Questions tagged [lto]
Linear Tape Open is a family of tape specifications ranging from 100 GB (LTO-1) to 12 TB (LTO-8).
61
questions
0
votes
1
answer
46
views
What are the IOPS and physical block size for modern magnetic tapes?
It's obvious that magnetic tape media performs IO operations as well as HDDs and SSDs, although this storage device is not designed for a random access pattern.
LTO standards define maximal data ...
0
votes
1
answer
54
views
LTO6 drive asking firmware update but does not accept it
I recently pulled an ibm LTO 6 fh fibre drive from a library and was using it in standalone mode in a windows 10 pc where I use other sas drives. It was working just fine.
Yesterday I turn it on to ...
0
votes
0
answers
22
views
Access drive dump from Ibm 35p1970 LTO over ethernet
I am trying to get drive info from an lto 6 fh drive that belonged to a library. I don´t have a fibre connection, as we use sas for tape. I connected the drive to an atx psu and one of those serial to ...
0
votes
0
answers
42
views
Read LTO memory chip with a drive older than the tape
That is the question. Can I read the data inside the memory chip of a lto7 tape using an lto6 drive?
I have only tried ITDT on windows but it rejects to do anything with the tape.
Just asking in case ...
4
votes
0
answers
53
views
Read LTO Tape ID Tag
LTO 6 Tapes contain a ID tag within the casing (I assume its RFID). Is it possible to read the tag via mt commands?
I would like to identify the tape that is currently loaded in the tape drive.
I'm ...
2
votes
1
answer
57
views
Are sony lto6 tapes mp or bf?
Most lto tapes specify MP or BaFe on their labels. Sony ltx2500g tapes dont.
I have two ibm lto6 decks and want to try to keep different tape brands and particle formulations on different machines ...
3
votes
3
answers
830
views
Turning an IBM lto6 sas HH drive from library to standalone, how?
new here.
I have been using a stand alone lto6 hh drive (ibm ts2260/3580 h6s) for two years. Just recently I bumped into an almost new ibm ts2900 autoloader with an hh lto6 drive in it and bought it.
...
5
votes
1
answer
147
views
LTO-8 tapes long-term storage rules
I have a bunch of tapes LTO-8 written in LTFS by HPE tape-drive. I can not find any rules for reliable physical storage for the tapes. I have an anti-magnetic case for them, but maybe there are some ...
0
votes
1
answer
188
views
tar/dd - Error writing to tape drive - Device or resource busy
I tried to pipe tar to dd and use dd to write to tape in order to have progress:
export TAPE=/dev/nst0
tar -b 128 -c *| dd of=$TAPE bs=65536 status=progress
However I got an error
tar: /dev/nst0: ...
0
votes
2
answers
452
views
Maximum write speed of HP Ultrium 1760 drive
The write speed of the HP Ultrium 1760 drive is specified as 120MB/s with LTO-4 media and 80MB/s with LTO-3 media. However I get half of that - 80/40 MB/s respectively. The connector is SFF-8482 at ...
2
votes
1
answer
870
views
Can I connect HP Ultrium 1760 drive to LSI Logic SAS 3041E controller using the cable on the picture
I want to connect HP StorageWorks LTO-4 Ultrium 1760 tape drive to LSI SAS 3041E controller using the cable on the photo. The cable is advertised as 0.7M Mini SFF-8482 to SAS 29P SATA . Or an adapter ...
2
votes
3
answers
2k
views
Tape drive Connectivity - Fiber channel Vs SAS
We want to change our tape backup system and acquire a LTO8 tape drive.
Something that I cannot find the answer easily is what are the pro&con of the connectivty by Fiber channel or SAS.
For the ...
1
vote
1
answer
362
views
Mac - Thunderbolt eGPU + PCIe SAS card for LTO tape drive (SAS card compatibility)
I'm looking for open minded person who can answer my unusual question that might defy logic at first glance but might be valid.
Recently I got need for reading LTO tapes that act as archive.
I would ...
1
vote
0
answers
29
views
Tape always return zeros from files but with good length
I have a IBM LTO-3 ULT3580-TD3.
When I try write something to tape always it returns only zeros but with good length (/size).
# dd if=/media/test1 of=/dev/nst0 bs=64k
# dd if=/dev/nst0 of=/media/...
5
votes
2
answers
339
views
Tape backup software for putting multiple backup sets on one tape [closed]
I'm currently trying to install a new tape backup environment (LTO 7, hardware is already set up). As LTO 7 tapes provide a LOT of data space (6/15TB per tape), and the backups that need to be stored ...
3
votes
0
answers
270
views
Restore LTFS formatted LTO drive with heavily fragmented data
I'm currently experiencing one of those nice foobar situations where the primary backup of a certain project died and the secondary backup was written on and LTFS formatted LTO-6 - apparently by ...
0
votes
1
answer
535
views
Configure single LTO tape drive over Fiber Channel HBA
How do you set up a single tape storage drive over an FC HBA? As far as I can tell, these things are not "plug and play". The tape drive I bought is an lto-5 FC taken from a tape library.
I have ...
5
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What kind of algorithm is used in LTO tape hardware compression?
LTO tape drives, from their very first generation, offer hardware compression that, theoretically, allows a maximum of 2 - 2.5x the rated data capacity of each cartridge to be stored, with only a ...
2
votes
3
answers
379
views
Is it worth using WORM Media for archiving? (Not needed for legal purposes)
Apart from regular backups, there is some data that I want to archive (e.g., old projects that aren't needed anymore).
I wonder if there is any benefit to using WORM media instead of regular tapes (...
4
votes
2
answers
427
views
Are LTO Hardware compression and encryption standardized?
I'm about to setup a backup using an LTO-4 Drive. I know that drives are meant to be compatible to any tape within the past 3 generations (so I should be able to read an LTO-4 tape using an LTO-4, 5 ...
2
votes
1
answer
275
views
Does fast-eod make difference with LTO tape?
mt-st has an option:
fast-eod: space directly to eod (and lose file number)
I run the eod operation with/without this option, but is seems no significant difference. Does fast-eod make difference ...
2
votes
2
answers
275
views
Do LTO tape drive move when switching partition?
As everyone already know, tape winds between BOT and EOT when reading/writing data in the same LTO partition.
But what if a tape drive read data in different partitions? Will it move across wraps in ...
2
votes
2
answers
2k
views
LTO-4 Tape Write Source Throughput Needs
I am looking to begin a tape backup regimen and am looking to keep data flowing to the tape drive in a sufficient manner (120+MBs target sustained) but cannot figure out how to do so without a ...
7
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What does it mean, if all LEDs of an LTO-6 drive are flashing? [closed]
All LEDs of an half height LTO-6 drive are flashing with ~ 4 Hz. An LTO-5 tape is still inside, the drive does not react on commands, the flashing continues after a power cycle.
I could not find the ...
1
vote
1
answer
456
views
find out the file system from a tape
Is there any way to find out the file system from a tape under Linux (CentOS)? I need this to figure out if a tape is already LTFS or not.
At the moment I know:
mtx # for managing a tape library
mt #...
0
votes
3
answers
119
views
Reconnecting SAS equipment
I need to reconfigure the cabling between some LTO tape drives and a server. Are they plug and play or do I need to do any configuration?
From what I've read so far, it seems that recycling the power ...
1
vote
1
answer
804
views
How to configure the st kernel module for LTO-6 tape drives?
I found a hint to configure the st module in a mail from 2004 redhat mailinglist about a slow LTO-2 drive.
modprobe st buffer_kbs=1024 max_buffers=128 max_sg_segs=128 blocking_open=1
Are similar ...
4
votes
4
answers
957
views
What could cause a 'sense error' when setting LTO encryption?
I'm trying to set an encryption key on an LTO-4 drive under Linux. I successfully did this once, power cycled the drive, and now I cannot get the drive to accept the key again.
The command I am ...
13
votes
2
answers
820
views
Do LTO tapes have spare/unused capacity?
As I understand it, LTO tapes write data in "wraps", where the first wrap unspools the tape into the drive, and the second wrap spools it back into the cartridge. This process is repeated a number of ...
5
votes
4
answers
1k
views
What could cause an LTO drive to write at half its capacity?
I have an LTO4 drive that when given even new LTO4 tapes, only writes around 460GiB to the tape even though the tape's uncompressed capacity is supposed to be 800GB.
I have noticed that in one ...
15
votes
5
answers
3k
views
Determine remaining capacity of LTO tape
How can I determine how much space is remaining on an LTO tape?
If I seek to the end and check the status, I can see I am on file number 17, but what I do not know is how large each file was.
$ mt -...
1
vote
1
answer
3k
views
tar throwing input/output error when reading from tape, but file is ok
I've written about 1.5TB of files onto a tape with
tar -b 512 -clpMvf /dev/nst0 /path_to_stuff
Everything worked well, no error messages. Now if I try to read it back from tape with
tar -b 512 -...
6
votes
2
answers
305
views
Pre-labelled LTO-6/LTFS tape numbers- Are the tape numbers stored somewhere on the tape?
I have some Fujifilm LTO-6 tapes which come labelled with tape numbers. I'm writing a script and I would like to assign a variable from the tape number. Is this information stored anywhere on the tape?...
1
vote
1
answer
360
views
How can I discover the content of a non-descript LTO3?
I've been handed an LTO3 which has been written with content, but I have no idea how it was made. I've been given the task of finding out what is actually stored on the tape. I've tried the usual tar ...
2
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Determining LTO 5 Tape Expiration?
On our production setup we are using LTO 5 for taking backup on weekly basis,
Unfortunately we do not have any purchased document for LTO5 tapes due to which we are unable to predict the exact EOL(End ...
4
votes
1
answer
367
views
Fibre channel: LTO tape overwritten on bus reset
There is a situation that we had at out customer that I'd like to understand better.
Here's what happened:
A library with LTO tape drives is connected to a fibre channel environment
Archiving ...
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Device busy when reading from tape drive with tar
When I try to read a tar from tape with tar tvbf 2048 /dev/nst0, it returns:
tar: /dev/nst0: Cannot read: Device or resource busy
tar: At beginning of tape, quitting now
tar: Error is not recoverable:...
1
vote
4
answers
1k
views
Is it safe to use not ECC RAM for cold backup server?
I need home computer for simple backup task (just cronjob on Linux, it will run once per day):
Download file from my production server (in datacenter, it's good server with Xeons & ECC RAM etc.) ...
1
vote
1
answer
251
views
Ultra slow LTO4 read/write (2-3MB/s) SCSI + LSI Ultra 320
So I've installed pcie SCSI card LSI Ultra 320 (which worked fine some time ago on Dell R710/ Dell 2950 with LTO3), during booting I have discovered that sync speed for LTO3 (ultrium 960) is only 40MB,...
3
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Bacula: best practise for labeling and initial start
I'm currently starting with bacula for backup and have a few questions for best practices.
Current situation:
I want to back up a slow changing max. 12TB (currently 8TB) dataset to a external LTO4 ...
19
votes
4
answers
13k
views
Determining LTO Cleaning Tape Expiration?
I have some LTO tape drives, and use cleaning tapes as required, but the lifetime of the cleaning tapes is not as predictable as I would have expected. I'm looking for a way to query the system, ...
2
votes
0
answers
272
views
Loose threader in LTO-5 SAS internal drive [closed]
Once more I have a tape drive issue.
I started seeing lots and lots of hardware errors with our LTO-5 SAS drive within our Superloader 3 changer. The main upshot was that the drive would think a ...
1
vote
4
answers
1k
views
Quantum LTO-4 Drive fails with new tapes and need to be cleaned too often
I have a Quantum LTO-4 HH Original Drive, and recently i'm getting a lot of problems with tapes.
For a long time every 3-5 tapes, the drive asks me for a cleaning tape, but lately the drive needs to ...
1
vote
1
answer
174
views
Unitrends Work with LTO-6?
Has anyone been able to get a Unitrends appliance to work with an LTO-6 drive?
I checked to compatibility matrix and while it does have a vague list of supported products is vague... and seemingly ...
0
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Backup strategy for millions of files in lots of directories
We have millions of files in lots of directories, for example:
\00\00\00\00.txt
\00\00\00\01.pdf
\00\00\00\02.html
... so on
\05\55\12\31.txt
backing up these to tape is slow as backing up data in ...
1
vote
2
answers
971
views
Is it possible to upgrade a LTO3 drive to LTO5 or LTO6?
We have a ML6000 Dell tape library with a LTO-3 drive (part number KU838).
Can this drive support LTO-5 or LTO-6 via firmware upgrade? I could not find any information about this on Dell pages.
Is ...
1
vote
1
answer
555
views
Backup exec LTO tape capacity shows as 17.8GB
I have come across administering a Backup Exec 10d system, and all its tapes show a Total Capacity of 17,8 GB while showing a Used Capacity of e.g. 281GB.
The tapes are LTO2 so they should have 200GB ...
1
vote
1
answer
2k
views
What are simple options for reading from LTO tape drive [closed]
The only way I know to read from an LTO tape drive is with big, heavy tools like Backup Exec.
I am looking for a light weight or free tool that can read files from an LTO tape drive attached to a ...
0
votes
1
answer
157
views
Do non sticky LTO barcode labels exist? [closed]
I don't rip off old LTO labels that often, but it is very annoying when I do have to do it. Is there a stickerless solution? Perhaps stick on clear sleeves or plastic tabs that hold removable labels?
7
votes
3
answers
2k
views
LTO 5 tape rotation best practices - Lifetime
What is the general best practice for keeping LTO 5 tapes in a rotation?
I have read that they have archival capability of 30 years, but I am sure this really depends on how much you're reading and ...