Keven Posted July 18, 2003 Report Share Posted July 18, 2003 Greetings to all. I just purchased a rather expensive Sun Microsystems DDS2 4 Tape Autoloader, *N E W*. The unit cost alot of money. I won't say how much, but enough that I should think that if Sun says its also PC Compatible, then it SHOULD BE PC Compatible. I have done Sun hardware for 13 years now, and I've come to relize that if there is a sun version of any hardware, chances are it will work better on the PC then the PC only version. I don't run this unit on a Sun machine, because my Sun Machine has a large DLT Tape Library connected to it. My work involves some massive files, sometimes over 10 Gigs a file, so I need a Tape Autoloader to back it all up properly. I know that there are DLT drives that do more then that, but, DDS2 is currently cheap to get tapes for and for $12/4 Tapes and 32GB Storage, thats a heck of a deal. The machine I want to use it on for a while is a Pentium 3 500mhz with a ISA AHA-1542B SCSI Card (it has served me better then some other cards because it is almost universally compatible with ALL OS's, this is a multi-OS computer). Drive is seen and recognized as a Archive DDS-DC Drive in Retrospect. I have used Retrospect 6 Multi Server for quite a while now. I haven't had many problems. However, my Sun DDS2 Autoloader/4 Tape will refuse to work properly. I get a error about a transport block size being 28 K, needed 32 K in the log. Backup works for about 5 seconds and then the drive stops and returns to the READY state. I don't have any options for a Autoloader ether. It almost acts like a single-drive, I suspect the Archive DDS-DC is the internal drive in the autoloader and the autoloader mechanism isn't being seen. Windows acts the same way- Windows doesn't recognize the autoloader part, and it works like a single-drive, therefore I must manually select the tape via the LCD/Control panel, which I can't afford to do as I need unattended backups. I know its a Sun Machine, but it is not Sun/Firmware or anything. SiSoft Sandra reports the drive as having a ARCHIVE PYTHON 02636-XXX Drive on SCSI ID 6, LUN 1, and a ARCHIVE PYTHON 02636-XXX Drive on ID 6, LUN 0. The LUN 1 is seen as a jukebox (autoloader), but the LUN 0 is seen as a single-drive. I suspect Retrospect is seeing the LUN 0 not LUN 1, and therefore has no autoloading/library commands available. It appears as if LUN 0 is the internal tape drive in the autoloader, LUN 1 is the controller for the mechanism AND the Tape Drive. Any way to force the program to get the autoloader to work without spending $1K+ for 6.5 and Advanced library tape or whatever it is? Any ideas? Thanks! Keven Tipping Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
natew Posted July 23, 2003 Report Share Posted July 23, 2003 Can you use the device with NT backup? That is a basic way to test if the hardware is set up properly. For Retrospect, make sure you have disabled any Windows drivers for the device. Retrospect contains its own driver for tape drives and libraries.I also suggest taking a look at the preferences->devices->environment window to see what Retrospect is seeing the drive as. It is possible that the device has not been tested by Dantz. The data size error message you mentioned is not typical in Retrospect and sounds like it is related to settings on the SCSI card or the drive. I would go with default setttings for troubleshooting purposes. You can also try installing ASPI with the ASPI installer utility in your Retrospect folder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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