PBS - old lto-3

[kazix]

hi,

im new on PVE and PBS.
we have old HP ML 350 G5 with 6 disk SATA:
- 2 x 1 TB (Raid 1)
- 4 x 2 TB (Raid 5)
and connected via SAS LTO-3 (HP Ultrium).

Is any chance to use LTO-3 with PBS?
(Yes, i know is old and small, but work )

Or maybe better - can i connect LTO-3 to VM and use it?

 

[t.lamprecht]

Hi,

Is any chance to use LTO-3 with PBS?

No, I'm afraid, LTO-3 is from 2004, just far too old and does not support important features that PBS Tape support relies on (even LTO-4 has some drawbacks and is only supported as best-effort).

Or maybe better - can i connect LTO-3 to VM and use it?

You can pass through SCSI devices, so yes this may be possible. It should be relatively similar to passing through disk scsi devices:
https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Passthrough_Physical_Disk_to_Virtual_Machine_(VM)#Update_Configuration
disclaimer: I do not have any LTO-3 device, so did not test this at all - but maybe worth a try.

 

[kazix]

Thanks for link, maybe this is it.

in next week i will install first PVE and and I'll try it out.

 

[kazix]

I tried for 2 days and it's not that simple.
Connect device to PVE and try to add this to VM/Container.
Unfortunately, none of the solutions from link worked.

I was looking for a solution and in general there are two options:
1. add PCI device to VM (KVM)
2. share lto-3 via iscsi (this option is better for me)

https://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Tape_Drives

So, PBS will have lto-3 - but will not use it, only share via iscsi.
One VM/Container will have the device connected via iscsi.

PBS is like a mountain always in the same place (LTO3 too),
VM can be on different PVE.

next week I'll keep trying

 

[LnxBil]

I just tried to use an LTO-3 drive after reading about it here, and it works. Not everything works, so encryption or showing the remaining space is not working, yet backing up and restoring works in a simple test I just did. I will further investigate.

 

[dcsapak]

hi,

while some LTO-3/4 drives/changes may implement the functions/features we need to operate it, this is not guaranteed. We target LTO-5 (released in 2010 so 14 years ago) as that guarantees all functions we need to properly implement our logic.

 

[LnxBil]

while some LTO-3/4 drives/changes may implement the functions/features we need to operate it, this is not guaranteed. We target LTO-5 (released in 2010 so 14 years ago) as that guarantees all functions we need to properly implement our logic.

I know, I read the documentation

 

[dcsapak]

I know, I read the documentation

i just wanted to put it in context for future readers, to not raise expectations (though i hope not many new users will start with ~20 year old hardware...)