From: donawa@cs.mcgill.ca
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin
Subject: Summary of adding 3rd party scsi tape to Next
Date: 12 Apr 92 15:06:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: cs.1992Apr12.150657.6434
Organization: SOCS, McGill University, Montreal, Canada
Originator: donawa@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca

I asked the following question:

-----
Does anyone have any experiences with SCSI tape drives and NeXTs?
I'm thinking of selling my Unix 386 box and getting a NeXT machine.  My
Unix box has a SCSI hard drive (a Wren IV), and an Archive 2150 tape
drive.  From scanning through this group, it seems adding 3rd party 
hard drive isn't a problem, but what about tape drives?  Can I just 
create a generic device file for SCSI drives?  Has anyone had any
problems with tape drives (or 3rd party hard drives for that matter!)

By the way, both tape and hard drive are internal, but I'll probably
get a next station, so I'll convert the drives to external.
-----

First of all, thanks to everyone who repsonded.  Below are some of the 
responses I received.

In addition, I asked a friend about adding SCSI devices to next, and he
said that basically, any SCSI device you add has to have an on-board
controller.  I couldn't find any documentatin to confirm/expalin this in
better detail.  Anyways, to make a short story long, it looks like my
hard drive and tape drive will work.  

Chris Donawa
donawa@binkley.cs.mcgill.ca
donawa@sol.uvic.ca

=========================================================================


I have had good luck connecting an external SCSI hard drive, and
a external 8 mm SCSI tape backup unit to the NeXT.  I have had bad  
luck with an 8 mm SCSI tape drive from PCPC, but I think it was the 
drive's problem.  The Sun 8mm SCSI tape unit has no problems.  Just
read the manuals and make sure you set up the SCSI unit's with non
conflicting addresses.


=========================================================================

I just bought a WangDAT 1300 SCSI tape drive for a NeXT.  Installations was amazing simple.  The only trick (documented in a bunch of
postings a couple months ago) is that many tape drives expect
fixed block size data, and a program (I think called mtset)
which is part of a small suite of tools called scsitools (availabe
on the NeXT archives) needs to be run (as root) to set the tape
driver /dev to send fixed-block data to the tape drive.

I've used the NeXT version of dump/restore with no problem at
all with the WangDAT.


We added our SCSI Exabyte drive with no more work than powering
down, plugging it in, and rebooting.


=========================================================================
Here's what I found from another source. The only direct experience I
have with SCSI tape drives is with an IBM drive and it worked just like
you'd expect. So for whatever its worth:

Here is the summary of the
responses I got on comp.sys.next in case anyone is interested (number of
responses in brackets):

 (1)   Commodore A3070: found several problems; very slow.
 (4)   Archive 2150S:   internal drive; enclosure can be bought;
       (A BEST BUY)     cheap (about $400); works very well and
                        reliably; needs a short C routine and
                        a tiny change in rc.local.
 (1)   Tandberg 3600:   works very well; no problems; fast;
                        used one costs $300 or less.
 (1)   Tandberg 3820:   "highly recommended"; could read 120 MB,
                        150 MB, 320 MB, and 525 MB 1/4"
                        cartridges; in Germany costs DM 1700.



=========================================================================
I have used an Archive 2150 on a Next as /dev/rst0. You need to get
the "setmtd" program from the scsi-tools collection at Purdue. This
program puts /dev/rst0 into fixed block mode, and must be run
before using the drive.


=========================================================================
> Does anyone have any experiences with SCSI tape drives and NeXTs?
> I'm thinking of selling my Unix 386 box and getting a NeXT machine.  My
> Unix box has a SCSI harddrive (a Wren IV), and an Archive 2150 tape
                                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
should be no problem whatsoever. I just tried aout an Archive 525 streamer. Just use one of  
the many SCSI tools to remove the fixed block size for tapes and then plug and play. The
"generic" SCSI devices aren't necessary. The NeXT assigns the tapes logically at boot time so  
the streamer will become rst0 and nrst0 respectively - without you donig anything.


=========================================================================
It's not a problem.
	I've used exabytes and DAT's.  Powerdown, plug in, and power  
up.  Be sure to set the scsi address apropriately.
	Next's tape driver for the the exabyte is a bit flakey, (I  
get spurious errors on opening a tape file aobut 5% of the time.)   
Hopefully this will be addresssed in release 3 Otherwise they work  
very well.
	
Newsgroups: comp.sys.next.sysadmin