[Info-vax] Modern VMS (e.g. V8.4) tape installation?

[Paul Sture]

On Sun, 29 Apr 2012 18:58:53 +0200, Michael Kraemer wrote:

> Johnny Billquist schrieb:
>> On 2012-04-29 10:00, Michael Kraemer wrote:
>> 
>>> Johnny Billquist schrieb:
>>>
>>>
>>>> Yes, assuming you have the right bits and pieces. Old uVAX II
>>>> machines used to only have TK50 as the installation media.
>>>
>>>
>>> Would a DDS tape also do, provided it could be prepared accordingly?
>>> (related to the other thread on the MV2000)
>> 
>> 
>> Can't see why not.
>> 
>> 
> The VS2000 could look at the vendor string, and, if it's not DEC, refuse
> it as being "not invented here".
> Or it could consider a DDS as being "too modern". Or maybe the TK50 can
> do things the DDS can't. Everything is imaginable unless somebody has
> tried it.

The VS2000 had some kind of SCSI "not quite all there" implementation for 
TK50 tapes.  One documented limitation was that you couldn't write BACKUP 
savesets with a blocksize greater than 16K.  I didn't try, but I assume 
that limitation also applied to reading BACKUP tapes created on other 
systems.

I did once try attaching a Sony DDS drive to my VS2000.  The drive 
responded to a VS2000 hardware init, going off into its own series of 
clicks and flashing lights, but I could see nothing from either the 
console or within VMS to indicate that the device was seen by the VS2000.

Which was a pity because I had to find another means of getting some data 
onto that system.  Kermit running overnight over a serial line didn't do 
such a bad job :-)

-- 
Paul Sture