Exchanging Tapes between Tru64 Unix and Mainframes

Chris Knorr · *nix forums beginner Joined: 06 May 2002 Posts: 8

In our data center we often need to read tapes (usually 3480/3490/3490E)
that were generated from an IBM mainframe. We typically use "dd" to do this
and have gotten quite adept at being able to deal with virtually any format
that is thrown at us.

Recently we had to send a tape to an IBM mainframe shop. We used "dd" to
put the data on the tape and the customer reported they could not read it.
We then sent 5 different tapes to them with varying block sizes and they
reported failure on each and every attempt.

The people we're dealing with are not terribly technical, so we need to
make things as easy on them as possible. Does anyone have experience with
user-friendly software that can be used to share data between Unix and a
mainframe?

Much thanks,

Chris

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