ATTO UL3D, Exabyte EZ17, and Power Mac G4

[webdeck]

I'm attempting to migrate my backups off of my desktop machine and onto a dedicated server. I picked up a used Power Mac G4 (AGP Sawtooth, 400 MHz) to use as a server, and installed an ATTO UL3D into one of its PCI slots. It is running a freshly-installed copy Mac OS X 10.4.11 that System Update reports as completely up to date. I am using the same EZ17, SCSI cables, and active terminator that I used successfully on my desktop Mac Pro (with an ATTO UL5D card), so those are all known to be good. I flashed the UL3D with the latest firmware and installed the most recent driver.

 

However, the G4 doesn't see the tape drive or the autoloader on the SCSI bus. Retrospect doesn't see them, system profiler doesn't see them (but it does see the PCI card and shows two SCSI busses that only contain the adapter each), and the Exabyte vxatool doesn't see them.

 

I also tried hooking up an Exabyte 1x10 StorageLoader, and that didn't show up either.

 

I hooked up a VXA-1 tape drive that uses SCSI-2 (daisy-chained after the EZ17), and that did show up (but the EZ17 still didn't), so the UL3D appears to at least partially work.

 

Is SCSI-3 not compatible with the G4?

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks,

-Mike

[rhwalker]

If the drive and autoloader don't show up in Apple System Profiler and vxatool, there is no hope for Retrospect to see them.

 

Get that to work first.

[webdeck]

Any advice on how to get them to show up in System Profiler?

[rhwalker]

Quote:

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Any advice on how to get them to show up in System Profiler?

 

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They will show up if they respond on the SCSI bus.

 

Quote:

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I am using the same EZ17, SCSI cables, and active terminator that I used successfully on my desktop Mac Pro (with an ATTO UL5D card), so those are all known to be good.

 

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No, they were known to be good at one time when hooked up on the UL5D. They could have been blown during the exchange process or might not have been hooked in right on the UL3D.

 

You indicate that you were able to upload firmware to the UL3D. Do the devices show up in the ATTO Config Tool on a SCSI Channel of the UL3D? It really sounds like the tape drive and autoloader aren't attached or aren't responding on the SCSI bus.

 

Russ

[webdeck]

In the meantime, I've returned the cable, terminator, and EZ17 to the Mac Pro with the UL5D and they continue to work, so there doesn't appear to be anything wrong with the cable, terminator, or EZ17 - they're not "blown". I tried plugging and unplugging everything at least a dozen times (always with everything powered off), hooking it up to each of the channels using each of the connectors on the tape drive, and nothing was ever recognized by the UL3D.

 

The ATTO Configuration Tool didn't show any devices on the channels either.

 

I just checked the ATTO Config Tool with the UL5D and the drive and library show up as the two devices on the channel.

 

That's why I'm stumped - they should show up, but it is like they are not there.

 

When I added the VXA-1 drive to the bus and turned everything back on, it showed up properly, so it seems like the UL3D card isn't completely dead, and the driver is being loaded (which I confirmed with kextstat). I'm just baffled as to why the EZ17 isn't visible, when it works fine with the UL5D (and before that, I'm pretty sure that it worked fine with a different UL3D in a G5 PowerMac that I no longer own, but my memory isn't solid on that.)

 

I have a note into ATTO tech support as well, but I was hoping this would ring a bell sooner with someone here.

 

Thanks,

-Mike

[rhwalker]

With that additional information, I'm stumped too.

 

Have you tried resetting the UL3D to default settings? Perhaps something odd has gotten set in its NVRAM.

 

Here's a wild stab - perhaps one (or some) of the UL3D SCSI line drivers has blown, perhaps one of the SCSI ID line drivers. That might make some SCSI IDs work and others not, or might make both SCSI channels for the EZ17 respond on the same channel, causing conflict. Try moving the drive to another SCSI ID, see if things change.

 

The only other variable is the G4 - perhaps something is odd about its PCI slot(s).

 

But you seem to have tried all of the right things.

 

Russ

[webdeck]

Thanks, Russ - those are good suggestions.

 

I had the library and drive as 0 and 1, so I changed it to 2 and 4 so that they have no bits in common with the old IDs. Also, 4 was the ID of the VXA-1 drive I had tried before, so that seemed like a good one to try again.

 

I also moved the UL3D to another PCI slot, and removed all of the other PCI cards. I also removed all but one stick of RAM.

 

I reset both channels to default and rebooted.

 

Unfortunately, none of it made a bit of difference... I'm hoping ATTO gets back to me tomorrow - maybe it's just a bad card. I hope it's not the G4 itself.

 

Thanks,

-Mike