From: philip@server.uwindsor.ca (Philip Smith)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.admin,comp.sys.sgi.misc,comp.unix.aix
Subject: Tape conversion: CMS to UNIX (summary)
Keywords: tape conversion CMS
Date: 25 Jan 1993 20:57:38 GMT
Followup-To: poster

Recently I posted the following question on this newsgroup:

:   We are looking a converting a tape library of approximately 1000 9-track
:from IBM's CMS operating system (also known as VM/SP, VM/HPO, VM/CMS, etc.)
:to UNIX. The tapes on CMS are written in a variety of formats including
:TAPE and VMFPLC2.  The target UNIX systems are a RS/6000-970 and a SGI 4D/340S.
:A 9-track tape drives is on the CMS system.  Both the RS/6000 and the SGI
:have 1/4 inch cartridge tape drive (QIC) and an 8mm cartridge tape drive.
:All systems are joined together by TCP/IP.
:
:   Any suggestion, solutions, or hints on migrating these tapes would be
:greatly appreciated.  A summary will be posted around January 25, 1993.

   I received several replies to this posting including a summary of a similar
question asked last spring.  Basically all the answers boiled down to senarios.

Senario #1: Dump the data on the mainframe side and ftp the data across. Then
            reassemble it on the other side.

            + John H. Merritt (merritt@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov) has a shell 
              script called "gettape" on the UNIX side that will help automate 
              this process.

Senario #2: Get a 9-track drive on the UNIX side then some of these tapes will
            be readable.

            + Tom Merrick(merrick@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu) states that he
              he has programs that will read both tape dump and vmfplc2 tapes 
              on an RS/6000.

            + Albert Lunde (lunde@merle.acns.nwu.edu) summary talks about the
              following tools:
              * "magtapetools" available via anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.vu.nl
                 - a package of tools built to use "generalized mag tapes"
                   that is, either a real tape drive or disk image files
                 - includes C library for this purpose
                 - cptp - copy between tape and disk images
                 - survey - dump the start of each block in hex, ascii and 
                            ebcdic
                 - rawtp - extract arbitrary data blocks from tape
                 - ansir - read a single volume mult-file ANSI Standard 
                           Labelled Tape.  It can handle F, U, D, S and V 
                           formats (V is  for  IBM  tapes). Labels can be in 
                           ASCII or in EBCDIC.
                 - ansiw - Ansiw  writes  a  single  volume  multi-file  ANSI
                           Standard Labelled Tape in F- or U-format in ASCII.

              * cmstape - UNIX and CMS program to process CMS tape dump files
                        - can read an image file created by readtape as well
                          as direct tape
                        - from c.s.u v07i008
                        - according to mycroft@gnu.ai.mit.edu this is available
                          from comp.sources.unix/volume7/cmstape

              * copytape - duplicate tape tape-to-tape or via disk image file
                           by David. S. Hayes
                         - from c.s.u v10i099

              * tprobe - copy any tapes
                       - copy to remote drive
                       - written with UNIX cartrige drives not 9-track tapes
                         in mind
                       - from alt.sources Feb 92

              * rmtlib2 - from c.s.u v18i109
                        - remote mag tape library
                        - This allows a program that uses Unix system calls 
                          to transparently use a file (usually a tape drive)
                          on another system via /etc/rmt, simply by including
                          <rmt.h>.  It is particularly useful with tar and 
                          dd, and is supplied with GNU tar.

              * "ansitape" 
                 - read/write ANSI and IBM standard labeled tapes
                 - originally designed for VAX-like ANSI labeled
                 - also processes IBM labeled tapes in EBCDIC - does not use
                   HRD3 or HDR4 labels on IBM tapes - I'm not sure what
                   IBM record formats are supported.
                 - reads but does not write multi-volume tape sets
                 - may only write variable records ?
                 - from c.s.u v08i099, v08i100

Thank-you to everyone who responded,
Philip Smith

-- 
Philip Smith                   |  e-mail: PHILIP@UWINDSOR.CA
Systems Programmer             |  phone : (519)253-4232 ext.3252
Dept. of Computing Services    |  fax   : (519)973-7083
University of Windsor          | 
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