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I use

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 10 (buster)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="10"
VERSION="10 (buster)"
VERSION_CODENAME=buster
ID=debian

With an own Kernel

Linux 5.4.61 #1 SMP Tue Sep 1 21:08:21 CEST 2020 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Added SCSI support and everything.

root@server:~# lsscsi
[0:0:0:0]    tape    TANDBERG LTO-5 HH         Z629  /dev/st0 
[1:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      ST4000VN008-2DR1 SC60  /dev/sda 
[2:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      ST4000VN008-2DR1 SC60  /dev/sdb 
[3:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      ST4000VN008-2DR1 SC60  /dev/sdc 
[7:0:0:0]    disk    JetFlash Transcend 16GB   1.00  /dev/sdd

So, i see the tapedrive but have a lot of trouble with LTFS. I used this website for getting LTFS:

https://www.tandbergdata.com/de/index.cfm/solutions/ltfs-for-archive/ltfs-downloads-lto56/

And tried the own building stuff, the RHEL binaries. But the own building says it want new builded with libtool 2.2.6b but I have 2.4.6 and there is no possebility for autoreconf --force --install Well, the RHEL stuff want icu 50.2, but for Debian there is only 52.x or I must build it on my own, but I don't think it's the correct solution to downgrade software to really old stuff. I tried to get HPE StoreOpen for RHEL, but it's only for enterprise customers ands costs money, so it's no option... The LTFS from GitHub supports only IBM drives, so no option... it's so frustrating :(

Now I just want to know:

Are there any basic debian/linux tools for managing LTO drives: formatting, writing, reading, mounting, etc.?

Or can anyone help me to get it working on Debian 10?

Thank you in advance.

Nathaira
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2 Answers2

1

On Unix-style systems, the basic tool for tape control is mt; the corresponding package in Debian is mt-st (mt with support for SCSI tapes). You can use that to retension tapes, erase them, print the tape drive’s status, etc. See man mt for details.

A number of tape-aware backup tools are available on Debian; I’ve been using Bacula for many years on LTO drives. It’s packaged as bacula in Debian.

All of these should work with any SCSI tape drive, including your Tandberg LTO-5 drive.

Stephen Kitt
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1

To write on tape, usually on Linux/Unix we use tar or cpio. If you want to use LTFS, unfortunately on Debian there is no easy way. All the pre-compiled binaries on Quantum, Tandberg, HP, IBM websites are for RedHat/Suse only, and they're all compiled with completely obsolete versions of libraries (you may want to run Debian 8 or so to have comparably old stuff).

To compile LTFS on Debian 10 follow the indication in this bug report, in particular the later indication to create a dummy /usr/bin/icu-config file as provided in this Github blob.

So the whole process is as follow:

  1. clone the LTFS github repository.

  2. run ./autogen.sh (you may need to install "autoconf" first)

  3. create the /usr/bin/icu-config with the content from this link.

  4. run ./configure (you may need to install various libraries as required).

  5. run make; it should build to completion.

  6. you may then use make install, or better checkinstall to create an installable (and un-installable) package.

Glorfindel
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wazoox
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  • For your convenience, I've made the package I've built available here: https://update.intellique.com/pub/ltfs_2.5.0dev-1_amd64.deb , though of course you shouldn't install random software from strangers on the internet :) – wazoox Aug 18 '21 at 16:13
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    It's being better, several projects now give access to ltfs. https://github.com/LinearTapeFileSystem/ltfs ; https://github.com/ibm-research/LTFS-Data-Management ; Bacula is "too much" in my pov. – Sandburg Nov 18 '21 at 10:41