[Info-vax] Caution: LTT ignores ALLOCATE

[Dale Dellutri]

On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 16:12:29 -0700 (PDT), Bob Gezelter <gezelter at rlgsc.com> wrote:
> On Oct 5, 10:36?am, Dale Dellutri <ddelQQQl... at panQQQix.com> wrote:
> > I use LTT (Library and Tape Tool) to test tape drives and cartridges.
> > I just discovered that it ignores the fact that another processes may
> > have exclusive access to the drive via the ALLOCATE command.
> >
> > LTT is clearly not originally written for OpenVMS, and it shows.

> Dale,
> Some more details would be helpful. Including:
> - URL of product description
> - a full SHOW PROCESS of your process
> - a listing of the account used from the SYSUAF (including all
> privileges and rights)
> - a SHOW DEVICE/FULL for the tape drive in question
> It could be a poor port, or there could be other reasons. Without data
> there cannot be a definitive diagnosis.
> - Bob Gezelter, http://www.rlgsc.com

I didn't mean to start a long thread about this.  I was just surprised
that LTT ignored the allocate, and wanted to warn others so that they
would be cautious using LTT.

I logged in as SYSTEM, allocated the drive, loaded a cartridge,
and did some tape manipulations.  (The cartridge was new, and will
be used as a backup tape.)

=====
$ allocate mkd600:
%DCL-I-ALLOC, _XX$MKD600: allocated
$ init mkd600: DAILY4
$ mou/for/noass mkd600:
%MOUNT-I-MOUNTED, DAILY4 mounted on _XX$MKD600:
$ dism /nounl mkd600:
$ sho dev mkd600: /full

Magtape XX$MKD600:, device type COMPAQ SDLT320, is online, allocated, record-
    oriented device, file-oriented device, available to cluster, error logging
    is enabled, controller supports compaction (compaction  disabled), device
    supports fastskip (per_io).

    Error count                  159    Operations completed         1702975163
    Owner process           "SYSTEM"    Owner UIC                    [SYSTEM]
    Owner process ID        000BF851    Dev Prot    S:RWPL,O:RWPL,G:RWPL,W:RWPL
    Reference count                1    Default buffer size                 512
    Density                  default    Format                        Normal-11

  Volume status:  no-unload on dismount, beginning-of-tape, odd parity.
=====

Note that I didn't deallocate the drive and I didn't log out.

Then I opened a second window and logged in separately again
to SYSTEM, and tried some vms commands ...

=====
$ allocate mkd600:
%SYSTEM-W-DEVALLOC, device already allocated to another user
$ init /med=com mkd600: DAILY4
%SYSTEM-W-DEVALLOC, device already allocated to another user
=====

... and, as expected, these commands respect the fact that
another process has allocated the drive.  However, I then
started LTT in this second login, and it ran a read/write
test on the cartridge in the drive without complaint or
even warning.  I'm using version 4.13 of LTT (URL below
is wrapped):

=====
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/
  DriverDownload.jsp?
  pnameOID=406731&locale=en_US&taskId=135&
  prodTypeId=12169&prodSeriesId=406729

HP StorageWorks Library and Tape Tools (Alpha)
Type:	Diagnostic
Version:	4.13 SR1 (14 Sep 2011)
Operating System(s):	OpenVMS, OpenVMS v7.3-2,
 OpenVMS v8.2, OpenVMS v8.3, OpenVMS v8.4
File name:	hp-axpvms-ltt-v0413-0-1.zipexe (12 MB)
=====

If you don't want to reconstruct the URL above, just
google for
  hp openvms library tape tool

The SYSTEM account has its usual privileges.  And the system is:

=====
$ sho sys /noproc
OpenVMS V8.2 on node XX 6-OCT-2011 09:15:02.24  Uptime 542 15:16:07
=====

-- 
Dale Dellutri <ddelQQQlutr at panQQQix.com> (lose the Q's)