Scott Vanzo
Forum Replies Created
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Wow. Old thread…
Christopher-
We’re still running a LTO3 Tape Library here off of an ATTO SCSI (UL5D) card on an old (PPC) Xserve with Mac OS Server 10.4.11. It has been running for a long time hardly without a hiccup, but I rarely reboot the machine.
Once in a while (after a reboot) the Library and/or Tape Drive will not be recognized in the ATTO Utility. If this utility does not see your library or drive, neither will your backup software.
My usual remedy is to shut the Xserve down, followed by the tape Library. Wait 30 seconds. Power up the Library or Drive first and let it fully boot (I am not sure if or how long a standalone drive needs to boot). Our Library does a full inventory when it starts up, so I wait for that to be completely done, and make sure the Library is in the default main menu when it is ready. For a single drive, I would probably make sure there is no tape loaded. Only then do I start our server, and check the ATTO utility again before proceeding.
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Not sure what your exact needs are, but here is my experience:
After several years use, we ditched BRU Server because of the buggy “console” app and poorly designed GUI. Cheap, and fairly easy to install and use, with a decent server component, but unreliable front end. Tolis has moved too slowly when it comes to bug fixes and updates to the BRU Server product, and I encountered some problems restoring from some older archives, so the choice was inevitable.
We looked at Atempo and Bakbone, but found the demos complicated to install and use, and very expensive. In my opinion, the sales groups tended to obfuscate their product with marketing cliche in order to justify the cost. One company (cannot remember which) strongly recommended that they come on site to install their product for a significant fee. For large organizations with more complicated needs, the bells and whistles of these two may be worth the cost and complexity. Not for us.
We then discovered PresSTORE Backup, and I must say we found the perfect combination of ease of use, rock solid reliability, and cost. I was quite startled that the install was that fast and easy. There is only one installer for each OS, not 3 separate components like BRU. Unlike BRU, configuration of the backup server and clients is performed entirely through the server’s web interface, accessible from any node on your LAN. The GUI is a vast improvement over BRU’s somewhat clunky interface. Config, Job, and Log info is organized logically and efficiently. I do not have to wait for data to load or refresh like the BRU console. While BRU’s logs can be excessively verbose and a chore to sift through, I have found PresSTORE’s logs are much more concise and legible. Tolis could learn some lessons here.
So far, our backups have been flawless. We have 3 backup pools of 20 LTO-3 volumes each, rotated off site each week. I have not seen any errors, only occasional file access warnings when files are created or modified while being backed up. Many restores have been performed, mostly for testing, and we have yet to get the software to fail. The web server has never failed or even shown a glitch.
The only problem with I have had is when stopping PresSTORE for server maintenance. The software sometimes refuses to shutdown for reasons I have yet to determine. Otherwise it has been a joy to use.
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I wouldn’t allow any computer with a SCSI adapter to go to sleep. Do not know that they are designed for that…
Make sure the Config Utility has Termination set to AUTO.
The ATTO Config Utility never says there are drivers installed for third party devices, so do not worry about that.
What is the driver version and flash file version of your ATTO card?
What are the NVRAM settings for the channel + scsi id that the LTO-4 drive is connected to?
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A few remaining ideas before you hear back from Roxio-
1) This sounds a bit daft, but was there an LTO-4 cartridge in the drive before trying to access the volume in Retrospect? The BRU software that we use requires a tape in the drive when discovering hardware.
2) Fixing Permissions on your System drive in Disk Utility, and then restarting would be a good idea too.
3) FWIW: The Roxio site states that “Snow Leopard is supported with Retrospect 8.1.622 or later for Macintosh”. Not sure what version of Retro you are using.
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SCSI is a pretty finicky beast.
Make sure you have the latest firmware for the Quantum LTO-4 drive. I am not sure how Quantum updates their firmware, but they probably have a utility for that. Unless self terminating, make sure your drive has an active ULTRA 320 LVD/SE SCSI terminator attached.
Also, make sure you are using the latest version of the ATTO UL5D driver that is available for the OS you are running, as well as the latest firmware flash file for the UL5D card. You can download these from the ATTO site.
You will also need to download the latest ATTO Config Utility that will report the driver and firmware versions, let you update the firmware, confirm that the card correctly sees/identifies the drive, and set the proper NVRAM settings for your SCSI device.
Our LTO-3 library & drive work best at the default settings, with TAG Command Queuing disabled in the NVRAM settings. I have not worked with a LTO-4 drive, so I cannot offer any specific advice for that.
Since you are running the latest version of the Mac OS, I would start by updating all the drivers and firmware for your hardware.
Good luck, and let us know.