Problem with tape drive on Server 2008

joe2687

Hi,

I'm having a problem with a tape deck, its a IBM ultrium 3 on LTO. It's connected via SCSI, all drivers are installed (for both tape and adaptec for SCSI card), everything seems fine, no errors and Devmgr looks fine, but when I insert a tape I was expecting it to show up as a new HDD in Disk Mgmt, or at least be detected in some way.

I have 3 tapes, and have tried each one to no avail. On rebooting the server, the SCSI controller picks up the device on ID 6. Have uninstalled all drivers and re-installed, and it's starting to bug me...

Am I right in saying that when a tape is inserted and all drivers are properly installed, then the tape should show up under disk mgmt?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

rolion

Tape drive ... will show as a tape drive in Device manager...not ... in Disk Management !!!!!!

To use the drive,you need a backup software:
-one,free,that comes with Windows
-other,paid,from major suppliers,check compatibility list.

Then,each software has own Device Management engine and GUI to manage the hardware drive and backup sets, media management ,scheduler, alerts, agents and plug-ins...i will stop here to don't confuse you.

Enjoy bug it...and welcome to digiworld of SysAdmin...

joe2687

Yes, I realise it shows up as a tape under device manager, I was asking if it would be viewable through ''Disk Management !!!!!''

The reason I ask is that with other tape systems I have used (such as RD1000's), once a tape is inserted it will show up in diskmgmt and My Computer. You will then be able to view it as you would any other drive.


Also, I have tried accessing the drive through Windows Server Backup, and it is not present. It's strange as it seems to be installed properly.

francois

An LTO tape drive will not show up under disk management as say an external USB drive will-
Is this card an extra card added for the LTO drive or is it attached to the server disks SCSI card?

joe2687

It's an extra card added for the tape, it's an adaptec card.

francois

Is the card a non-RAID SCSI?, also is the scsi to to duplex mode? depending on your server you may need to open and check the cabling and try setting SCSI to dulplex operation (HP servers normally have the way to do this printed on the inside lid)

rolion

francois wrote: »

Is the card a non-RAID SCSI?, also is the scsi to to duplex mode? depending on your server you may need to open and check the cabling and try setting SCSI to dulplex operation (HP servers normally have the way to do this printed on the inside lid)

The tape drive is showing fine in Device Manager SO...why do i have to change the settings on SCSI bus ??

He things that LTOx tapes works like some of the backup drives,like Iomega REVs or others,where the media library is managed like a physical @virtual" disk...

I haven't seen any LTOx devices working like that,so he has to use a backup software that is more or less compatible with the hardware and OS.

francois

rolion wrote: »

The tape drive is showing fine in Device Manager SO...why do i have to change the settings on SCSI bus ??

The device will show up as it is detected hardware, when SCSI runs in simplex mode anyway, the problem is that it is on the same hardware SCSI bus in simplex mode as the raid controller

Trust me I had this issue on several HP servers, and setting scsi to duplex worked.

Mr. Fancypants

francois wrote: »

The device will show up as it is detected hardware, when SCSI runs in simplex mode anyway, the problem is that it is on the same hardware SCSI bus in simplex mode as the raid controller

Trust me I had this issue on several HP servers, and setting scsi to duplex worked.

Be that as it may....the tape will still not show up under disk management as that is not how it works.
There is a free backup utility with Windows 2008 but it no longer backs up to tape (only disk) so you will need to get your hands on a different free alternative or purchase some software to backup to tape.