Alan, The basic documentation for installation and configuration is in the "Linux Interface Quick Reference" section of the VM:Tape documentation.
Unfortunately, detailed command documentation is supplied in "man" pages that can't be viewed until the RPM has been installed. Generally, it has been our experience that Linux applications that request tapes (for example TPF) provide a way to customize how the application accomplishes that ... this is where VMTAPE syntax is generally specified. JR (Steven) Imler Sr. Software Engineer | Mainframe Division Broadcom office: +1 571.401.8685 2291 Wood Oak Drive | Herndon, Virginia 20171 [email protected] | broadcom.com -----Original Message----- From: Linux on 390 Port <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Alan Altmark Sent: Monday, November 4, 2019 03:34 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: backup product On Monday, 11/04/2019 at 07:24 GMT, Steven Imler <[email protected]> wrote: > VM:Tape does have the VM:Tape Linux Interface (process that runs on > the Linux guest) that can be used to mount and manage (channel > attached) tapes > for the Linux guest; as requested by the Linux backup agents, TPF, etc. I'm not seeing that at the enterprise level, JR, only one-offs. At scale, individual distributed systems don't write to tape. They write to a server that uses (SCSI) tape as its own offload storage. And it doesn't matter if the backup server runs on Z or not. There are simply are not enough drives (virtual or real) to service thousands of backup streams from individual hosts. OTOH, if you've got a "LAN-free" (SAN) device driver that simulates SCSI on FICON (like the inverse of a tape EDEVICE) such that a Spectrum Protect (or other) server running on Linux on Z can use it as tape, then it's worth calling that out. It's through that interface that these backup servers read/write tapes and manipulate the library. For my clients with Broadcom products, it would be good to know where to read about configuring (e.g.) Spectrum Protect client to use your VM:Tape Linux interface. Alan Altmark Senior Managing z/VM and Linux Consultant IBM Systems Lab Services IBM Z Delivery Practice ibm.com/systems/services/labservices office: 607.429.3323 mobile; 607.321.7556 [email protected] IBM Endicott ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www2.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www2.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
