boot from fiber channel tape

[Leftlane]

AIX 5.1
p620
Feature 6228 fiber channel card

Is it possible to boot from a locally connected fiber channel tape device (i.e. fc IBM 3590 or STK 9840 / 9940)?

I'm having no luck with my STK 9840 drives, as expected. It doesn't see it when I enter the SMS menus at boot. Just wondering if anyone else out there has tried this. It'd be nice if I could perform system backups to a fast drive instead of an 8mm unit.

Thanks

 

[Breslau]

I have done this with a 3590B drive over standard scsi, have not tried fibre.

do you see your hba being recognized as the host is doing its firmware checks? for instance, when watching a 6h1, i'll see msgs for each emulex hba on the system (after all a 6228 is really an emulex card) being sent to console.

just wondering...

 

[Leftlane]

Interesting about the 3590B over SCSI. In a pinch I could conjure one up and go that route, but that doesn't keep me in the STK silos like I had hoped for (only STK drives in my STK silos).

Yeah, as I recall (for what that's worth) I see the HBA location code getting shown on the led as it boots.

I spoke with IBM Support (CALLAIX) to get their "official" take on it. In short: nope, not supported. Apparently they just started supporting boot from fiber channel disk - didn't ask which ones - but nothing for the tape and no estimate on when that functionality might come about.