Ugh-Hardware-tape compat. On-line RS6000

For some time we have been caught between the hardware and software people. We archive and write logical logs to 4mm tape drives. On some occasions we find incompatibilites between 8 mm drives which we can't resolve by adjusting setups or block sizes within Online's tape parameters or AIX's tape settings. We seem to have two tape drives that can read back what we put out. Out test is using dd on archive tapes on onlog on logical log tapes. One of the two drives has recently begun to fail so we are stuck with flip-flopping between archives and logical log backups and waiting for the other drive to start failing. It is not a comfortable spot. The problem is that the errors returned from onlog when it can't read appear to aix stuff so Informix can't help. IBM asks us to tar to the device and if you can do that drive is OK. Well we can tar to devices that we can't read Informix tapes from. If you can shed some light, please do. I'd rather resolve the issue before being forced into a real panic mode. -- Con Woodall Colorado St. U.; Veterinary Teach. Hosp.; Ft. Collins CO 80523, USofA; 970-491-1244 FAX 970-491-1205 cwoodall@vth1.vth.colostate.edu --