Tape drives for Xenix

[Karl Denninger]

In article <2199 at chinet.UUCP> clif at chinet.UUCP (Clif Flynt) writes:
>In article <1094 at bc-cis.UUCP> raanan at bc-cis.UUCP (Raanan Herrmann) writes:
>>
>>	Could anybody list the sources of tape-backup systems (hardware and
>>software) for Xenix, prices and personal views?
>>-- 
>>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>Raanan Herrmann  (bc-cis!raanan, raanan at bc-cis.UUCP raanan at bklyncis.BITNET)
>
>
>Where I work we are using Archive and Wangtek streaming 60 M drives.  I
>don't know pricing, but I can offer opinions...
>
>Both are supported by Xenix's mkdev tape driver installation package.
>Both seem to read and write reliably and quickly.  60 Mbytes of system
>files and data go to tape in about a half hour.
>
>We've used tar and cpio with both these drives.  The backup times for 
>the systems comes out almost identical, with cpio -B taking a bit
>longer than tar.  I suspect that SCO modified tar to buffer something
>like 8 K of data before writing to tape, but that's sheer guess.
>
>Of the two drives, I like the Wangtek a bit more.  I find it easier to
>get the tapes in and out, and it doesn't sound quite so unhappy when
>it moves the heads.
>

I second that motion on the Wangtek -- QUALITY product there.

Quality is expensive though -- you're looking at an 800-900 drive there if
you get it from a "mail order" outfit, and probably closer to $1k if you get
it from a "we'll answer questions and we know what we're doing" dealer.

Unfortunately, it will not easily fit in all machines, so make sure you have
the proper rails and/or a return policy (or a machine shop ;-) if it 
doesn't fit in your system unit.  It also requires a full-length slot, but
this is not normally a problem.

As for throughput, try using 'afio', which was posted to the net, with a
buffer size of say 1M (providing you have the physical memory for this).
With Xenix/386 this makes a MAJOR improvement in throughput (it writes
the MB of buffered data in a couple of seconds!)

We've used these with Xenix/386 in the Televideo Tele-386 systems, and
except for the mounting hassles (we had to make brackets) they're wonderful
drives.  Worked out-of-the box with Xenix's built-in drivers (mkdev), and
it's fast and well-constructed.

We will be carrying a nice-n-inexpensive (ie: < $400) 40M streamer for Xenix 
soon -- but then again, I guess I shouldn't say more lest I be accused of 
advertising on Usenet ;-)

Disclaimer: We have sold the Wangtek (although we don't make a practice of
            it, too rich for most customer's blood), and we've also used a
	    few here...  Comments on the Wangtek are from the perspective of
	    a customer.

-----
Karl Denninger		       |  Data: +1 312 566-8912
Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. | Voice: +1 312 566-8910
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