Tape drive

[karim_5]

i have a compaq ml350 g3 with smart array 532 controller and i want to install an external tape drive with scsi 68 pin
is it possible to connect it directly to the smart array cotroller??
if not what can i do

[David Lochhead]

Absolutely not , you can damage the controller it is meant for ONLY SCSI hard drives , no other SCSI devices or IDE devices should ever be connected to it . Use the integrated SCSI controller instead

Regards

David

[Leon Rosier]

The 532 controller has 1 internal and 1 external channel.
It IS supported to connect an external tapeunit. See specs.. http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10851_div/10851_div.HTML

Leon

[David Lochhead]

Leon is partially right on this but you can only use the three hotplug drives shown in the hotplug cage and not as in non hot plug configuation such as the exterior port. I have personally seen a 35/75 DLT damage an SA32000 controller when it was plugged on channel B (exterior) again no do not plug it directly to the controller but use the AIT drives or the 20/40 HotPlug drives in the hotplug drivecage in the link Leon sent.

[Leon Rosier]

I do NOT agree with David. He is right about the SA3200, this is an older type controller which didn't support tape drives at all.
The newer ones support even tape drives and disks on the same channel, therefore there are only hotplug drives "supported".
However, if you only connect 1 drive to the channel it can be a non-hotplug as well.
Tapelibraries are not supported.
What kind of drive do you want to install?

Leon

[Eugeny Brychkov]

I would connect tape drive to separate SCSI card, like simple integrated SCSI or http://www.hp.com/cposupport/information_storage/support_doc/lpg50063.html
Just not to have headaches in the future and eliminate tape-high_perf_disk on the same channel issues which may appear
Eugeny