DATMAN TECHNICAL BULLETIN #012
From: tech@datman.com
To: DATMAN user
Subject: The DAT Configuration Parameters
Date: 1996-01-11
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A few users reported difficulties in using the DFORMAT command.
Typically, the DATMAN.EXE utility reports the "tape not ready"
message. If you press on, you may find that other tape control
functions such as DEJECT, DSCANBLK, and DREWIND work fine.
We have found certain versions of firmware on the DAT drive
(especially early versions of Archive brand drives) are very
choosy in the parameters sent by the host machine in SCSI
Mode_Select commands. In principle, the DATMAN software attempts
to set all relevant parameters to known states. Because some of
the crucial parameters are set via a DIP switch and/or jumpers
in most DAT models, we would like to avoid accepting the default
setting unconditionally.
During the past six years, the DDS family tape drives have gone
through three generations of technology, with countless revisions
on firmware releases. And many of you have a DAT drive whose
manufacturer stopped answering the telephone! So, there are quite
a number of DAT models that we have to support somehow.
The only practical solution is to collect ALL such parameters
exhaustively with our customer's help. In order to achieve this
ambitious goal, we wrote a little program that collects all
relevant parameters using the SCSI mode-sense command.
Here are the steps necessary...
1. Make sure that the ASPI manager has been loaded.
2. If your DAT drive is an external unit, power-cycle once.
3. Run the DCONFIG.EXE program without any tape cartridge loaded.
DCONFIG
4. After making sure the program is working correctly, run again
with console output redirected to a file in your hard disk.
DCONFIG >MYDAT.LOG
5. Insert a tape into the drive (wait until the drive loads the
tape, seeks to the beginning of Partition 0 and is still)
and run DCONFIG and add the output to the same file
DCONFIG >>MYDAT.LOG
6. Note that there are two "greater-than" signs (>>) here which
append more output to the original file created earlier.
7. Send us an E-Mail with the text output file attached.
Note: DCONFIG needs the ASPI manager, but not DATMAN File Engine.
In fact, in order to avoid possible interference with a running
DATMAN file system, DCONFIG avoids accessing the DAT drive when it
detects the presence of DATMAN File Engine. So, remove it before
running DCONFIG.
This scheme allows us to build a firmware compatibility database
which will assist us in determining any possible problems before-
hand. If we notice that you have either obsolete or untested
firmware on your DAT drive, we could suggest updating your firmware.
Most DAT drives manufactured within the last 3 years incorporate
flash memory which makes updating firmware very easy. If you have
Archive brand (Python drive), we can update your firmware in our
facility (please send us an E-Mail for details).
If the DATMAN package you have does not contain DCONFIG.EXE, then
you can download the DCONFIG.ZIP file from our download server.
Click the next line to download.
DCONFIG.ZIP.
Then send an E-Mail with the file to tech@datman.com.
With your help, we can hopefully handle virtually all the DAT
drives on earth!