> My understanding is that you can attach SCSI based tape drives to the > mainframe. All you need is FCP adapters ($25k list price), and a > processor > that supports them (all current mainframes, from IBM) and current z/VM > and/or > zLinux systems (don't know about MVS and it may be a z/VSE 4 type thing).
You can physically connect them, but only for use with Linux. DDR or SPXTAPE can't use them. Guest OSes without explicit SCSI programming support can't use them. > If that can be used, eventually, to solve your need, I doubt IBM would > spend a > lot of resources to emulate tapes under VM. > > We are looking at an IBM VTS to solve our virtual tape needs (i.e. no > Operator > intervention). Doesn't help if you already own the SCSI drives and are power, budget or space constrained, or just want more capacity on tape than existing IBM solutions can provide.
