what driver do I need for Exabyte tape drive?

[mlevin77]

I had to re-install Retrospect 6.1 server on a new Mac (G5) when the old one died. I've got an Exabyte 10-tape jukebox which used to work fine (firewire connection). But now it doesn't see it; I'm guessing I used to have some sort of update or driver installed that's missing now; any ideas where/what to download and how to figure out why it doesn't see it?

 

thanks!

 

Mike

[rhwalker]

Depends on which Exabyte drive you have (VXA-2 or VXA-160 or VXA-320, etc.).

 

Sounds like you didn't install a Retrospect Driver Update ("RDU"). The installed RDU version will be announced in the Retrospect log each time Retrospect launches.

 

But Retrospect 6.1.15.101 or 6.1.16.100 should do it. Here is the Retrospect Driver Update Version History:

RDU Version History

 

Here's a link to Retrospect 6.1 RDU 6.1.16.100:

RDU 6.1.16.100 and install instructions

 

Russ

 

 

[mlevin77]

Thanks - I've downloaded it and the log says it installed, but now when I go to the devices menu I get the spinning beach ball of death, forever... Any ideas? Should I be seeing the Exabyte VXA jukebox on the System Profiler firewire section?

 

Mike

 

[rhwalker]

Thanks - I've downloaded it and the log says it installed, but now when I go to the devices menu I get the spinning beach ball of death, forever... Any ideas? Should I be seeing the Exabyte VXA jukebox on the System Profiler firewire section?

If you can't see the Exabyte VXA autoloader in System Profiler, then there is no hope for Retrospect to see it.

 

Sure you have a good Firewire port? They blow out rather easily.

 

Anything else on that Firewire chain? Retrospect really likes to have tape drives on their own chain (at least that is the way it is for SCSI). Retrospect 6.x does something during its initial device scan that causes the bus to reset, which causes dropped transfer complete interrupts for disk drives, and can hang the system. But that's for SCSI, and you aren't getting that far.

 

I still don't have a clue as to what Exabyte drive you have.

 

Russ

[mlevin77]

> If you can't see the Exabyte VXA autoloader in System Profiler, then there is no hope for Retrospect to see it.

 

interesting. I think the old (working) configuration didn't see it in System Profiler either, but I couldn't swear to that.

 

> Sure you have a good Firewire port? They blow out rather easily.

 

hmmm. What I did have it on (because of some distance issues in the room) is a FW extender like this:

 

http://sewelldirect.com/firewireextension.asp

 

could that be the problem?

 

> I still don't have a clue as to what Exabyte drive you have.

 

sorry, it's the VXA-2a

 

thanks,

 

Mike

 

[rhwalker]

It's still a bit unclear to me just which Exabyte product you have. It's complicated a bit by Exabyte (Tandberg) marketing changing the names of everything every so often. I'm not aware of a VXA-2a. Here is the specs page for what I believe you have:

VXA-2 StorageLoader specifications

 

I think that you have the model 119.11500 (now called the Tandberg StorageLoader VXA-2 Firewire). We have the model 119.00510 (now called the Tandberg StorageLoader VXA-2 Plus), which is the same drive and autoloader, SCSI interface, and ethernet admin interface.

 

Could you try the experiment without the FireWire extender? There may be some timing issue.

 

I can assure you, at least with the SCSI version of this drive, if Apple System Profiler (and also the ATTO SCSI HBA Config program) does not see the drive in the System Profile, then Retrospect won't be able to see it. I thought that the same was true for the Firewire version.

 

Russ