> So where/what/whom  do we, as a user community need to put
> the thumbscrews
> to in order to get this support? Do we ask IBM for a linux to
> VM library
> access interface or do we turn up the heat on individual
> software vendors?

I'd say we write it ourselves and have the ISVs deal with what we
produce. Otherwise we'll end up with a bunch of stuff like the PAM
support for LDAP -- it only talks to one implementation and it doesn't
interoperate with anything else.

IMHO, the optimum solution would be to implement something like iSCSI,
which would allow a lot of different systems (both inside and outside
the box) to access the drives w/o having to deal with whether the drive
is sensable at IPL. iSCSI has good pre-existing drivers for a wide range
of systems, and is a well-defined protocol and interface.

On the client, you configure the existing iSCSI driver, map /dev/sg0 to
the autochanger interface and /dev/st<n> to one or more drives, and make
sure there is a really fast IP pipe between the client and the CMS DVM,
and watch the fur fly.

(if one of the ISVs wants to use this idea, let's talk. I have a pretty
advanced notion of how to do this, and it's clearly my idea, ok? I also
have some other ideas on virtual drive management that would benefit
from this approach as well.)

-- db

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