[Tim Jones]

Not yet – Areca only fixed things for the embedded TB to SAS adapter used in the mLogic mTape unit. We are still trying to get them to extend the code changes to the entire line. It involves both a driver change and new firmware for the HBAs.

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

[Tim Jones]

Just to add a bit of compatibility input here – BRU PE and BRU Server both properly support and recognize the mLogic mTape units. In fact, it was our work with mLogic and Areca that enabled the unit to properly handle tape block sizes over 64K.

We are also compatible with the 1 Beyond unit as it uses the ATTO Thunderbolt to SAS bridge.

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

[Tim Jones]

The more important question is – why are the files reporting permission denied failures? You really should examine the filesystem settings for the volume that you are restoring the original files onto.

If you would rather not solve that problem and simply ignore it for this restore procedure, you can use the brutab option:

#+BRUMAXERRORS=9999999999
#+BRUMAXWARNINGS=9999999999

in the /Library/Application Support/BRU PE/etc/brutab file. This is documented in the BRU PE User’s Guide in Chapter 13 around Page 93.

If you would like further help with this, I recommend opening a support ticket at https://support.bru.com.

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

[Tim Jones]

Hi Alex,

SAS and Mini-SAS are just two names for the same interface type – SAS is the proper name, while mini-SAS describes the SFF-8088 connector used by most external devices.

There are multiple methods for connecting SAS devices. For the externally connected types, most vendors have agreed to use the SFF-8088 mini-SAS connector type for compatibility. The SFF-8088 connector can handle 1 or 4 channels and the number of channels relates to the performance of the devices attached. Generally, when you buy an SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 cable, you are getting a cable with all 4 SAS channels included at both ends. This is the type of cable and connector that you will need to connect Disk arrays.

One other thing that you need to be aware of in deciding which RAID chassis to buy is how the drives in the array are propagated back to the Host. Some lower cost chassis use a point to point configuration. This means that each drive is attached to a separate channel and an single ATTO R680 can only support up to 8 drives (4 channels per port). The other method is by providing a SAS Expander backplane within the chassis. These types of RAID chassis will cost much more than a P2P setup, but it will allow you to connect up to 128 physical drives to a single port (4 channels) on the ATTO R680. Theoretically, you could connect 256 physical disk drives to a single host with an ATTO R680.

As an example, our ArGest RackMOD units use a SAS Expander backplane and you can daisy chain up to 7 of the 2RU chassis on one port of an ATTO R680.

On the other hand, the lower cost chassis that you mention are P2P and will limit your expansion to 8 drives on a single ATTO R680.

Hope that helps you in choosing.

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

[Tim Jones]

Of course, this is an opinion, but I would really recommend LTO tape for this.

You think that your financial guy will have a heart attack over an LTO solution? Wait until they see the bill for replacing lost shots due to failed disk(s).

For 40 TB (that’s 17 LTO6 tapes), your cost using our ArGest solution would be $4,499 for the hardware / software and $1,100 for tapes.

For 10 reasonably reliable WD Caviar Black 4TB disks, you’re still looking at $2,400 + the long term overhead of spinning the drives up. And, a hard drive sitting on a shelf can refuse to spin up after 6+ months causing either data loss or $1,000’s in recovery expense. On the other hand, an LTO-6 tape sitting on a shelf for 10’s of years will still restore just fine.

If I was your finance guy, I’d be demanding LTO tape as the solution.

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

[Tim Jones]

Actually, it is rocket science :). But, you are correct in that it should just work. There are 3 items at play here –

10.7.5 – this was never truly tested for Finder <-> LTFS compatibility. We started heavy testing at 10.8.2 and never really stressed earlier versions of OS X.
Areca – definitely not currently compatible with tape, and LTFS especially, on Mac or Linux.
LTFS – we have seen the error code -50 in a lot of instances with users and even looking at the source code for the LTFS layer, we can’t truly determine the cause. In fact, on OS X systems, errno 50 indicates that the network is down…

While any one of these might not be a dead end, combining all three is an invitation for disaster. If you think that LTFS will do the job for you, then you will need to replace (or add to) the Areca card with an ATTO H680 ExpressSAS HBA. I would also urge you to at least move to 10.8.5 if you must use LTFS.

If you want something that will work with your 10.7 system, assuming that you add the ATTO SAS HBA, our BRU PE and BRU Server products are fully compatible with both that version of OS X and your HP LTO-6 drive.

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

[Tim Jones]

Hi Nate,

Check the link again. We show all systems online.

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

[Tim Jones]

You update the firmware version using the ATTO Control Panel. It’s available from https://www.ATTOTech.com under Downloads.

Also, be aware that 10.5 is losing all sorts of love in the development arena, so be cautious of any changes on your system. At this stage, we can no longer build tools that will work on systems older than 10.6. Or, tools built on the older platforms act oddly on 10.9.

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

[Tim Jones]

I agree with Steve – this is the primary reason why only NFS works for this type of sharing and AFP or CIFS don’t. You really should only mount that volume via NFS.

“It’s great if you just stay inside FCPX, but if you need to navigate the san folder structure or do any file manipulation, it’s a bit messy.”

I’m not sure what you mean by this. If you use NFS to mount a volume on your Mac, it should show up just like any other mounted volume. If it’s not showing up on the Desktop because of its mount point, you can still use the Cmd-Shift-G (Goto Folder) shortcut in Finder.

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

[Tim Jones]

I remembered OPT-Drag last night. Like I said, I was totally overthinking the needed result and went ’round my fist, so to speak.

Oh, and I’m not using compound clips for this, just dropping the title generator where needed.

All is well now.

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