RELEASE NOTES ============= Product: Media Loader Utility Program (MLU) Contents: file MLU020.A, MLU020.B, this and other documents Date: 01 March 1994 Product version: 2.0 Reason for release: Major update. New product support, bug fixes, misc tweeks. See "Changes since last release" below. Prerequisite VAX/VMS version: 5.4 Prerequisite Alpha/VMS version: 1.5 Supported devices: TF857 TZ857 TA85 TA857 TA867 TF86 TF867 TZ867 SA100 SA106 TLZ06 on VMS 6.x and Alpha 1.5 systems, TLZ06 as TLZ6 on VMS 5.x TZ857, TZ867 and TLZ06 on HSC's K.SCSI TL820 TZ877 Unsupported devices (no loader present): TZ86 TF85 TZ85 Unsupported system components: Any HSC running V8.30 software. KDM70 HSC50 Served tapes in a cluster - See known limitations section at end of this doc. Any TMSCP tape (TF..M, TA.., etc) on an Alpha system. Related documentation: MLU User's Guide (date: TBD) Initial release: 26 Nov 1991 Installation time: about 4 minutes Brief description of product ---------------------------- The Media Loader Utility serves two purposes: * to provide DCL access to media loaders * to provide tape operators with a means of rapidly verifying the contents of a magazine before starting a lengthy backup/restore operation. Installation procedure ---------------------- The MLU is installed using the standard VMSINSTAL procedure. No options are required. There are (possibly) two non-standard questions: (paraphrased) 1) MLU can be installed so that only priviledged users can use it or so that every user can use it. Which? 2) A previous version of MLU exists. Save the old startup file? After installation, the system start up procedure must be modified to cause the execution of SYS$STARTUP:MLU$STARTUP.COM This is usually done in SYS$MANAGER:SYSTARTUP....COM. Please check the comments at the beginning of product startup procedure SYS$STARTUP:MLU$STARTUP.COM. Special action must be taken for SCSI bus based devices. Additional Installation Information ----------------------------------- The install kit savesets (MLUxxx.A & MLUxxx.B) contain some files that are not installed into the user's system. These files consist of information that is of no value to general users or is used only by experienced programmers. To view the contents of the savesets, issue the following command from the DCL prompt: $ BACKUP/LIST MLUxxx.A/SAVE -or- $ BACKUP/LIST MLUxxx.B/SAVE Files of interest: A) UNKNOWN_DEVICE_MEMO.TXT - Details configurations where the device type is not known to VMS. B) MLU_RTL_INTERFACE.TXT - Details the software interface to the RTL. B) MLURTLDEF.H - a C language include file Revision Matrix of supported devices ------------------------------------ This chart lists the versions of microcode that must be present in the indicated device types. See device specific documents (or Field Service) on how to get microcode updates. | TF85, TF86 - V4 +----------- Note: This device does not have a loader and therefor this Media Utility is of little value to TF85 users. Devices with V1, 2 or 3 will cause MLU to report that the display command is not supported. Devices with V4 will cause MLU to report that no loader is present. | TF857, TF867 - V4 +------------- Note: See limitation section at end of these release notes. | TZ85, TZ86 - V3 (date: Jan 1992) or later +----------- Note: see above note re: no loader. Response of V1 code unknown. | TZ857, TZ867 - V3 (date: Jan 1992) or later +------------- Note: As of this release, the current version of TZxx microcode is V24. No testing of MLU will occur on older versions and future MLU changes may cause problems. | TLZ6, TLZ06, TLZ6L - V4.91 (Aug 1993) +------------ Note: The TLZ06 device shows up as different device types on different VMS versions. References in these release notes and other documentation will be "TLZ06" and mean any variation encountered. See UNKNOWN_DEVICE_MEMO.TXT | TA857, TA867, SA100, SA106 - V7 formatter ROMS +--------------------------- Note: With HSC V650, MLU requires a TUdriver that sets the MBI modifier. See THETOY::MLU$KIT:SA100_MEMO.TXT for more details. With HSC V800+, the special TUdriver is not required. With HSC V830, MLU will not work - see limitations. The HSC50 is not supported by MLU or, more accurately, the HCS50 does not support IO$_DISPLAY commands and MLU cannot work without them. This will not be fixed. The KDM70 is not supported by MLU, reason unknown. | TZ877 - T10-2 (field test version) (date: FEB 1994) or later +------ Changes since last release -------------------------- 1. Divided the single .EXE file of older MLU versions into a Run Time Library file (RTL) and an application file. This permits other (future) applications to use the bulk of MLU's device handling capabilities. 2. Combined the VAX/VMS and Alpha/VMS executables into a single saveset with an install procedure that determines what files to install during installation. 3. Added option during install to save the MLU$STARTUP file. 4. Added TZ877 support. 5. Added the IMPORT, EXPORT and TRANSFER commands. 6. Added TL820 (also latent 810) support. 7. Expanded scope of element type identifiers (TK50, TK87, etc.) to be more accurate. Example: A TZ877 can support TK50, TK70 TK85, TK86 and TK87 cartridges/media formats. Type identifiers will be "TK50/70" if it's known that the tape is 50 or 70 but not which. Similarly, "TK85/86/87" for a tape with a known cartridge type but unknown format. As a information is accumulated during a verify, the type identifiers will be updated to accurately reflect known information. 8. Numerous small fixes. Known limitations ----------------- Note: Not a single request has been received for features outlined in #2 and #3. They may be dropped. As is, no planned implementation date. 1. MLU will not work on any HSC running V8.30 software. This can not/will not be fixed. 2. /EXPECT="@file.name" is not implemented yet. 3. The /DATA switch has been defined but not implemented. This switch causes the output of a fixed format file containing the contents of whatever holds the tape(s). If anyone has a need for this, please say so. 4. The command: $ mlu verify/expect=(all:init,6:empty,4:noinit) $1$mia4 fails because the "all:init" and the "4:noinit" conflict and there is no test for this - yet. There are lots of similar situations. 5. There is a bug in V4 code for the TF8x7 (DSSI) that sometimes causes the SELECT, UNLOAD and VERIFY commands to fail with an illegal command indicator. SHOW continues to work. The bug is believed to be triggered by using the loader's Eject button (ie open door) to also rewind and unload a cartridge in the drive. Suggest all MLU script files use the UNLOAD command to empty the drive prior to allowing an operator to Eject a magazine from the drive. 6. Some sites using SA10x devices on HSCs with V8.20 software have reported the logging of fatal drive errors while using the command MLU SELECT when a cartridge is already in the drive. The combined unload/load cycle time exceeds an HSC timeout and an error is reported. The loader performs the operations as expected but MLU does not wait for the new cartridge to become ready since it has detected the error and exited w/status. Suggested work around: Use seperate MLU commands to unload and load the cartridges. Seperate the commands by a 30 wait. 7. All versions of Alpha/VMS are using the old implementation of the IO$_DIAPLAY command in TUdriver. As a result, no TMSCP drives are supported on Alpha platforms. Please send bug reports to ELWOOD::LANE or lane@elwood.enet.dec.com