[CentOS] Problems with LTO-3 and U320 on Centos 4.4

[Joshua Baker-LePain]

On Tue, 7 Nov 2006 at 12:39pm, Plant, Dean wrote

> I am currently testing an Overland Tape storage unit with a LTO-3 drive
> on CentOS 4.4. After a random amount of time but usually when we have
> backed up about 0.5-1TB we get scsi errors which cause the backup to
> fail. I have rebuilt the box with Solaris 10 x86 and Windoze to prove
> the hardware and have successfully backed up over 3TB on each OS without
> error.
>
> Can anyone offer advice on how to find out what is causing the error in
> CentOS.

Your best bet to track down exactly what those errors mean would be to 
head over to the linux-scsi list.  But I can tell you that I've been using 
an Overland LTO3 library on centos-4 for over a year now with very good 
results.  The 2 main differences are that I'm using an x86_64 server (I 
doubt that makes much difference) and an LSI 21320 HBA.  I have had 
nothing but good luck with LSI adapters, and I think it'd be worth it for 
you to give one a shot.

I will say this, though.  If you plan on ever using 2 drives in the 
library, get the 22320, which has 2 external channels.  I've been tearing 
my hair out trying to get both drives in my library to write at full speed 
at the same time, and no matter what driver tweaks I make, I just can't 
get it to go.  My 22320 arrives today, and I'm rather hoping that'll fix 
the problem.

-- 
Joshua Baker-LePain
Department of Biomedical Engineering
Duke University