LTO 5 and Mac Pro problem

[Tim Jones]

And IBM isn’t providing any form of user support. This is one of the many issues with OSS – you break it, you get to keep both pieces.

Having said that, have you looked for an older version of the IBM LTFS layer? It may be that this version only supports the LTO-6 drives. Also, you may need to ref lash the drive to a later firmware version – but you’ll need a Windows or Linux system for that with IBM’s drives.

Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!

[Tim Silva]

Tim, thanks for the suggestion. I’ll try looking for an older version of LTFS to start with. If no luck there I’ll look into the firmware.

Thanks!

Tim

[Matt Geier]

Tim,

Might want to double check on some stuff first before you change everything up. Have you tried using newer LTFS software instead of such an older copy of one?

LTFS is an open standard, interchangeable with other LTO-5 and LTO-6 brands, and is also cross-platform, so you can use the tape as you would a USB flash drive. Simply load an LTFS-formatted tape into your LTO-5 or LTO-6 drive, mount it into the file system, and it becomes visible as if it were a disk. Currently, the Quantum LTFS software supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Also, the issue could be hardware related. I know that sounds strange but sometimes, when software isn’t working right, it can be because of hardware problems.

Start trouble shooting the hardware, to determine it’s definitely working… (does it work any place else…does it do something, has the firmware changed, is it updated, etc.) and don’t assume the green lights mean it’s okay either. That’s called Green Light Syndrome, and you don’t want it.

You actually need an expert in IBM and LTFS to help you through this before you hurt your data or other pieces in the process. In sorts, keeping yourself, from hurting yourself more.

I know where we can get you some hardware support maintenance….
and I know where we can get you some LTFS support to troubleshoot any software issues.

If you want, call me to discuss and we can go from there.

Matt Geier
952-374-6735 (Office)
651-808-1338 (cell)
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Tim Jones]

[Matt Geier] “LTFS is an open standard, interchangeable with other LTO-5 and LTO-6 brands, and is also cross-platform, so you can use the tape as you would a USB flash drive. Simply load an LTFS-formatted tape into your LTO-5 or LTO-6 drive, mount it into the file system, and it becomes visible as if it were a disk. Currently, the Quantum LTFS software supports Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.”

Matt, I believe that you missed the line of the LTFS failure in Tim S’s original problem – the IBM LTO-5 drive is not being recognized by the IBM LTFS drivers/tool and he states that he is using the latest version of the drivers.

Also, some older IBM LTO-5 drives don’t have the LTFS support in their firmware which is why I recommended the firmware update.

Tim
—
Tim Jones
CTO – TOLIS Group, Inc.
https://www.productionbackup.com
BRU … because it’s the RESTORE that matters!

[Matt Geier]

I was just going down that path of trying to gather up some additional info….

I was thinking that IBM LTFS 2.0.0 supports the T2250 drive, because it does…

So why not just start looking in the system log and other log files to see what is being reported in hardware and drivers?

Even though this error message indicates one thing, looking at the system log and other associated driver dumps, etc, might indicate another….

I know of instances where the tape or disk device says it did not mount or was not being recognized… upon further investigation and research through the command line tools and other diagnostic tools, it determined that the hardware and device were mounted and working and seen just fine by the operating system… which meant something else was actually happening.

No harm done here I hope.

Matt Geier
952-374-6735 (Office)
651-808-1338 (cell)
(Creative Product Evangelist)
(Technical Sales Consultant)
(Video Networking Solutions Consultant)
(Creative Design Workflow Consultant)
(Social Media Networks Consultant)

[Tim Silva]

Well, I sat down to do more troubleshooting and the first thing I did was uninstall the ICU framework and the LTFS software. Then I reinstalled them. Then I put in the mount command in and low and behold, it mounted the tape – which I formatted back in the beginning. So, I don’t know what made the difference but I’m doing some further tests and it seems to be working.

Tim Matt, thanks for your input on this!

Tim Silva
Multimedia Coordinator
WHOI Graphic Services Group
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
tsilva@whoi.edu