Tape Drive in Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) VM with Passthrough

[thiagomespb]

I’m trying to set up a tape drive (tape library) in a Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) running as a virtual machine within Proxmox VE (PVE). The PVE host correctly recognizes the tape drive, but the PBS VM cannot detect it.

To ensure the PBS can access the tape drive, I enabled passthrough for the tape drive in the PVE configuration to the PBS VM. However, the PBS still doesn’t recognize the tape drive. The tape drive is visible in the PVE, but I’m unsure if there are additional steps needed to make it accessible in the PBS.

I’ve already tried some configurations within the PBS VM, including pointing directly to the SCSI device (/dev/stX), but without success. Has anyone successfully configured a tape drive in a PBS running as a VM with passthrough? What steps should I check or follow to allow the PBS to detect and use the tape drive?

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[Kingneutron]

Probably the easiest way to solve this, is to move your PBS to a physical host. But I'll wait for others to chime in...

 

[thiagomespb]

Additionally, I would like to know if there are any known issues with recognizing tape drives in Proxmox Backup Server (PBS) when running as a virtual machine within Proxmox VE (PVE). Is there any specific limitation related to using tape drives in VMs on PBS? I have checked passthrough configuration and other setup options, but I still can't get PBS to recognize the tape drive.

Has anyone had experience with this type of setup? Can a virtualized PBS actually access and use tape drives connected to the physical host? If not, is there any other approach or workaround to enable tape drive access in a virtualized environment?

 

[LnxBil]

I ran it in LX(C) container, but that is/was much simpler than a passthrough. You need also to passthrough the generic scsi device to control the tape drive, have you tried that? Have you consided running it in an LXC container?

 

[alexskysilk]

I’ve already tried some configurations within the PBS VM, including pointing directly to the SCSI device (/dev/stX), but without success.

Correct. to use your tape library you would need to pass the entire bus.