Disconnected Service Virtual for Displaying VMTAPE mounts
Roger Deschner  <rogerd@uic.edu>
University of Illinois at Chicago
 
 
SYSOPTAP: a Disconnected Service Virtual for Displaying VMTAPE mounts
                         Version 1.2, May, 1996
                     Roger Deschner (rogerd@uic.edu)
                    University of Illinois at Chicago
 
 
SYSOPTAP runs disconnected, and drives any number of ATTACHED or DIALED
displays, showing in large letters the tapes to be mounted for VMTAPE.
These displays are constantly updated, and so can be located in various
areas to tell operators and tape librarians what is being requested.
 
SYSOPTAP also intercepts FOREIGN tape mounts and assumes that they are
for Standard Labeled tapes which are being mounted by their internal
label name, such as from the DMSTVI exit. Then it looks these up in the
TMC and shows the slot number for the operator to find that tape. Such
tapes must belong to the user requesting the mount, due to the
possibility that there may be more than one tape in the system with the
same internal label name.
 
SYSOPTAP REQUIRES:
 
    Sterling VM:Tape (of course)
    WAKEUP from CMS Utilities (can be replaced by HMF or PIPE)
    CMS Pipelines 1.0106 (CMS8) or later
 
See file SYSOPTAP INSTALL for installation details.
 
Even if you have no interest in tape mounting, SYSOPTAP is a working
example of a server which runs disconnected, and which drives displays
connected to it using DEDICATE, ATTACH, or DIAL commands. These are
driven using the CMS Pipelines FULLSCREEN device driver. This is a
superior method, avoiding most of the problems of attempting to use a
virtual machine's console as an informational display.
 
Roger Deschner    University of Illinois at Chicago   R.Deschner@uic.edu