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benmctee
Contributor
Contributor

Tandberg NEO T24 via FC

We successfully deployed an older Tandberg LTO drive via PCI passthrough to our ESXi 7 host as a target for Veeam storage. We have since purchased a newer Tandberg Overland neoseries T24, but this one is Fibre Channel. I've never worked with FC before, but figured I'd give it a shot.

The ESXi host is an HPE DL380 G10. I installed a PCI riser, and a FC card that shows to be supported on the HCL. That's connected directly to the tape drive over MM fiber (point to point topology).

When I look at storage adapters for the host, I see: "QLE2692 Dual Port 16Gb Fibre Channel to PCIe Adapter" is Online. There is 1 active path available, and I can see the tape drive. However, I cannot figure out how to expose it to the VM. I've tried adding a SCSI controller to the VM, but I only see a long list of None/Virtual/Physical (repeat) when I select the LSI Logic SAS, or other type of SCSI controller.

I've tried configuring the vmhba66 Fibre Channel to PCIe Adapter -> Controllers with a WWNN and WWPN, which I can retrieve from the neoseries information page, but it cannot find the controller.

Since LTO is not officially supported by VMware, and support must be provided by the manufacturer, we reached out to them. Unsurprisingly, they asked us if we talked to VMware... and we responded with kb2007904 (support must be provided by manufacturer). I also see where Veeam supports this setup, if I can ever get it working: https://www.veeam.com/sys376.

So my question to the community: has anyone gotten a tape drive to work over FC on ESX 7, exposed to a Veeam guest?

Thanks!

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e_espinel
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

Hello.
I share with you something that I did on a customer at the time, maybe it can serve as a guide.
At some point I would like to try this on an ESXi 7.0


If I remember correctly, the NEO T24 Library is the base of the IBM TS3100.

 

Enrique Espinel
Senior Technical Support on IBM, Lenovo, Veeam Backup and VMware vSphere.
VSP-SV, VTSP-SV, VTSP-HCI, VTSP
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Kinnison
Commander
Commander

Hi,


@e_espinel


I think you remember well. 😀

That library, even with different firmware, has been seen around with many different brands, but in the end it was mostly always the same object.


Regards,
Ferdinando

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benmctee
Contributor
Contributor

@e_espinelThank you for the detailed information; this is much more than we've received from Tandberg and seems like a viable option. I'll post back with results once we've given it a try.

benmctee
Contributor
Contributor

We've opted to send the tape drive back in and go a different route, since this method isn't officially supported. Definitely appreciate your time and advice! @e_espinel 

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