meeting to discuss tapes on FC-AL, May 9th

Doug Hagerman, 508-841-2145, Flames to NL: 29-Apr-1996 1659 hagerman at starch.enet.dec.com
Mon Apr 29 14:14:31 PDT 1996


* From the SCSI Reflector, posted by:
* "Doug Hagerman, 508-841-2145, Flames to NL:  29-Apr-1996 1659" <hagerman at starch.ENET.dec.com>
*
Hello.

I just talked to Ted Lappin who is the chairman of the X3T10 working
group for SSC, SCSI-3 Stream Commands. He said that I could have
some time at 10:00 am on Thursday, May 9th, to talk about issues related
to the use of SCSI-3 tape drives connected directly to Fibre Channel
Arbitrated Loops. This would be part of the X3T10 meeting in Ft Lauderdale,
at the Ft Lauderdale Marriott North.

(Call Norm Harris at 408-945-8600 x2230 for last-minute reservations,
but please don't mention my name...)     :*)

Background: The current FC-AL device attach profile, FC-PLDA, is really
based on disk requirements. At this point there are some tape commands
that have been proposed for addition to the profile in order to claim
that it supports tapes, but no other special consideration for tapes has
been made. Several people have expressed concern that there may be
latent problems in this area.

Presumably there are tape vendors who plan to eventually connect tape
drives, probably high end models at first, directly to FC-AL. The time
to get any needed changes or additions into PLDA is RIGHT NOW, before
it's complete and published.

Last week I sent out a paper with some draft proposals; several comments
have come in which I will mention at the meeting. (Hey, I told you it
was only a proposal...) Please read it and send in your comments! I'm not
a tape expert and am shakey on many FC-AL details, so it's important that
this receive a good review, particularly by people who can put a practical
implementation spin on the discussion.

I certainly hope that some Fibre Channel experts are also able to attend
in addition to tape people. I expect that Dal Allen will be there, and
perhaps a few others. My goal is to get the groupthink from SSC onto
paper so that we can take it back to the PLDA review in June with a nice
clean proposal. Perhaps this is wishful thinking...

Please prepare to discuss tapes and Fibre Channel next Thursday!

Doug Hagerman
Digital Equipment.




More information about the T10 mailing list