Dwight,
You can't stack mksysb's on a tape, but you can stack Sysbacks.

The first tape file on a bootable tape is in 512 byte blocks and is the
actual boot program.  This is basically the kernel and a backup file
used to populate the ramfs as defined by the proto files.

On a mksysb, the second, I think, is a dummy file, and in a sysback,
it's a second backup file for sysback utilities.

On a mkssysb, the third is the actual backbyname of all rootvg
filesystems.  That's all and last time I looked, there is no way to
skip forward to additional images.

On a sysback, the third is the table of contents.  Four and up are the
backbyname images for each of the filesystems included in the sysback.

-Josh

On 04.03.23 at 06:22 cookde AT US.IBM DOT COM wrote:

> Date: Tue, 23 Mar 2004 06:22:56 -0600
> From: Dwight Cook <cookde AT US.IBM DOT COM>
> Reply-To: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
> To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: mksysb tapes on fibre-attached 3590
>
>
> *snip*
>
> I would say that would be a waste of a 300 GB tape but if your system
> is down hard and you need to recover...
>
> OH, now I just thought... during a boot from a mksysb tape, does the
> system go through any sort of tape relocation or does it just start at
> the ~load point~ ?
>
> One could place multiple mksysb images on a single tape IF processing just
> initiated where the tape is positioned... between mtlib & tapeutil one
> could mount any tape and position it anywhere so if you had 4 or 5 boxes
> using an atl, they might be able to share a single tape.... (ugh...  more
> work to research that...)
>
> Dwight E. Cook
> Systems Management Integration Professional, Advanced
> Integrated Storage Management
> TSM Administration
> (918) 925-8045