Software Storagetek L40 - move tapes in slots remotely

Does anyone know of any software, prefer simple and free but anything
considered that will allow me to move tapes around in slots remotely
on a windows 2003 platform.

cheers

chris

Switch to linux and get MTX?

you didn't mention whether you want this scripted or not. Overland includes
a silly and useless web tool that allows a tape monkey to do the job via the
web. But they haven't figured out yet that if they make it scriptable,
people will love them for it. It would take all of 2-3 days per driver to
add a CLI. The APIs for moving tapes around are already there.

Back to the question: I don't know of anyone except for Cybernetics that
offers a CLI for robot control. I don't particularly care for Cybernetics
gear (all their stuff seemed to have minor integration issues, like improper
terminators shipping with the box), but they were the only game in town that
offered a _supported_ robotic control CLI. Overland (and perhaps others)
offers a GUI for robot control. There's a GPL package out there called MTX,
but does not appear to run on Windows. Furthermore, if the SCSI command set
is not implemented properly (as in the case of ADIC), there's a good chance
MTX won't work anyway. I've used MTX with overland gear without a hitch.

Your best bet may be to get a cheap backup product with a CLI and use that
to move around your tapes...

--paul


"Chris Horne" wrote in message
om...
Does anyone know of any software, prefer simple and free but anything
considered that will allow me to move tapes around in slots remotely
on a windows 2003 platform.

cheers

chris

In article L2iab.184616$xf.124088@lakeread04,
Paul Galjan wrote:
you didn't mention whether you want this scripted or not. Overland includes
a silly and useless web tool that allows a tape monkey to do the job via the
web.

These days I'm getting to the point where I'd be happy if people's damn
web interfaces worked without Javascript so I could use wget and awk to
script them.

:-P

I've got a Netscreen mini firewall here that refuses to even bring up
its UI with iCab until I tell iCab to lie and say it's IE5... then of
course iCab handles it perfectly, but until then it insists I don't have
a Javascript-capable browser.

And there is not a SINGLE feature in its interface that actually needs
Javascript.

Rotting smelly lazy sumbitch baskets.

(I'm a little bitter about this, you noticed?)

--
I've seen things you people can't imagine. Chimneysweeps on fire over the roofs
of London. I've watched kite-strings glitter in the sun at Hyde Park Gate. All
these things will be lost in time, like chalk-paintings in the rain. `-_-'
Time for your nap. | Peter da Silva | Har du kramat din varg, idag? 'U`

"Chris Horne" wrote in message
om...
Does anyone know of any software, prefer simple and free but anything
considered that will allow me to move tapes around in slots remotely
on a windows 2003 platform.

cheers

chris

I've written software to move tapes around from the command line on Win32.
It's targeted to a different brand of libraries (duhhh), but I'm sure I can
persuade it to work with any library out there that isn't too braindead.
Note that it's not a 'remote' tool, so you may need to set up remote
scripting or a telnet daemon on your Windows server.

Drop me an e-mail (robt at exabyte dot com) and I'll mail you a copy with
instructions.

Rob