP'ed out the remote site. So examine the alternatives and if cartridges in the remote site are a must, a robotic library is a worthwhile alternative. If not, the Autoloaders are most certinaly a must. Jim Marshall ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
