reading Exabyte tapes on other systems

[Ruth Milner, Systems Manager x2746]

In v7n153, Bob Cunningham (bob at loihi.hig.hawaii.edu) asks
>Assuming same vendor, same SunOS version, can I take a tape written on one
>Exabyte drive and read it on another reliably?

If you are using the same controller, driver, and OS version on both
systems, there should be no reason at all why you can't exchange tapes.
The only other thing you might have to watch out for is PROM revs. in the
drive and on the controller (if it has its own).

We have an Exabyte on our Sun 4 (OS 3.2FCS) daisy-chained off the 1/4"
tape and using the Sun SCSI driver, and another Exabyte on a uVAX-II
running VMS 4.7. We have found that data written onto the tape on the Sun
by Fortran programs can be read by programs on the VAX when it is loaded
there.

No guarantees, but it's worked for us :-).

Ruth Milner
Systems Manager
University of Toronto Physics

sysruth at helios.physics.utoronto.ca