Atto UL5D - an adventure with SCSI and an LTO-4 Tape Drive

[vk2fro]

I've been recently lucky lately when it comes to hardware - I was given an LTO-4 tape drive for $100 and a few cartridges which had been used once on the proviso I erased the tapes. I'm on good terms with the business owner that gave me the drives and he knows I'll do as requested. This I did with HP Library and Tape Tools with a windows box, which had an adaptec 29320LPE card in it. Each tape took AGES to erase - apparently a full wipe is one of the longest operations you can do with one of these. Fortunatly, I was just able to leave the screaming jet engine of a tape drive running in a corner doing its thing, and pumped up the volume of my sound system to drown out the noise The morning following the next I had erased all the cartridges and took the windows computer back to the business. I was handed some more blank cartridges and a cleaning tape for the drive. I now have a total of 10 of the things.

The next step was to transfer the tape drive to my hack, and try to get it working. Obviously the Adaptec card wont work as adaptec stopped producing driver back in the powerpc days (correct me if I am wrong). Also I left it in the windows computer that belonged to the business as I knew it wasn't going to work in OS X. Ever. I kept the LVD/SE cable though, as their new tape backup was SAS based. So onto ebay I went after doing some research. An ATTO UL5D ExpressPCI SCSI 320 card was located. Hmm same connectors as the Adaptec. Priced at under $50 I just went for it. I've read online that even though the drivers for this card supposedly only work up to 10.8.5 many have had success up to 10.11.x - so that inspired confidence, along with the fact that the card itself cost me less than a evening drinking with mates at the pub.

I went onto the ATTO website and located the tools, manual and drivers. The next stop, a carbon copy clone of my system to the second SSD. If the driver install hosed the system, I could simply boot from the other SSD, remove the kexts, and resume normally. Note that I have kext signing or whatever it is switched off in clover configurator. I have to - after all its a hackintosh and some drives wont load if this function is switched on. Heres the result:

Note that the ATTOExpressPCI4 driver is the one we need to get to load once the card is installed.

Thank god no kernel panics. The next step is waiting for the card to arrive, and fitting it.

To be continued when the ATTO card arrives!

 

[OSXuser32]

I've been recently lucky lately when it comes to hardware - I was given an LTO-4 tape drive for $100 and a few cartridges which had been used once on the proviso I erased the tapes. I'm on good terms with the business owner that gave me the drives and he knows I'll do as requested. This I did with HP Library and Tape Tools with a windows box, which had an adaptec 29320LPE card in it. Each tape took AGES to erase - apparently a full wipe is one of the longest operations you can do with one of these. Fortunatly, I was just able to leave the screaming jet engine of a tape drive running in a corner doing its thing, and pumped up the volume of my sound system to drown out the noise The morning following the next I had erased all the cartridges and took the windows computer back to the business. I was handed some more blank cartridges and a cleaning tape for the drive. I now have a total of 10 of the things.

The next step was to transfer the tape drive to my hack, and try to get it working. Obviously the Adaptec card wont work as adaptec stopped producing driver back in the powerpc days (correct me if I am wrong). Also I left it in the windows computer that belonged to the business as I knew it wasn't going to work in OS X. Ever. I kept the LVD/SE cable though, as their new tape backup was SAS based. So onto ebay I went after doing some research. An ATTO UL5D ExpressPCI SCSI 320 card was located. Hmm same connectors as the Adaptec. Priced at under $50 I just went for it. I've read online that even though the drivers for this card supposedly only work up to 10.8.5 many have had success up to 10.11.x - so that inspired confidence, along with the fact that the card itself cost me less than a evening drinking with mates at the pub.

I went onto the ATTO website and located the tools, manual and drivers. The next stop, a carbon copy clone of my system to the second SSD. If the driver install hosed the system, I could simply boot from the other SSD, remove the kexts, and resume normally. Note that I have kext signing or whatever it is switched off in clover configurator. I have to - after all its a hackintosh and some drives wont load if this function is switched on. Heres the result:

Note that the ATTOExpressPCI4 driver is the one we need to get to load once the card is installed.

Thank god no kernel panics. The next step is waiting for the card to arrive, and fitting it.

To be continued when the ATTO card arrives!

Well did the card arrive? been watching this thread
I have a Quantum LTO4 and LSI ultra 320 scsi card but no driver for OSX sierra
Does your ATTO UL5D work in Sierra?

 

[vk2fro]

I haven't received the card yet. I'll keep this post updated when the card turns up

 

[marko94114]

Any news?

 

[jeandemi]

I am intéressed in // SCSI in Hackintosh

 

[canyondust]

What software will you use with it? Retrospect?

 

[hlrsellsout]

Bit of an old thread here, but I wanted to share the knowledge: LSI Logic 20320/21320 cards are plug-and-play with OSX. I just installed one in my Mojave hackintosh, and it saw it immediately, no modifications necessary. You want to make sure you get the LSI version. There's also a Dell version out there, and I'm willing to bet it has a different PCI Device ID. But the actual LSI card was plug-and-play. I bought it for $15 off eBay. Mine is a PCI-X card, but they make PCI-E versions, too.

 

[kirnbichler]

Some more knowledge ... The LSI 20320 is also compatible with Catalina. I've plugged a PCIe variant into a TB3-to-PCIe slot thingie and my new NUC-based hackintosh is quite happy with it.
The SCSI LTO-4 tape drive I've hooked up to it works fine with Retrospect.

Prior to that, I've used both a PCI-X variant of le 20320 in a normal 32-Bit PCI slot and the controller mentioned above in a PCIe slot in my older desktop hackintosh, and used it for years with several SCSI tape drives (also a DAT drive that could read my old audio tapes).

And now a question:

I'm now in need of a SAS controller that is supported by Catalina.

I've tried a LSI 9240-4i, but that isn't recognized at all.

I want to use it to operate a second LTO-4 tape drive, which uses the SAS interface.

Is there anything made by LSI (as those seem to be quite cheap and easily to obtain used)?

 

[vk2fro]

I just plugged a dell Perc H310 cross flashed to a 9211-8i in IT mode into my Ryzen hack, and it shows up under system profiler. HOWEVER you must use some hacked astek kexts to make it work. I'm also running big sur. The BM disk test was performed on a Hitachi 8Tb Enterprise disk of which a pair are connected via a SAS to SATA breakout. These controllers can be found for cheap on evil bay, easily flashed to IT mode, and should work with an LTO drive.

The ATTO never showed. I'm waiting now on a deal for an LTO 5 drive.

 

[vk2fro]

I got a Dell Perc H310 operational using the hacked astek fusion2 drivers below. The card is basically an LSI 9211-8i with dell label. I crossflashed it to IT mode. One port breaks out to Sata cables, which are connected to a pair of 8Tb HGST enterprise drives. Soon I will be getting my hands on an LTO 5 tape drive, SAS, which I plan to connect to the other port via an SFF-8087-SFF8087 --> rear panel breakout card which has SFF-8088 ports on it (its basically a port converter) which will then connect to the drive via SFF-8088 to SFF-8088 cable.

edit - scratch all that mumbo jumbo with the 9211-8i - I found a 4i4e version on ebay for $20. So saves messing around with converters. I buy it in a couple of days. Will keep posted this time.

The ATTO card for the SCSI tape drive never showed up and I got a refund. I am getting an LTO 5 drive to play with shortly so will report back if it works.