Tape drive compatibility in esxi 4.1

[barockwell]

This is probably a pretty basic question. I'm relatively new to vmware and am trying to determine whether our Quantum 160/320 DLT-V4 model BHBBX-EY scsi tape drive is supported in esxi 4.1 (using free version). Looking in the hardware compatibility matrix, I'm seeing listings for scsi cards but am not finding references to the tape drives themselves. Is it a matter that if the scsi card is supported, then the tape drive should work, or I'm just not finding the listing for tape drives? This is a single drive, not an autoloader. Thanks in advance. -Bruce

[idle-jam]

as long as the scsi card is supported you will be able to get the tape detected afterall you will install the drivers on the Guest OS.

[asatoran]

More specifically than using a supported SCSI card, official support for tape drives is limited to Adaptec parallel SCSI cards.

Configuring tape drives and media changers on ESX 4.0 and up

[barockwell]

I won't be able to actually work on this til next week, but thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

[barockwell]

thanks for the clarification re. adaptec cards

[barockwell]

I'm new to the forums and I see that points can be awarded but only to one responder? Both were helpful and look like they are probably correct but I won't be able to test til next week. I can't split the points?

[idle-jam]

you can't. you could only give 1 correct answer points and a few multiple useful points. anyway we're cool with it as long as we solved your problem ..

[asatoran · Accepted solution]

Yeah, no worries about the points.  Just let us know how it worked out. 

[barockwell]

thanks to both of you. I'll have to study up on the points system! Will be sure to update on how it goes.

[barockwell]

Just an update. We ended up using a nonvirtual server for that tape drive, but will probably be doing a tape drive install on a different esxi 4.1 box in another situation soon. Thanks for all the help!