rsh: remote tape backup

I am trying to perform a remote tape backup from one SCO openserver to another remote SCO Openserver which happens to have a tape drive configured.
I have added entries into host.equiv and .rhosts on the tape drive server:

prodution_server root # This is equivalent to the hostname and user of
# the machine being backed up.

So now when I try to perform a remote tape backup with the following command: tar -cvf - /directory/ | rsh remotemachine -l root 'dd of=/dev/rStp1" I actually see the archive being performed, but the I get the error message: can't open remotehost

Note: I can rlogin, but I am still being prompted to type in my password.

Does anyone no how I may resolve this problem? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Make sure the IP and hostname of the server you are backing up is in the backup server's /etc/hosts file. If it has more than one network interface (on either server) you may need to figure out which interface it's coming from.

Test with rsh hostname command until it doesn't require a password - then your backup will work (use a simple command such as date in testing)