[ILUG] SCSI questions

[Sean McGrath]

On Mon, Jan 31, 2000 at 10:33:23AM -0000, Kenn Humborg wrote:
> 
> 1. Is it safe to connect/disconnect a SCSI cable from 
>    a powered-up device (either host adapter or disk/tape
>    drive)?
> 
> 2. Is it safe to power up/down an external SCSI device
>    while the host adapter is powered?

   with tape drives and so long as nothing is going down the line, yup.
   I've done this a few times on hp machines, Just be very carefull.
   The same could be said for disks as long as they're not mounted etc...
   Just be carefull.  Make sure theexternel device was in the same state
   before you disconnected it.  If its a tape drive, then things
   should be more redundant.

> 
> 3. Is the SCSI command set 'remotable'?  Could you, in
>    theory, write a virtual SCSI port driver that would chuck
>    the SCSI commands across a network to another machine
>    which would then put them on a real SCSI bus, and return
>    the device's response across the net?

  something like a remote device ?  Been done hasn't it ?  I've
  done this, accessing a /dev/rmt/... device which was on another machine,
  though  I think it went thru rsh stuff...  Nice idea though.

> 
> (No 3 is a sick twisted plan for accessing my SCSI devices
> from VMS even though I don't have a SCSI adapter in the VAX.
> I do have one in my PC, and writing a SCSI port driver
> for VMS shouldn't be too hard.  It would certainly be easier
> than implementing the rmt protocol.)

  Someone got his DECUS license then ?

> 
> Later,


Sean.
.