Connecting an LTO5 drive

james winnifrith · 24 Jul 2018 at 17:00

So I have an HP Ultirum 3000 LTO5 drive. I had wanted to install it internally but for various reasons this is no longer possible due to lack of space. I have purchased an external 5.25" enclose to house & power the tape drive & I wanted to run a SATA cable from the back of the tape drive to an internal SATA socket on my motherboard (as if it were housed internally). My question & where my lack of knowledge is causing me issues is, is the drive SAS or SATA (I don't know the difference really), can I connect the drive directly to my motherboard as described or do I need a Host Bus Adapter to allow connection? I have actually wired it up as described but am unable to see/control the tape deck which is why I'm looking for advice. Thanks!

breadturbo · 24 Jul 2018 at 21:44

Double check it's you're model but this suggests SAS.

https://www.hpe.com/us/en/product-c...ium-3000-sas-external-tape-drive.5294216.html

james winnifrith · 24 Jul 2018 at 22:38

Cheers breadturbo. When it says "host interface" does this deffo mean the actual tape drive that is within that external enclosure or will that refer to both (ie the enclosure & the actual drive itself)? If it is indeed a SAS interface then does that mean I can't then connect it to a SATA port on my motherboard & that I'd would indeed require a Host Bus Adapter? Thanks!

LuckyBenski · 25 Jul 2018 at 16:53

SATA and SAS are different protocols and have different connectors, surely? Can't you just look at it and tell?

james winnifrith · 26 Jul 2018 at 12:11

Well again this is where there is confusion on my part. The link that breadturbo listed above clearly shows that the tape drive is SAS but then i have successfully connected it to a SATA port on my motherboard. This is why I was wondering if the the enclosure that the tape drive as house in (as per that link above) is SAS but the taped drive inside is SATA? I've listed below some images of the interface on the back of my actual tape drive & the cable I'm using to connect it to my motherboard. Are you able to show me a reference image of a SAS connector just out of curiosity please?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a49ugsy8w5gnj7c/2018-07-26 12.05.23.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/kbisxaoqczzyvb2/2018-07-26 12.05.54-1.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/hmg2xjaez85k811/2018-07-26 12.06.13.jpg?dl=0

bremen1874 · 26 Jul 2018 at 12:25

That drive has a SAS connector on it. There's a clear picture of the two connectors on this page https://virtual-drive.in/2014/05/19/comparison-between-sata-and-sas-hdd-connector

A SAS controller will accept both SAS and SATA devices.

A SATA controller will only accept SATA devices.

james winnifrith · 26 Jul 2018 at 14:15

OK so I'm clear on the connector/s now thank you. I realise that I can physically connect the SAS connector on the tape drive to the SATA connector on my motherboard as I had already done that but is this connection between the two definitely in sufficient for me to be able to see/setup/control the tape drive? In device manager should this tape drive be showing up as a "disk drive"? Should I be able to just plug n play (with a restart anyway) into the SATA sockets on the motherboard or do I need to do anything in the BIOS to activate a new port (pretty sure I didn't when adding additional internal SSDs & the like)? Thanks again for all your help, much appreciated!

bremen1874 · 26 Jul 2018 at 15:23

Plugging a SAS device into a SATA controller will not work.

james winnifrith · 26 Jul 2018 at 16:38

so am I correct in thinking that I'll need a Host Bus Adapter to allow connection?

bremen1874 · 26 Jul 2018 at 16:42

Yes.

And some suitable software to make it do something. I don't think there's anything in Windows that'll talk to it even with a suitable HBA and drivers.

breadturbo · 26 Jul 2018 at 17:16

6 hours to write a full compressed tape @ 140MBps o.O thats some data you must have

james winnifrith · 26 Jul 2018 at 23:49

basically for long term archiving so I don't have to worry about drive failure & much cheaper to buy a 3tb tape than a 3tb SSD. I have the software so just need to get myself an HBA, thanks for all your help.

Kei · 27 Jul 2018 at 10:53

We use a few of these in work. Used to run one on an lsi megaraid 8888elp using Symantec backup exec 2013. Using a newer HBA (hp smart array p411 iirc) allowed us to dump backup exec and move to LTFS using the hp drivers/software.

Just bear in mind that you will need to create at least two copies of every tape and note the risk that the tape drive can fail and devour a tape in the process. One of ours wrapped a tape around the heads so many times it virtually welded itself to the heads. Needless to say it was swiftly replaced and the backup tape duplicated.