More generally - the SCSI attached tape requirement is a "SCSI attached tape LIBRARY requirement".
If you want to talk to stand alone tape drives, either SCSI or FICON attached drives work just fine. If you want to send commands directly to the robot that loads the drives, it has to be SCSI. Linux won't drive a FICON attached library controller. Depending on how comfortable you are with REXX and PIPES, you may be able to rig up a method to pass library commands over to the VM DFSMS virtual machine to get issued to the controller on your behalf. Or someone here on the list may have already done it... Either way - make sure you also look at the tape management aspect of your project right at the beginning. Do you need the automatic duplexing, shelf management, offsite rotation, and all the other stuff that's been carefully designed on the FICON side of the tape library, probably with many many years of successful DR exercises to prove its worth ? If yes, will it cost more to duplicate all that for the SCSI tapes which will be managed as a distinct pool, or will it cost more to build a Linux -> FICON library manager widget in REXX/PIPES to talk to a VM or z/OS library manager? If cost is really really an issue, I second David's suggestion of Amanda / Bacula. You can probably run that on anything POSIX compliant with a TCP/IP stack and the ability to manage tiered storage ( z/OS HSM for sure, possibly z/VM and VSE ?? ) -- Jay Brenneman ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For more information on Linux on System z, visit http://wiki.linuxvm.org/
