Hi folks. I don't see a dedicated Tape subforum so I guess this is the closest?
I got my hands on a Dell TL4000 tape library - 48-slot, 4 drive slots (3 included) and 2 PSUs. The library itself seems to be working - diagnostics pass, the robot moves tapes around etc. I got into the web UI without issue and updated the firmware to latest. It is very slow, taking >15 minutes to boot up from cold. However I'm having trouble getting it to work with my Linux machines.
It has 1x LTO-3 and 2x LTO-4 tape drives installed plus an empty LTO-3 sled, though one of the LTO-4 drives doesn't work. I've been trying to get things working with the LTO-3 - none of my LTO-3 tapes have labels, but I printed my own for a box of unused LTO-2 tapes and they were recognised by the library.
I have multiple problems here so I hope I can describe them in a semi-logical order. I think they're all related but they may not be.
I've tried updating the firmware on the drives themselves, which made no difference. I know this is an old library, but I see Dell are still providing firmware and their documentation details it working with LTO-8 drives so it's got a pretty long service life.
The fact that I can't even get it to work in a fairly stock configuration (fully initialised OEM LTO-3 drive and LTO-2 tapes) makes me wonder if there's a fault with this library that I can't fix.
My servers run Devuan 4 (Debian 11 without systemd) on a 5.10 kernel. SAS otherwise works on the NAS - I have SAS HDDs, and I'm able to use the PowerVault 114 via the same card.
As a last point, I know this library is a rebadged IBM TS3200. I noticed on eBay there's a number of HP LTO sleds for sale and they look identical to the ones I have - also a rebadged library for HP? Would an HP LTO-5 sled work in a Dell library? Can I flash some firmware to make this thing work as I want it?
Many thanks in advance.
I got my hands on a Dell TL4000 tape library - 48-slot, 4 drive slots (3 included) and 2 PSUs. The library itself seems to be working - diagnostics pass, the robot moves tapes around etc. I got into the web UI without issue and updated the firmware to latest. It is very slow, taking >15 minutes to boot up from cold. However I'm having trouble getting it to work with my Linux machines.
It has 1x LTO-3 and 2x LTO-4 tape drives installed plus an empty LTO-3 sled, though one of the LTO-4 drives doesn't work. I've been trying to get things working with the LTO-3 - none of my LTO-3 tapes have labels, but I printed my own for a box of unused LTO-2 tapes and they were recognised by the library.
I have multiple problems here so I hope I can describe them in a semi-logical order. I think they're all related but they may not be.
- If I connect the LTO-3 or -4 tape drive to my NAS via SAS, I can only see the tape drive. It doesn't expose a SCSI LUN for the robot. I'm not sure if this is a problem with my SAS card (Adaptec ASR-78165 in HBA mode) but this machine is going to be my intended tape server.
- If I connect it to a different machine with a Dell H200 SAS HBA, it does expose the necessary LUN for the robot. I can move tapes between the magazine and the drive. However, if I try to read or write anything off the drive using tar with a tape loaded, I get errors that no medium is loaded. Sometimes the robot even unloads the tape and stores it without being instructed.
- I have a Dell PowerVault 114X with an LTO-5 drive in it and plenty of LTO-5 tapes. I really want to upgrade to LTO-5. The drive is the same IBM series as in the TL4000 and has the correct physical interfaces. However, if I connect the drive to a spare sled and install it in the library, there are two issues:
- The library recognises it only as the LTO generation written on the sled (i.e. 3 or 4), not 5
- The library throws an error after trying to initialise the drive on install or boot - code 'FB 0x' where x is the tape slot
I've tried updating the firmware on the drives themselves, which made no difference. I know this is an old library, but I see Dell are still providing firmware and their documentation details it working with LTO-8 drives so it's got a pretty long service life.
The fact that I can't even get it to work in a fairly stock configuration (fully initialised OEM LTO-3 drive and LTO-2 tapes) makes me wonder if there's a fault with this library that I can't fix.
My servers run Devuan 4 (Debian 11 without systemd) on a 5.10 kernel. SAS otherwise works on the NAS - I have SAS HDDs, and I'm able to use the PowerVault 114 via the same card.
As a last point, I know this library is a rebadged IBM TS3200. I noticed on eBay there's a number of HP LTO sleds for sale and they look identical to the ones I have - also a rebadged library for HP? Would an HP LTO-5 sled work in a Dell library? Can I flash some firmware to make this thing work as I want it?
Many thanks in advance.