Support for DELL PowerVault LTO-9

[melop]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe. ltfs -o device_list could not identify our DELL PowerVault LTO-9 tapedrive on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Describe the solution you'd like Could support be added for this drive?

Describe alternatives you've considered None. There is not good alternatives to ltfs.

Additional context Is there any reason why DELL tape drives are not on the support list? Is there any information we could provide to enable this support? Thanks!

[vguilleaume]

Hi @melop ,

Could you confirm that you see the drive in using a command such as : lsscsi -g This will allow that the drive is recognized for hba - os perspective. Then afterward i would suggest to review as a next step the result of the command you mentioned : ltfs -o device_list

In the idea, we have only IBM which manufacture tape drive for now. Than any way, the DELL drive should be an IBM one. On top of this, each vendor provide their own microcode where we can see variance in the SCSI inquiry which can result a bad tape drive detection.

[melop]

Thank you so much for the prompt reply! On indeed I cannot see the tape drive from lsscsi -g, I could see this device being detected during system boot-up though. What would be the next step for me to trouble shoot? Could this due to HBA driver not being properly installed?

[vguilleaume]

If you don't see the drive in the lsscsi -g, then we have to start the troubleshooting from there. It can come from HBA, you are right, could let us what type of HBA you use ? Is it a SAS HBA or FC ?

[vguilleaume]

Here is an example of what you can expect to see:

[0:2:1:0]    disk    DELL     PERC H710P       3.13  /dev/sdb   /dev/sg1
[3:0:0:0]    tape    IBM      ULT3580-HH5      F991  /dev/st0   /dev/sg2
[3:0:0:1]    mediumx IBM      3573-TL          E.20  /dev/sch0  /dev/sg3
[3:0:1:0]    tape    IBM      ULT3580-HH6      G9P1  /dev/st1   /dev/sg23
[4:0:0:0]    mediumx IBM      3573-TL          D.00  /dev/sch1  /dev/sg5
[5:0:0:0]    tape    HP       Ultrium 5-SCSI   6.24  /dev/st2   /dev/sg6
[6:0:0:0]    tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD5      H991  /dev/st3   /dev/sg7
[7:0:0:0]    mediumx QUANTUM  Scalar i6000     7000  /dev/sch2  /dev/sg8
[8:0:0:0]    tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD8      HB91  /dev/st6   /dev/sg12
[9:0:0:0]    tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD8      HB91  /dev/st5   /dev/sg11
[10:0:0:0]   tape    HP       Ultrium 5-SCSI   6.24  /dev/st4   /dev/sg10
[11:0:0:0]   tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD8      HB91  /dev/st7   /dev/sg13
[12:0:0:0]   tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD8      HB91  /dev/st8   /dev/sg14
[13:0:0:0]   mediumx HP       MSL G3 Series    6.24  /dev/sch3  /dev/sg9
[14:0:0:0]   tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD8      HB91  /dev/st9   /dev/sg16
[15:0:0:0]   tape    HP       Ultrium 5-SCSI   6.24  /dev/st12  /dev/sg18
[16:0:0:0]   mediumx HP       MSL G3 Series    6.24  /dev/sch4  /dev/sg15
[17:0:0:0]   tape    HP       Ultrium 4-SCSI   6.24  /dev/st14  /dev/sg22
[18:0:0:0]   tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD8      HB91  /dev/st13  /dev/sg20
[19:0:0:0]   tape    HP       Ultrium 4-SCSI   6.24  /dev/st10  /dev/sg19
[20:0:0:0]   tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD8      HB91  /dev/st11  /dev/sg17
[21:0:0:0]   tape    IBM      ULT3580-TD8      HB91  /dev/st15  /dev/sg21

[melop]

The HBA is shown as "Dell 12Gbps SAS HBA", the device can be detected as "IBM ULTRIUM-HH9 N9B1". Screenshot attached. Should we update the firmware of the Dell HBA perhaps? Or is there anything in the ubuntu system we have to change? Many thanks for the pointers.

[piste-jp]

Please confirm the HBA itself is recognized from the Linux kernel on the output of dmesg or /var/log/messages next.

[melop]

I cannot see anything about Dell HBA from the dmesg output but saw the following: [ 14.149929] mpt3sas version 40.100.00.00 loaded [ 14.150709] mpt3sas_cm0: 32 BIT PCI BUS DMA ADDRESSING SUPPORTED, total mem (263980728 kB) [ 14.150713] mpt3sas_cm0: unable to map adapter memory! or resource not found [ 14.150749] mpt3sas_cm0: failure at drivers/scsi/mpt3sas/mpt3sas_scsih.c:12336/_scsih_probe()!

Also lspci | grep SAS 43:00.0 Serial Attached SCSI controller: Broadcom / LSI SAS3008 PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS-3 (rev 02)

Does this mean that the mpt3sas driver of linux cannot work with the HBA?

Thank you!

[piste-jp]

Yha, it looks the kernel detected the HBA but failed to load the driver, mpt3sas.

I don't know how to fix this. It might be a kernel side problem if you don't install any additional mpt3sas driver provided by 3rd party.

[melop]

In fact, it appears that the mpt3sas driver has the authorship of Avago Technologies shown by modinfo mpt3sas

filename: /lib/modules/5.15.0-73-generic/kernel/drivers/scsi/mpt3sas/mpt3sas.ko alias: mpt2sas version: 40.100.00.00 license: GPL description: LSI MPT Fusion SAS 3.0 Device Driver author: Avago Technologies MPT-FusionLinux.pdl@avagotech.com srcversion: E8B612899A78C2BC1F7A952

I am wondering what does your system look like. Is our system even loading the correct driver?

[piste-jp]

In my machine (on RHEL8), the info of mpt3sas is below. But I don't have any experience to use LTFS on a SAS card. So I don't have any answer to you.

filename:       /lib/modules/4.18.0-425.10.1.el8_7.x86_64/kernel/drivers/scsi/mpt3sas/mpt3sas.ko.xz
alias:          mpt2sas
version:        42.100.00.00
license:        GPL
description:    LSI MPT Fusion SAS 3.0 Device Driver
author:         Avago Technologies <MPT-FusionLinux.pdl@avagotech.com>
rhelversion:    8.7

Did you confirm the supported HBA (and OS also) to DELL? I believe DELL is providing supported environment information to users.

[melop]

Thanks. I have sent an email to Avago to see what they think. Unfortunately Dell support here is not super helpful.

[melop]

We tried plugging the tape drive into another server with free SAS socket and it worked on the other system. We will change the Dell HBA with another one.