LTO-1 to LTO-8 drives use 6Gb SAS interfaces, LTO-9 uses a 12Gb SAS interface. However with the correct cable any of these cards can be used for multiple tape drives as the maximum data rate for LTO-5 to LTO-9 of 140MB/s to 450MB/s is still less than 6Gb/s.
ATTO SAS RAID cards like the R680 are not supported, see the bottom of this page for more information.
The H680 is a PCIe 2.0 card with dual external connectors, each connector supports four SAS drives. The H680 supports TLR which is needed for LTO-7 onwards.
All other H6XX models can be used, like the H644 which has one external connector and one internal connector. Also the H608 which can be used with internal LTO drives.
With a regular SFF-8088 cable you can connect one LTO drive to each connector.
There are also 1 x SFF-8088 to 4 x SFF-8088 fan out cables, with these each connector can support four LTO drives. (No drop in performance).
Put the card in a Thunderbolt expansion like the Sonnet Echo Express SEL shown here.
Note that with the correct cables the ATTO H6XX cards could control eight LTO drives, however the PCIe bandwidth will not be enough to keep them all running at full speed. So you may need two SAS interfaces or update to the H1280GT.
YoYotta v4 subscriptions can be configured for between one and eight LTO drives.
The ATTO H680 is a great card and it is still fully supported, however it has been replaced by the H1280GT, so it might not be available.
The H1280 is a PCIe 3.0 card with TLR support and two 12Gb SAS connectors, it has been replaced by the H1280GT.
The H1280 GT model is a PCIe 4.0 card with TLR support and two 12Gb SAS connectors.
All other H12XX models can be used, like the H1244 which has one external connector and one internal connector. Also the H1208 which can be used with internal LTO drives.
Each 12Gb connector has four SAS ports, so with a fan-out cable each connector supports four LTO drives.
The higher speed of 12Gb/s isn't required for LTO drives, but it is fully compatible.
Desktop and most library LTO drives connect using SFF-8088 connectors.
For these you can get 1 x SFF-8644 to either 1 x SFF-8088 or 4 x SFF-8088 fan-out cable.
The LTO drives in some libraries like the Quantum i3 and i6 connect using SFF-8644 connectors.
For these you can get 1 x SFF-8644 to either 1 x SFF-8644 or 4 x SFF-8644 fan-out cable.
With the correct cables the ATTO H1280GT card can control up to eight LTO drives.
YoYotta v4 subscriptions can be configured for between one and eight LTO drives.
The ThunderLink SH 3128 is a Thunderbolt 3 adaptor that supports TLR and has two 12Gb connectors. These connectors connect to drives using SFF-8644 to SFF-8088 or SFF-8644 cables and work the same way as described above for the H1280GT.
The ATTO Thunderlink SH1068, SH2068 SAS interfaces are not recommended. See the section below about unsupported interfaces.
To check that the Mac can see the ATTO and LTO hardware hold the alt key on the Mac keyboard, click the Apple Menu and select System Information...
If using an ATTO card inside a Thunderbolt chassis, then select PCI from the left hand Hardware list. The ATTO SAS card should be shown.
If using an ATTO card in an expansion chassis, or you have a Thunderbolt LTO drive, then click Thunderbolt. Here the Sonnet Echo Express Pro is connected to the Mac. If there is no Thunderbolt device, then try reconnecting or using a different Thunderbolt cable. Also power cycle the Mac, interface and drive.
Now select SAS from the Hardware list. Here the driver has not been installed so no devices are shown. On newer macOS versions the driver may also be blocked, see the next section.
If missing then download and install the Mac driver (See ATTO SAS install above for links) Then reboot the Mac.
Note that Thunderbolt drives have a SAS tape drive and SAS interface inside, so they will need a SAS driver from ATTO or Areca. Contact your hardware supplier to find out what driver is needed for the SAS card is fitted to your LTO drive.
The first time after you install ATTO drivers on a new system, you will need to approve the new System Software. New installs of system software from YoYotta, ATTO, macFUSE (developer is Benjamin Fleischer) and other drivers may need approval.
You will see a message like this saying System Extension Blocked
Open the Security & Privacy page in Apple System Settings or Preferences, unlock the padlock and click Allow to enable the System software to load.
You must click the Allow button locally on the Mac, clicking using remote screen sharing will not work.
If the Allow button is not shown then reboot your Mac, try again to use an LTFS tape (which will fail) and then check the Security & Privacy page again.
Also ensure that you have the latest updates to your version of macOS
When running YoYotta with newer macOS versions you may see requests to allow access to folders like Documents, Removable Volumes or Network Volumes. Please allow these requests.
Also you can enable access in Files and Folders in the Security tab as shown in the screenshot.
YoYotta does not need Full Disk Access.
Now the driver is installed and the ATTO ExpressSAS device is shown. No tape drives are connected.
Make sure an LTO drive is connected and powered on, now a SCSI Target
Device @ 0 is shown. Here an IBM LTO-5 drive is connected.
YoYotta will now be able to control this drive.
The System Information page does not refresh automatically. Click File,
Refresh Information or Command + R to refresh the hardware listing.
Here an HPE MSL4048 with three LTO drives is connected.
SCSI Target Device 1 has two logical units. The first is an LTO-5 drive, the second is the library robot.
SCSI Target Devices 2 and 3 are LTO-5 and LTO-4 drives.
If all the SCSI Targets just have one logical unit then the configuration of the tape library needs to be set to allow external control. Check the settings for the control path, which are normally in the partition settings, using the library web browser interface.
For a Quantum i3/i6 library check the Partition Control Path in the web interface and set the Control Interface to Drive. (This defaults to None)
Then refresh the System Information panel and check that one of the targets now shows two logical units.
The YoYotta Library option will now be able to control this library.
ATTO Thunderlink SH1068, SH2068 TB-SAS, ThunderStream SC3808, SC4808 adaptors and the ATTO R680 or R644 PCIe RAID SAS cards do not support TLR, so there will be issues when controlling LTO-6 and newer generation tape drives.
These interfaces are not supported as they do not work with LTFS.
Files are written correctly, but when read back there are undetected soft errors. So the errors would be missed if the copy was not verified. If you get any verification issues, then check these settings.
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