WARNING: TAPEGEN IS NOT SUPPORTED ON AIX VERSION 5.1. THE TAPEGEN SERVICE TOOL IS SUPPORTED ON AIX VERSION 4 ONLY.
TapeGen is a service tool from IBM that enables you to create a stacked tape containing SMIT installable fixes. You create a stack file that lists all the images you want stacked onto a tape and TapeGen does the rest.
The PTF images must be installable through SMIT. This means the fixes must be in installp format.
The tape device must have the block size set to 512.
Create the stack file. It must contain a list of PTF images that are to be written to tape.
To obtain TapeGen or read the user guide, simply download it via anonymous ftp from any of the servers listed below. Many of these sites are also web servers (example URL: http://service.software.ibm.com) and FixDist servers.
TapeGen may be downloaded from one of the following anonymous ftp servers:
United States service.software.ibm.com 198.17.57.66
Canada rwww.aix.can.ibm.com 204.138.188.126
Germany www.ibm.de 192.109.81.2
Japan fixdist.yamato.ibm.co.jp 202.32.4.20
Nordic ftp.nordic.ibm.com 193.12.214.80
United Kingdom ftp.europe.ibm.com 193.129.186.2
The TapeGen client along with the user guide is located in the anonymous ftp directory /aix/tools/tapegen. Below is an example of downloading and installing the tool and the Postscript user guide.
Note: The following procedure must be performed as root.
cd /tmp
ftp service.software.ibm.com
>login: anonymous
>password: "email" (example: johndoe@)
>
>bin
>cd /aix/tools/tapegen
>get tapegen.tar.Z (TapeGen tool in compressed tar format)
>get tapegen.ps.Z (User guide in compressed Postscript)
>quit
cd / (change directory to the root)
zcat /tmp/tapegen.tar.Z | tar -xpvf - (uncompress and untar)
TapeGen may be executed by typing the following :
tapegen -l stack_file -s fix_dir [-d device] [-w work_dir]
Note: The flags encased in brackets [ ] are optional flags. Descriptions of the applicable flags are listed below:
-l Name of the stack file. One PTF image per line.
-s Location of the PTF images.
-d Tape device name. The default is /dev/rmt0.
-w Location where temporary files will be created.
The default is /tmp.
Once the command is executed you will be asked to verify the parameters, see example below:
AIX TapeGen Utility Version 1.13
The following parameters will be used to create a stacked tape:
STACK FILE stack.list
PTF IMAGES DIRECTORY /images/32
TAPE DEVICE /dev/rmt0
TAPE TYPE 8MM
WORK DIRECTORY /tmp
Do you want to proceed with the above parameters (y/n)?
If the parameters are correct and TapeGen is executed then the following informational message will be displayed on the screen.
Verifying if the tape device block size is set to 512...done
Insert a writeable tape cartridge into /dev/rmt0 and press enter
Press enter to start the process. TapeGen will display several informational messages on the screen to verify the steps of writing to the tape.
TapeGen puts PTF images onto tape in a format that enables SMIT or installp to update your licensed programs directly from the tape without needing to copy the fix package onto your hard disk first. This tape format is called "stacked tape" because the images are stacked one after another on the tape.
SMIT (installp) requires more than just a stacking of PTF images one after another. The install process reads a table of content file in order to find the locations of the images on the tape.
The first and second image on the tape are reserved, empty images. These reserved areas are not used on fix tapes. They are used by bootable product installation tapes.
The third image is a special plain text file called the table-of-contents or toc. As the name implies it contains content information about the images that are on the tape.
The remaining images are the actual PTF images. If FixDist is used to created the stack file, they will be ordered on the tape in such a way as to limit the amount of "tape play". Tape play is the process of skipping images to get to another image.
TapeGen uses the stack file to determine what PTF images will be put on the tape.
Then TapeGen verifies that all the images are available to be stacked.
Next, each PTF image is opened and it's toc fragment is extracted. All the toc fragments are brought together in an ordered format to create the table-of-contents file that will become the third image on the tape.
After rewinding the tape, we begin the actual writing to the tape. We call upon dd (device dump) to write each image to the tape. When the last image is done, the building of the stacked tape is complete.
This book contains information on the TapeGen service tool. It includes an overview of the service and procedural information needed to access and use the tool.
TapeGen is a command line utility enabling you to create a stacked tape containing SMIT installable fixes.
This book is for the user responsible for receiving and installing software fixes for AIX operating environments.
This book contains the following chapters:
Chapter 1, "TapeGen Introduction," describes the features of the service. Chapter 2, "Downloading and Installing TapeGen," provides a procedure for downloading and installing the tool from a file server. Chapter 3, "Using TapeGen," provides a procedure for running TapeGen. Appendix A, "How TapeGen Works", provides information on how TapeGen works.
The following trademarks and acknowledgements apply to this information:
AIX is a trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.
FixDist User's Guide