README NOTES ON 5.2.5-TD RELEASE ========================= 1 Introduction 2 New features a) Extended NetWare Support b) VMM support c) IDE (FileSafe 8500) drive support d) On-demand tape formatting e) DOS 5.0 support f) Chktape extensions - lost data recovery g) IDE SETDISK installation utility 3 Performance tuning INTRODUCTION ============ FileSafe V5.2.5-TD now supports all Mountain Network Solutions mini-cartridge tape drives, including the IDE-interface FileSafe 8500. Data compression and ECC error correction is offered in all formats. The numerous enhancements provided by this software are detailed in the following section. NEW FEATURES ============ Extended NetWare Support ------------------------ This version of the software includes major new support for Novell's NetWare 386, versions 3.10 and 3.11. NetWare 386 features supported: NetWare 386 Bindery Files Netware 286 compatible Directory Rights NetWare 286 compatible Directory and File Attributes Preserves Last Access Date Updates Last Archived Date Netware 386 Directory Rights supported: Create Directory/File Erase Directory/File File Scan Modify Directory/File Read from File Write to File Netware 386 Directory and Files attributes supported: Directory File ========= ==== Options: System RO Read Only Hidden RW Read Write S Shareable H Hidden Sy System T Transactional A Archive Needed RA Read Audit WA Write Audit NetWare 386 features NOT supported: File level Trustees and Rights Macintosh files (AFP) Netware 386 Extended Directory and File attributes Novell OS/2 HPFS, FTAM, NFS or Macintosh Name Space Netware 386 Directory and File attributes NOT supported: Directory File ========= ==== Purge P Purge Deleteinhibit CI Copy Inhibit Renameinhibit DI Delete Inhibit RI Rename Inhibit Files restored to a Netware 386 server will inherit the target directory's rights and ownership. Special note to Netware network administrators - This software is not intended for use of upgrading Netware 286 to Netware 386. Files that were backed up from Netware 286 and restored to Netware 386 will not retain their original owners and trustees. Special note to network Mach2 users - In some installations, it may be necessary to insure that your Mach2 controller is using a higher priority interrupt than your network adapter card. The lower the interrupt number, the higher its priority. If you experience errors or very low data rates, particularly when using the high-capacity TD101 format, make sure that the Mach2 is assigned to a lower interrupt number than your network card. VMM Support ----------- A virtual memory subsystem is included to facilitate handling large directory structures via either expanded or extended memory. In addition, the speed with which these structures are built has been significantly improved relative to earlier versions of TD software. FileSafe 8500 IDE Drive Support ------------------------------- Support for Mountain's FileSafe 8500 has been integrated into 5.2.5-TD. Previously, a separate software version (5.2.4-IDE) was used for this product. On-Demand Formatting -------------------- Regardless which tape format you use, 5.2.5-TD will automatically format additional tape without user intervention whenever necessary to complete an ongoing backup. You no longer need to be concerned with completely pre-formatting tape cartridges. DOS 5.0 Support --------------- The AUTORUN utility has been redesigned to work correctly under DOS 5.0, and the entire package has been extensively tested in the 5.0 environment. CHKTAPE Extensions ------------------ Powerful new media analysis and data recovery capabilities have been added to the CHKTAPE utility. These features allow recovery of selectively backed up files which are otherwise inaccessible due to accidental over- writing of the volume table, hard errors on the media, or failures during the original backup process. The CHKTAPE extensions may be invoked in two ways: command line: CHKTAPE /T This invokes the CHKTAPE media analysis function, which displays basic information about the current tape's format, voume table, and data compression map. It is useful for obtaining a quick look at an unknown data cartridge. command line: CHKTAPE /F[pathfilename][;pathfilename] /M# /V# /DDrive:path /S This invokes the CHKTAPE file scanning (and recovery) functions. The /M (mode) switch has the following meaning: /M0 - This is the default, and will prompt the user whether or not to recover each file found. /M1 - This will cause encountered filenames to be displayed only; it is used to generate a "directory" of recoverable files for future reference. /M2 - This will cause all files found to be recovered without any further operator prompting. Specifying scan range: If the /V switch is supplied, then the decimal number following this switch specifies the volume number to scan. If the /V is not supplied, the user will be prompted to supply either a volume number or an "override" segment range. Whether the scanned data is treated as compressed or not will depend upon the volume table entry if a volume is chosen; if the override is used, then the user must specify whether or not to treat the scanned data as compressed. Specifying source path/file selection(s): If the optional pathfilename argument(s) follow the /F, then only files whose full pathnames match these arguments (up to the last character of the argument) will be processed. If no /F arguments are supplied, all files encountered will be processed. Note that wildcards (* and ?) are NOT supported in pathfilenames. Specifying target drive and path: The destination drive and path may be supplied on the command line following the /D switch, or else the user will be prompted before file scanning begins. If a destination path other than root ('\') is supplied, then all recovered files will be placed in their original paths below the supplied destination. Special option: The /S (slow scan) option may be used to attempt to recover files which erroneously begin within the data area of a previous file. This option results in significantly slower operation, and should rarely be required. Examples: To recover all files under \DOS and its subdirectories from the second volume on a tape, and to place these files on the D: drive's \DOS directory, with user prompting before each file is recovered: CHKTAPE /F\DOS /DD:\ /V2 To generate a directory of all files in the first volume on tape, and to place this directory in the file V1DIR on the logged disk: CHKTAPE /F /V1 /M1 > V1DIR NOTE: File recovery only works on tapes which were originally written using the SELECTIVE backup method. Damaged IMAGE volumes CANNOT BE RECOVERED with this utility. At least one space is required between each command line option switch for proper parsing. Spaces should NOT be used between the switch itself and its related argument(s). SETDISK IDE Drive Configuration Utility --------------------------------------- The SETDISK.EXE program was designed to help you configure your IDE hard disk drive so that it can support the IDE tape drive unit. SETDISK should only be run from this floppy disk on a system with an IDE hard drive currently installed. The system must be running properly and currently not booted from a floppy disk. To support the IDE tape drive, your hard drive must have its board jumpers set to the "Master of 2 drives" configuration. This program will attempt to determine the IDE disk drive currently installed on your system and display a drive board image indicating which jumpers on your drive board must be changed. WARNING: If your disk drive jumpers are not configured correctly, damage to your tape drive and/or disk drive may result. After the board image is displayed, you will have the option to print the image or write it to a file. In order to correctly print the graphics characters used in these drawings, the printer must support and currently be configured for the IBM GRAPHICS CHARACTER SET. If you are not sure how to configure your printer properly or you do not have one, take careful notes on the jumper changes to be made before continuing with drive configuration. WARNING: Do not attempt to remove your IDE hard disk drive without first turning off the power to the computer and removing the plug from the wall. Consult the Internal Installation & Operations manual for further instructions. After making the necessary changes to the hard disk jumper settings, continue with your tape drive installation as noted in the Internal Installation & Operations manual. If you experience problems consult your IDE hard disk drive reference manual on how to configure your drive to the "Master of two drives" configuration. For information on contacting customer support refer to Appendix A of the Internal Installation & Operations manual. Special note for Diskless Workstation TD8500 installations: If you install your TD8500 on a diskless workstation using that computer's existing IDE interface, you will need to change a jumper on the TD8500 drive. This jumper is located on the "P9 header" located on the component side of the drive circuit board (the top) immediately behind the tape drive frame. When shipped, the jumper spans pins 1 and 2; it should be moved to pins 2 and 3 (toward the outside of the board). You may then run CHKTAPE to register the new hardware configuration. PERFORMANCE TUNING ================== Next to reliability, one of the most important requirements of a tape backup product is that it be FAST. Under ideal conditions on average data sets, you should expect the following performance during non- compressed selective backup operations on local drives: TD4340 (XT-class) 1 megabyte/minute TD4440 (AT-class) 2 megabytes/minute TD8000 (no Mach2) 2 megabytes/minute TD8000 (Mach2, QIC80) 4 megabytes/minute TD8000 (Mach2, TD101) 5 megabytes/minute When you use the data compression option, backup speed is heavily dependent on your system's CPU speed. If you are not using a Mach2, you will usually find that backup speed is slightly faster with compression than without. This is because the tape drive's data rate is often the limiting factor in the absence of a Mach2 - when this is the case, using compression allows the system's CPU to keep busy (compressing data) during time when it would have been waiting for the tape drive to take the data anyway. If you are using a Mach2, compression performance is more critically related to processor speed. This is because the tape drive itself is placing a higher demand upon the system to feed it data, and there is less "slack" time remaining for the CPU to read data from disk and compress it. As a general rule of thumb, we've found that systems with less than a 20 Mhz 386 will often have slightly lower backup speeds with compression than without. Faster systems, such as 33 Mhz 386s, will usually show slightly better performance WITH compression, on the other hand. Buffer size ----------- When FileSafe is transferring data to or from tape, the Progress window displays "Buffer: xxxK". This tells you how much memory has been allocated for data transfer DMA buffers. FileSafe will work with as little a 64K, but performance will be better with at least 128K. In most situations, increases beyond 128K will not provide much further performance improvement, though it never hurts. FileSafe uses as much conventional memory as possible for these DMA buffers. To make as much of this memory as possible available to FileSafe during backup sessions, we recommend that you: 1) Use a modern version of DOS, or a memory manager which allows DOS resources, including device drivers and TSRs, to be loaded in upper memory. If at all possible, try to have 600K available for FileSafe to run in when started; 512K is the practical, though not absolute, minimum. You can find out how much memory is available by running MEM or CHKDSK. 2) If you have any extended or expanded memory, make sure your system is configured to use it, and also make sure FileSafe is configured to use it (inspect the XMM/EMM options in the Utilities/Install screen).