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Tape Library Not "Seen" Since System Board Replacement


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I am running an XServe OSX 10.4.11 and Retrospect v6.1.126. The tape library is a Tandberg Exabyte LTO3 autoloader (8 bay). It attaches via an ATTO PCS Express UL4S SCSI Card.

 

We had the system board in the server replaced on Friday and everything worked fine...all workstations could get to their shares, the XRAID (fibre channel card connected) was fine and when you go into "Configure" then "Devices" in Retrospect - the Tandberg was listed - read that to mean detected.

 

When the backup ran on Friday night, it failed because Retrospect "could not find media". All that means is somehow, Retrospect or the server no longer sees the tape library.

 

The ATTO config untility sees all the cards installed on the system and can rescan channels on them so that leads me to believe the card is seated correctly.

 

I have rebooted the server, the tape library, reseated the cable and rescanned all channels on the card but Retrospect still doesn't see the tape drive...there's nothing listed under devices besides the CD/DVD Burner.

 

Any ideas?

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Does the library and tape drive appear in the Apple System Profiler listing? (Please post the Apple System Profiler listing).

 

What RDU (Retrospect Driver Update) are you running?

 

What ATTO firmware are you running on the card?

 

What ATTO driver (kext) do you have installed?

 

What architecture is this (G5 or Intel, and which model)?

 

Did you change anything (RDU, SCSI cables, ATTO firmware/driver) or move the card from one slot to another? Did it work in this same configuration before the board failed?

 

Russ

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I actually just got things working. I updated the firmware on the SCSI card (it was at the version from March 2007 so it wasn't that old). After the reboot - Retrospect is now detecting the tape drive.

 

Now - I am not sure if it was actually the firmware or just another reboot - I rebooted this morning and that didn't help.

 

Let me see if I can answer your questions for the sake of posterity:

 

Does the library and tape drive appear in the Apple System Profiler listing? (Please post the Apple System Profiler listing). - No, not even now that it works. Apple Support stated that this particular Exabyte (Tandberg Data) model does not have compatible drivers for Mac that allow OSX to "talk directly to the library". Not sure if that's teh case but the library isn't listed anywhere in the System Profiler.

 

What RDU (Retrospect Driver Update) are you running? - 6.1.10.100

 

What ATTO firmware are you running on the card? - Most recent - just updated and fixed the issue (or so it seems)

 

What ATTO driver (kext) do you have installed? - 4.3.0

 

What architecture is this (G5 or Intel, and which model)? - Two (2) Dual-core Intel Xeon Processors, Model listed as XServe 1,1

 

Did you change anything (RDU, SCSI cables, ATTO firmware/driver) or move the card from one slot to another? Did it work in this same configuration before the board failed? - Nothing changed - same cable, cards etc. The original board was actually good - one of the on-board NICs went bad.

 

Let me know if I managed to screw up any of the info you requested.

 

And lastly - can you recommend any good books for becoming familiar with UNIX?

 

Thanks for your reply...much appreciated.

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Far be it from me to suggest changes to a working system, but...

 

Your RDU is a bit out of date. I suggest RDU 6.1.11.101 (RDU 6.1.12.101 and 6.1.13.101 are problematic). RDU version history and downloads are here:

RDU Version history

 

You might want to consider the free update to Retrospect 6.1.138 - there are some stability bug fixes that might affect/help you. Here are the release notes:

Retrospect Mac 6.1 release notes

 

And lastly - can you recommend any good books for becoming familiar with UNIX?

Um, well, the standard line, back when I did Unix internals, drivers, and a Unix port (4.2BSD) 20 years ago, was to read the source code. Not sure what level of familiarity you are looking for.

 

The source code for Apple's variant of Unix is here:

MacPorts

(f/k/a/ DarwinPorts) and here:

Darwin kernel sources

 

Russ

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