Autoloader seen by MacOS 9 (RWG 5.0), but not MacOS X 10.2.8 (RWG 5.1)

[rcolette]

I have a PM G4 (Quicksilver) that is backing up computers on the network to an Exabyte (was Ecrix) AutoPak 2x30 w/two VXA-1 tape drives inside. The autoloader is connected to an ATTO UL3D scsi card with a known-good (just tested with another device) cable and terminator. My Retrospect version was 5.0 under OS 9 under OS X. It is also worth noting that this computer is used exlusively for network backup, and there is no other software installed other than the Mac OS, Retrospect, and Timbuktu (the backup server is headless and is supported remotely).

 

Both drives and the autoloader are recognized under MacOS 9.2.1, but under OS X (10.2.8 - the good version) no autoloader appears, just the two tape drives. ASP sees the autoloader, and recognizes it correctly (according to Exabyte tech support), but I haven't been able to get v5.175 (w/the SCSI patch) to see it. The autoloader would only show up intermittently with 5.0, and sometimes would require several restarts of the Mac and/or the library before it would appear in Retrospect. When I installed the 5.1 (trial) upgrade (and the SCSI updater) it doesn't show at all, and I can't bring it back no matter what my startup order or the number of restarts.

 

I also re-flashed the latest firmware to the ATTO card with no change.

 

Any help or similar experiences would be appreciated. I really need to get this thing running consistently, since I am trying to avoid on-site visits for this customer.

 

Rick Colette

[natew]

Hi

 

As you now know OSX is a lot more picky about SCSI communication that OS9 is. A lot of times this kind of thing is caused by the order of th SCSI IDs on the device. Try some of these combinations

 

Loader at ID6,Drive ID3, Drive ID0

Loader at 5 and drives at O and 1

Drive at 0 loader at 3 drive at 6

 

You can turn on SCSI logging in Retrospect by option clicking the preferences button. IN some cases it will report "drive expected at ID 6" or something like that. You can use that to adjust the order of the drives.

 

The other option is to consider using OS9 for backups. If this is all the computer is doing it still may be the most reliable solution.

 

Nate