After several months of struggling with the OS/2 server and my Exabyte
8-mm 8205XL tape drive I have determined the cause of the problem.

Even though the drive appears on the "supported" device list ADSM/2 does
not work with it. I cannot imagine why it took so long for someone at
ADSM to clue me in to this. Aparently they do not actually test to make
sure the drives are really complatible.

Anyone considering using this drive, or possibly any 8-mm tape drive
with the OS/2 server, must call up tech-support and get the unreleased
0.9 level of fixes. I can't believe I had to waste 3 months to be
informed of this major problem with the 8-mm drives. I have consistently
been told it "must be a set-up problem" and to buy some RedBooks.

My suggestion to ADSM would be to stop developing new platform support
until you have the current software bug free. The product should be able
to work with the hardware in the supported device list. The term "work"
I would define as: complete functionality out of the box.

IBM seems to have a genuine problem with this concept across the entire
range of their networking and connectivity products.

I think all of the IBM products I use (Lan Server, OS/2, and ADSM/2) are
superior to the competition, but if someone asked me to reccommend one
of the I would not. I also would not choose them again for any of my own
projects.

Jeffrey C. Mathers
Computer Data Systems Manager
The Protein/DNA Technology Center
The Rockefeller University