NetWare 4.01 and SBACKUP

As discussed in IPB 2136, in order for SBACKUP to operate under NetWare 4.x, you need to load a specific disk driver (TAPEDAI.DSK) in addition to the hardware specific driver and ASPI interface for the relevant SCSI card.

We have discovered however that with NetWare 4.01, there is a problem with the version of TAPEDAI.DSK supplied with the product that will prevent users from restoring from tapes if either the tape is removed from the driver prior to restoration, or if the server is stopped and restarted.

We have reported this problem to Novell, who have acknowledged that this is a general problem with NetWare 4.01 and who have supplied a new TAPEDAI.DSK to us as a releasable Novell 'field test' (or in other words, a 'wide beta'). This file is available for download from File Area 37 of Apricot Insight BBS, called TPEDAIFT.EXE (33857 bytes). This file contains a new TAPEDAI.DSK, and a text file (TPEDAIFT.TXT) that contains the release notes for the driver. The new TAPEDAI.DSK should be copied over the currently installed version (after having first taken a copy of the original file).

We should point out however that the device support for SBACKUP under NetWare 4.01 (using this driver) is VERY limited. Currently, the Archive Python 1.3GB DDS is the only device that Apricot supply that is fully supported with this driver. Other devices will fail (as described above) during operation.

We have raised the lack of supported devices as an important issue with Novell, and are currently awaiting feedback from them as to whether other devices will be added to the list, and if so, what devices and when. As soon as we have an update on this situation, we will issue another bulletin with the relevant details.

See the file TPEDAIFT.TXT for a full list of 3rd party tape drives supported with the driver.

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