> How is "Emulated Tape" different from the VTAPE product from VSSI (Virtual > Software Systems, Inc.)?
Unless I totally misunderstand what VTAPE does, it solves a different problem. What I'm asking for is the ability to use existing SCSI tape drives w/o having to rewrite applications not designed for them by way of CP emulating a device that VM already supports, much as emulated FBA disk allows unmodified operating systems to run on SCSI-only devices. AFAIK, VTAPE doesn't provide that capability. Example: One of my customers has a large library with 30 SCSI LTO2 tape drives in it and plenty of capacity -- a half-million dollar unit with full-on automation, etc -- yet he still has to purchase, power and maintain a 3590 and FICON-based connectivity just to support backing up the VM side of his zSeries. If he could emulate a 3490 or 3590 and use the LTO2 drives over FCP, that would be a significant cost benefit both from acquisition and ongoing operational cost. > Is what you are asking for better than VTAPE -- or are you just asking IBM > to provide free what you can already get for a price? IBM might not want > to undercut a VM vendor. I think it is a different problem. If VTAPE does it, I'd like to know how. David Boyes Sine Nomine Associates
