Requesting Assistance About the LTO-5 Tape Drive in ltfs

[Brahim47]

Hi

I have the honor to ask you to assist us in using our LTO-5 tape drive in LTFS mode

 Materials used:

• HPE LTO-5 Ultrium 3000 SAS External Tape Drive Model AQ281N # 040
• HP Proliant Gen8 G1610T Microserver Model 819185-421
• Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack1 System
• HP Smart Array P222 1-Port SAS Controller Card
• 2 meter external mini SAS cable HP 407344-003

    Problem

The problem is that this LTO drive is not detectable in LTFS by the software: HPE LTFS Configuration and HPE Library and Tape Tools. What is the solution?

 It should be noted that:

• Running the HPE LTFS Configuration software gives us the message '' No suitable tape drives found ''
• Running the HPE Library and Tape Tools software gives us the message "L & TT does not support this device".
• Running the Smart Storage Administrator software gives us 2 errors reported on the Smart Array P222 Diagnostic Report

      - 283 Smart Array P222 in connector 1 is disabled because the cache module is not connected

      - There is no configurable physical disk connected to the current Smart RAID / HBA.

• The drive appears in Device Manager as '' HP Ultrium M8705A SCSI Sequential Device ''  

• This drive works with Iperius software and other backup software, but when you add another backup to the tape, you will overwrite the previous data.
• This drive will be used to archive in the tapes all the digital data saved in the various hard disks

[tapelibraryfixr]

if its like the H241 adapter i think there should be an option like Raid Mode or HBA mode in the HPE software for the card.

[Brahim47]

What should i do?

[tapelibraryfixr]

I just thought do you have the HPE Tape drivers installed and not the default windows driver? the software may require it to run the drive.

i wouldnt change the settings on the card as its running the RAID for your disks.

[Brahim47]

can you help me to get this driver? thank you

[tapelibraryfixr]

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5336448&swItemId=MTX_c45d658644f144cd9bf1d957c6&swEnvOid=4184

click obtain software

[Curtis_Ballard]

You highlighted an interesting point in your original message.  This is an unusual combination and the HPE tools may not be recognizing the drive.

It looks like the drive you have is a Tributary Systems tape drive.  Tributary Systems provides tape support in some unusual environments and they get special drive firmware.  I can't think of anything in the special features for Tributary System that would completely break LTFS but there are some that easily could cause a device detection routine to not recognize the drive and some special features that could affect LTFS software.  I don't know the exact SCSI implementation that LTFS uses well enough to know whether LTFS software would have to do anything special for these tape drives.

The HPE LTFS team monitors these forums and may be willing to comment on whether the HPE tape drives with Tributary Systems firmware should work with HPE StoreOpen software.

[Brahim47]

Thank you for your response. The execution of this program is without result

[Brahim47]

thanks. what's the Tributary Systems?

I wish there will be a solution to this problem with the HPE LTFS team

[Curtis_Ballard]

Triutary Systems is a company that buys LTO tape drives from HPE with special customizations to the drive firmware for special behaviors defined by Tributary Systems.  The customizations in those drives are for enabling solutions sold by Tributary Systems and those drives do not operate quite the same as drives sold by HPE.

From the Tributary Systems website: "Tributary provides custom hardware and software tape solutions to address even the most complex user requirements." [emphasis added]

The tape drives they sell are "custom" - those drives are not the same as drives purchased from HPE.  It sounds like something that was customized in the drives is preventing them from working with the HPE tools.

[Amarjit_Y]

ltfs now called as StoreOpen as per new naming conversion .

The Supported HBA Adapter ATTO H644, H680 (Host Bus Adapter) needs to be installed in the host server 
also make sure latest LTO driver installed.

Please find the latest StoreEver Compatibility Matrix in below and look for Page Number 54 for the Supported HBA model number for StoreOpen.

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/doc/public/display?docId=c04616269  (Page number 54)

NOTE : StoreOpen Standalone is not supported P222 and P212 Smart Array Controller on x86 Windows Operating System

LTO latest Driver can be obtain from below link :

https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=5336448&swItemId=MTX_c45d658644f144cd9bf1d957c6&swEnvOid=4184

[Brahim47]

Thank you for your help, I am in mission as soon as I return I will practice your suggestions and see the result