Duh

Imagine that.  Not being able to copy a full 3490E (1.2 GB) to a 3480E
(200 MB) cart.

Do you have your cart types reversed?

You should always be able to copy a 3480 to a 3490.

Tom Duerbusch
THD Consulting

>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2/7/2006 1:24 PM >>>
Richard,

I was never able to copy a full 3490E cart to a even brand new 3480E
cart. 
 Each time the output tape filled up before we got to the end, I
presumed 
because of the inter-record gaps. 

I seem to remember reading various posts and articles over the years 
indicating that there is a physical gap on the tape whenever writing 
starts again after a pause.  What you say may be true, but anecdotal 
evidence indicates otherwise.   Why else did every single attempt to
copy 
a full tape to a new or used cart of the same size fail?

Mike Walter
Hewitt Associates
The opinions expressed herein are mine alone, not my employer's.



"Schuh, Richard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 

Sent by: "VM/ESA and z/VM Discussions" <[email protected]>
02/07/2006 11:46 AM
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Re: Tape conversions






Mike,

What the stopping and restarting of the tape did was to slow down the 
process, not waste space by inserting gaps. In the good old days, the
IRGs 
were there between the records regardless of the starting and stopping
of 
the tape. A File Mark was recognized by the h/w because of an extremely

long gap that was followed by a specific block of data. The space left
by 
the stop/start was short enough that the h/w counted it as an IRG and
did 
not prime itself to look for the file mark.


Regards,
Richard Schuh

 -----Original Message-----
From:            VM/ESA and z/VM Discussions 
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]  On Behalf Of Mike Walter
Sent:            Tuesday, February 07, 2006 8:36 AM
To:              [email protected] 
Subject:                 Re: Tape conversions

Marcy,

Back in the "bad old days" I wrote a VMBRECR8 EXEC which can be used to

"recreate" missing VM:Backup tapes with the proper internal tape
chaining. 

 However it ran into a problem when copying from tapes that were full,

because to make the required changes to the volsers from the good tape

onto the output "COPYn" tape, it has to read the input tape's SLs and
User 

Header Labels, build the appropriate replacement User Header labels and

write them to the new output tape.  That means stopping the output tape

repeatedly while preparing the new output labels - each time
introducing 
inter-record gaps which take up physical space on the tape.  Just
enough 
space that a full input tape will usually not quite fit onto a new
output 
tape.

But... if you are copying VM:Backup tapes to a higher density media 
one-for-one, then VMBRECR8 EXEC might work for you.  OTOH, it won't
update 

the records in the VM:Backup with the new tape density since this is
all 
done completely outside of VM:Backup.    Editing the catalog *could* be

done, but you'd probably want to work with CA on that issue.  :-)

The syntax for VMBRECR8 is:

---<snip>---
VMBRECR8 ?

VMBACKUP is used to create tapes from the nightly VM DASD backups, and

also perform the tape I/O and TWINing for VM:Archiver service machines.

 
VMBRECR8 is used to create valid copies of tapes created by VMBACKUP 
in cases where one tape becomes damaged or lost.  It requires that 
the volser of the lost or damaged tape, and the volser of the 
corresponding VM:Backup COPY. Lots of damaged VM:Archiver tapes can 
be re-created by running a Merge/Purge request. 
 
The good tape should be mounted on virtual 181, and the tape to be 
re-created on virtual 182 before executing this command. 
 
Note: 
      Each tape written by VMBACKUP has internal pointers to the tape 
      before and after it, as well as volsers of the first tape in 
      each VM:Backup stream in the backup job. 
 
      Simply COPYing a VMBACKUP-created tape and changing the VOL1 
      WILL NOT WORK! 
                                           +-FROM-+ 
>>-VMBRECR8--+-Sibling(lost/damaged)Vol-+--+------+-------------------->

 

>-----------+-Input(good)Vol-+---------------------------------------->

 
 
>--+-----------------------------------------------------------------+><

   +-(-+---------------------------------+--+------------------------+

       +-SiblingPrevVol--SiblingNextvol--+  +-)--NOWARN--DEBUG--RPT--+


Where: 
 
SiblingVol 
         is the BAD or missing VM:Backup tape (also known as the COPY 
         tape). 
 
InputVol 
         is the GOOD Onsite or Offsite VM:Backup tape. 
 
Options: 
 
If the tape is chained in the TMC, the SiblingPrevVol and
SiblingNextVol 
are not needed, as that information will be obtained from VM:Tape. 
 
SiblingPrevVol 
         is the previous volume in the chain (if any) of the Sibling. 
 
SiblingNextVol 
         is the next volume in the chain (if any) of the Sibling. 
 
 
PostOptions: 
 
 
NOWARN 
         prevents display of a warning message when the VMBRECR8
command 
         completes. 
 
DEBUG 
         do not erase "VMBRECR8 CMSUTx" work files when exiting. 
         There contain the re-built Standard Labels as written to the 
         output (SiblingVol) tape, where "x" is the physical file
number 
         (i.e. SL 1 HDR=1, SL1 TLR=3, SL2 HDR=4). 
 
RPT 
         check VMBACKUP catalog for tape copy number and stream info. 
         Does not require tapes to be mounted, but chaining is required

         in the TMC. 
 
Example: 
 
E.g. where 200000 is damaged and 712345 was the Sibling as known to 
     VM:Backup or VM:Archiver as the COPY tape. 
 
VMBRECR8 200000 712345 
---<snip>---

Maybe this could be used as an inspiration for something you write to
meet 

your particular needs?  Just ask for a copy.

Mike Walter
Hewitt Associates
The opinions expressed herein are mine alone, not my employer's.



"Marcy Cortes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 

Sent by: "VM/ESA and z/VM Discussions" <[email protected]>
02/06/2006 08:52 PM
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Subject
Re: Tape conversions






DITTO is not going to understand all the volume chaining in the
VM:Backup tapes.  Only something that understood that is going to do
the
trick. 


Marcy Cortes
(415) 243-6343

"This message may contain confidential and/or privileged information.
If you are not the addressee or authorized to receive this for the
addressee, you must not use, copy, disclose, or take any action based
on
this message or any information herein.  If you have received this
message in error, please advise the sender immediately by reply e-mail
and delete this message.  Thank you for your cooperation."


-----Original Message-----
From: VM/ESA and z/VM Discussions [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On
Behalf Of Stephen Frazier
Sent: Monday, February 06, 2006 2:34 PM
To: [email protected] 
Subject: Re: [VMESA-L] Tape conversions

I use DITTO to copy tapes.

[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

> What do folks do about moving old VM:Backup and old HIDRO tapes to
new

> media types?   We have a bunch that are supposed to move from IBM
3590

> to STK 9480C and the media types are different and CA doesn't support

> moving them.    I suggest we just leave 1 drive, but HW manager
doesn't 
> like that at all...
> 
> 
> 
> Marcy Cortes
> (415) 243-6343
> 
> "This message may contain confidential and/or privileged
information.

> If you are not the addressee or authorized to receive this for the 
> addressee, you must not use, copy, disclose, or take any action based

> on this message or any information herein.  If you have received this

> message in error, please advise the sender immediately by reply
e-mail

> and delete this message.  Thank you for your cooperation."
> 
> 

--
Stephen Frazier
Information Technology Unit
Oklahoma Department of Corrections
3400 Martin Luther King
Oklahoma City, Ok, 73111-4298
Tel.: (405) 425-2549
Fax: (405) 425-2554
Pager: (405) 690-1828
email:  stevef%doc.state.ok.us




 
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