Autoloader appears after Rescan

[imbjk]

I thought I'd pass on a discovery I made this morning:

 

 

 

I just installed Retrospect (latest version) on a Mac OS X Server (10.1.4), backing up to a Sony TSL-A300C AIT Autoloader. The SCSI card is an ATTO Express PCI UL3D. At first the autoloading functions didn't show up at all in Retrospect, as I've seen other posters mention. I tried an Adaptec card with no success, and even tried using the internal 68-pin connector as one poster suggested. No luck.

 

 

 

Then, I found a way to get Retrospect to display the 'Loader' pop-up menu:

 

Insert the tape magazine into the loader (it doesn't work if the magazine is not in)

 

In the Configure tab, hit the Devices button.

 

Then the Device Status... button.

 

In the resulting window, I do a Rescan (sometimes I have to Rescan twice)

 

Then the disabled Eject button changes to the Loader pop-up menu in the Configure Devices window.

 

 

 

Once I get Retrospect to realize this is an Autoloader, all the functions work correctly - I can switch tapes, erase tapes, eject the magazine, Retrospect can find the needed media, etc. This leaves me to believe that it is not a hardware (SCSI) issue, but a software glitch that is causing the autoloader not to display correctly the first time.

 

 

 

I'm running my first test tonight to see if Retrospect can figure this out in unattended mode without my having to do a Rescan manually.

 

 

 

Hope this sheds some light on the autoloading problems.

 

 

 

Brett John Karopczyc

 

Bristol Capital, Inc.

 

 

 

 

[pkscout]

Man, I'm glad someone here is posting solutions to problems. It seems like in every other post Dantz's reply revolves around re-reading the supported SCSI card and device list, even when folks state that their device and card are on the supported list.

 

 

 

This solution worked for my Sony TSL-SA500 with an ATTO card. We won't be rolling the unattended backups until later this week, so I'm curious what you found out about how (or if) those work.

 

 

 

Thanks.