SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. & MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TOLIS Group, Inc. and HighPoint Technologies, Inc. announce the completion of development and testing of the HighPoint Technologies, Inc. RocketRAID 272X, 271X and RocketRAID 4500 Series PCIe host bus adapters (HBA), and the new Thunderbolt-based RocketStor 6328 SAS RAID connectivity solutions with tape drives and libraries from TOLIS Group, Inc., HP, IBM, Tandberg Data, Quantum, and others under Linux and Apple OS X systems.

“As more and more computer-based organizations recognize the importance of tape storage for both day to day backup and long-term archival of business assets, the need for connectivity options becomes more and more important,” said Tim Jones, CTO of TOLIS Group, Inc. “While HighPoint’s family of RocketRAID and RocketStor RAID adapters have long provided performance, reliability and cost-effectiveness for disk storage for Mac and Linux users, tape devices were not supported on those platforms. Our engineering team has worked with the HighPoint engineers to design, develop and test new drivers and firmware for their SAS-based RAID HBAs. The result is a reliable, cost-effective and high-performance connectivity solution for Linux and Mac users for both disk and tape storage solutions.”

Their support for tape drives is dreadful and as I've stated on many posts they are definately off my shopping list in future. Ok this is really easy for you fast performing and bullet proof archive system using HP Ultrium LTO tape SAS drives + ATTO TEch EXPRESSAS PCIE HBAs and some software like Tolisgroups BRU. Mac Running 0S-X 10.5.7. Buy HighPoint RR2722 RocketRAID 2722 8-port SAS RAID Controller from the leader in HPC and AV products and solutions. Which allows them to support LTO tape drives and SAS/SATA Hard Disk Drives, simutaneously, for Windows 8.1/8/7 and Linux PC Platforms. LTO Tape and RAID Arrays; System Support: Mac and PC Systems with PCIe support.

“HighPoint has joined forces with TOLIS Group to bring our highly reliable, high-performance, yet affordable, tape aware Thunderbolt™ 2 RAID Adapter and SAS 6Gb/s PCIe RAID HBAs to the marketplace,” said May Hwang, Director of Product Marketing for HighPoint Technologies, Inc. “TOLIS Group’s expert engineering staff, extensive tape technology knowledge base, and comprehensive testing lab, assured that these solutions are capable of supporting all tape technologies, and not limited to a handful of device types or manufacturers. Their BRU I/O engine allowed our Mac and Linux development teams to heavily stress the solutions on OS X platforms, and a wide variety of Linux systems running both 2.6 and 3.x kernels.”

Tape technologies tested included LTO-4, LTO-5, and LTO-6, DAT72, and DAT320 devices from TOLIS Group, HP, IBM, Quantum, and Tandberg Data, as well as library and automation solutions from TOLIS Group, HP, Quantum, and Tandberg Data. Performance testing of the LTO technologies easily met the native rated performance numbers of 80MB/sec to 160MB/sec using TOLIS Group’s BRU I/O engine in a real world testing environment involving business data, database files, research data, and media assets ranging from a few 10s of GBs to over 140TBs. Filesystems tested included HFS+, XFS, ZFS, EXT3/4, NTFS and ExFAT. In addition to general platform compatibility testing, TOLIS Group also successfully tested with their BRU Server™, BRU Producer’s Edition™, and BRU Workstation™ solutions.

“The most critical factor when dealing with tape devices versus disk arrays connected to a host bus adapter,” continued Jones, “is primarily related to I/O buffering and heat management. While even the highest performance disk I/O is performed in bursts, properly managed I/O to tape is continuous and can very quickly illustrate heat-related operational issues in an I/O subsystem - especially if the disk volume being backed up and the tape device being written to are attached to the same HBA. The HighPoint solutions withstood 100s of terabytes of continuous I/O over many days with no issues.”

Updates for HighPoint PCIe RocketRAID 272X, 271X and RocketRAID 4500 Series HBAs, and Thunderbolt-based RocketStor 6328 SAS adapter are available for download from the HighPoint, Ltd support site beginning Oct 23rd, 2014.

About TOLIS Group, Inc.

TOLIS Group is dedicated to provide leading edge native Unix, Linux and Apple Mac OS X data backup, archival and restore software, tape drives and automation, and backup appliance solutions that deliver unparalleled reliability and excellent value to organizations and OEMs. The service marks of 'Backup You Can Trust' and 'BRU..Because it's the Restore That Matters' guide every aspect of TOLIS Group's business.

About HighPoint Technologies, Inc.

HighPoint Technologies, a pioneering force in the storage industry for nearly two decades, design, manufacture and deploy the industry’s most comprehensive range of high-performance, versatile and cost effective storage solutions for Mac OS X, Window, Linux, and FreeBSD platforms. Our market-proven storage and RAID technology is deployed worldwide; from professional media applications, datacenters and enterprise class server solutions, to personal storage devices. We manufacture an extensive range of Thunderbolt™, SAS, SATA and USB 3.0 storage solutions, HBAs and I/O connectivity devices for Corporate, Professional and consumer applications.

This chapter provides you with a list of:

Current Libraries Supported

The following table provides the list of libraries supported by ACSLS. The second column in this table shows support for a library, and its features added, after ACSLS 7.0.

Table 2-1 Current Libraries Supported

Legacy Libraries Supported

The following legacy libraries are supported by ACSLS.

• StorageTek 9310

• StorageTek 9360

• StorageTek L180

• StorageTek L700

• StorageTek L700e PTP

• StorageTek L5500

ACSLS is still coded to support several earlier StorageTek libraries, like the 4410s, 97xx, L20, L40, and L80 libraries. However, we have not been able to test our support for these libraries for several years.

Tape Drives Supported

The following table is used to translate drive types between applications. The Drive Type Name represents the drive type in cmd_proc and event log messages. The ACSAPI Drive Type Number is used in ACSLS software operations and ACSAPI client communications.

The last column in the Tape Drives table describes when support for a tape drive and associated media was added after ACSLS 7.0.

Notes:

• The library drive type for DLT and SDLT drives is in a different drive domain than Oracle StorageTek drives, and it overlays with the drive types of StorageTek drives. To avoid conflicts, it is incremented by 40 hexadecimal or 64 decimal when these drives are reported by Host/Library Interface libraries. The incremented or ”offset” drive type is reported in parentheses.

• The SL8500 supports LTO-5 drives starting with the 6.0.2 firmware. ACSLS must be at the 7.3.1 or 8.0.2+ update level to support the SL8500 6.0.2+ firmware.

• To determine if a new tape drive is supported in your release and maintenance level, go to an ACSLS Product Information manual for a later ACSLS release and look at the ”ACSLS Support after 7.0' column in the Tape Drives Supported table.

  We add support to new tape drives to ACSLS before the tape drives are released so we can test with prototype versions of the drives, and so you can install and use the drives without installing patches to ACSLS.

  We cannot announce support for new tape drives in the release notes for an ACSLS release or update because at the time ACSLS is released, the new tape drive has not yet been released. We also cannot update the Readme files after an ACSLS package or patch is released.

  Table 2-2 Tape Drives Supported

  ACSAPI Drive Type Number	Drive Domain -hex and character, if applicable	Drive Type Reported by Library (decimal)	Drive Type Name	Tape Drive Description	ACSLS Support after 7.0
  0	00h	64	4480	StorageTek 18-track
  1	00h	08	4490	StorageTek Silverton 36-track
  2	00h	32	9490	StorageTek TimberLine 36-track high performance
  3	00h	16	SD3	StorageTek Redwood Helical
  4	00h	04	4890	StorageTek Twin Peaks 36-track
  5	01h	01 (65)*	DLT2000	Quantum DLT2000
  6	01h	02 (66)*	DLT2000XT	Quantum DLT2000XT
  7	01h	03 (67)*	DLT4000	Quantum DLT4000
  8	01h	04 (68)*	DLT7000	Quantum DLT7000
  9	00h	02	9840	StorageTek T9840A
  10	00h	33	9491	StorageTek TimberLine EE 36-track
  11	01h	07 (71)*	DLT8000	Quantum DLT8000
  12	00h	03	9840-3590	T9840A with IBM 3590 emulation
  13	00h	05	T9940A	T9940A with SCSI/Fibre or VSM3490
  14	00h	06	9940--3590	T9940A with 3590 emulation
  15	01h	20 (84)*	SDLT	Super DLT 220
  16	00h	01	T9840B	High Performance 9840 with SCSI/Fibre or VSM3490
  17	00h	07	T9840B35	T9840B with 3590 emulation
  18	4Ch (”L”)	48	HP-LTO	HP LTO Generation 1
  19	4Ch (”L”)	49	IBM-LTO	IBM LTO Generation 1
  20	4Ch (”L”)	50	CER-LTO	Certance LTO Generation 1
  21	00h	09	T9940B	T9940B with SCSI/Fibre or VSM3490
  22	00h	10	T9940B35	T9940B with 3590 emulation
  23				reserved
  24	01h	21 (85)*	SDLT-320	Super DLT 320
  25	00h	11	T9840C	T9840C with Fibre or VSM3490
  26	00h	12	T9840C35	T9840C with 3590 emulation
  27	4Ch (”L”)	51	HP-LTO-2	HP LTO Generation 2
  28	4Ch (”L”)	52	IBM-LTO-2	IBM LTO Generation 2
  29	4Ch (”L”)	53	CER-LTO-2	Certance LTO Generation 2
  30	01h	23 (87)*	SDLT-600	Super DLT-600	ACSLS 7.1
  31	54h (”T”)	13	T1A	T10000A with Fibre or VSM3490	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0501
  32	54h (”T”)	14	T1A35	T10000A with IBM 3592 emulation	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0501
  33	4Ch (”L”)	54	HP-LTO-3	HP LTO Generation 3	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0501
  34	4Ch (”L”)	55	IBM-LTO-3	IBM LTO Generation 3	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0501
  35	4Ch (”L”)	56	CER-LTO-3	Certance LTO Generation 3	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0501
  36				reserved
  37	54h (”T”)	24	T1AE	T10000A, fibre or VSM3490, with encryption enabled	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0602
  38	54h (”T”)	25	T1AE35	T10000A - IBM 3592 emulation with encryption enabled	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0602
  39				reserved
  40				reserved
  41	00h	18	T9840D	T9840D, fibre or VSM3490	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0602
  42	00h	19	T9840D35	T9840D - IBM 3592 emulation (MVS attach)	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0602
  43	00h	20	T9840DE	T9840D, fibre or VSM3490, with encryption enabled	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0602
  44	00h	21	T9840DE5	T9840D- IBM 3592 emulation (MVS attach) with encryption enabled	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0602
  45	01h	24 (88)*	DLT-S4	Quantum DLT-S4	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0602
  46	4Ch (”L”)	57	HP-LTO4	HP LTO Generation 4	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0701
  47	4Ch (”L”)	58	IBM-LTO4	IBM LTO Generation 4	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0701
  48				reserved
  49	54h (”T”)	26	T1B	T10000B with Fibre or VSM3490	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0701 and PTF or ACSLS 7.2 with PUT0702
  50	54h (”T”)	27	T1B35	T10000B with IBM 3592 emulation	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0701 and PTF or 7.2 with PUT0702
  51	54h (”T”)	28	T1BE	T10000B with Fibre or VSM3490 and encryption	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0701 and PTF or ACSLS 7.2 with PUT0702
  52	54h (”T”)	29	T1BE35	T10000B with encryption and IBM 3592 emulation	ACSLS 7.1 with PUT0701 and PTF or ACSLS 7.2 with PUT0702
  53	54h (”T”)	34	T1C	T10000C with Fibre or VSM3480	ACSLS 7.3.1 or ACSLS 8.0.2
  54	54h (”T”)	35	T1C35	T10000C with IBM 3592 emulation	ACSLS 7.3.1 or ACSLS 8.0.2
  55	54h (”T”)	36	T1CE	T10000C with Fibre or VSM3480 and encryption	ACSLS 7.3.1 or ACSLS 8.0.2
  56	54h (”T”)	37	T1CE35	T10000C IBM 3592 emulation with encryption enabled	ACSLS 7.3.1 or ACSLS 8.0.2
  57	4Ch (”L”)	59	HP-LTO5	HP-LTO Generation 5	ACSLS 7.3.1
  58	4Ch (”L”)	60	IBM-LTO5	IBM LTO Generation 5	ACSLS 7.3.1
  59	4Ch (”L”)	61	HP-LTO6	HP LTO Generation 6	ACSLS 8.2
  60	4Ch (”L”)	62	IBM-LTO6	IBM LTO Generation 6	ACSLS 8.2
  61	54 (”T”)	38	T1D	T10000D with Fibre or VSM3480	ACSLS 8.2
  62	54 (”T”)	39	T1D35	T10000D with IBM 3592 emulation	ACSLS 8.2
  63	54 (”T”)	40	T1DE	T10000D with Fibre or VSM3480 and encryption	ACSLS 8.2
  64	54 (”T”)	41	T1DE35	T10000D IBM 3592 emulation with encryption enabled	ACSLS 8.2
  65	54 (”T”)	42	T1D-FCoE	T10000D with Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE)	ACSLS 8.3
  66	54 (”T”)	43	T1DE-FCoE	T10000D with FCoE and encryption	ACSLS 8.3

  
  

Tape Media Supported

The following table lists the compatible tape media supported for each drive type.

Notes:

• * Legacy StorageTek media do not have a media domain on the label. They are reported as media domain 0 (zero).

• * 3480 cartridges do not have a media type label. They are reported as media type1.

• *** DLT cartridges do not have a media domain on the label. They are reported as media domain 1. SDLT cartridges with 7 character barcodes are also reported as media domain 1.

• **** When a media type is reported as cleaning cartridge maybe, both data or cleaning cartridges can have this media type.

• ***** LTO-6 media types are reported as LTO-3.2T and LTO-3.2W in ACSLS 8.1. In ACSLS 8.2 and later releases, LTO-6 media types are reported as LTO-2.5T and LTO-2.5W. This was because the capacity of LTO-6 media changed before LTO-6 was announced.

• Table 2-3 Tape Media Supported

  ACSAPI Media Type Number	Media Type Name	Media Description	Media Domain (on label)	Media Type (on label)	Cleaning Cartridge****
  0	3480	3480 18 or 6-track	0*	1**	maybe
  1	3490E	3490E 36-track	0*	E	no
  2	DD3A	StorageTek Redwood (Helical) 10GB	0*	A	no
  3	DD3B	StorageTek Redwood (Helical) 25GB	0*	B	no
  4	DD3C	StorageTek Redwood (Helical) 40GB	0*	C	no
  5	DD3D	StorageTek Redwood Cleaning Cartridge	0*	D	yes
  6	DLTIII	Quantum DLT III -10GB	1***	C	maybe
  7	DLTIV	Quantum DLT IV - 20GB or 35GB	1***	D	no
  8	DLTIIIXT	Quantum DLT IIIxt - 15GB	1***	E	no
  9	STK1R	T9840A, T9840B, T9840C or T9840D data cartridge	0*	R	no
  10	STK1U	T9840A, T9840B, 9840C cleaning cartridge	0*	U	yes
  11	EECART	9490EE 36-track	0*	Z	no
  12		reserved
  13	STK2P	9940 data cartridge	0*	P	no
  14	STK2W	9940 cleaning cartridge	0*	W	yes
  15		reserved
  16	LTO-100G	LTO Generation 1 data cartridge	L	1	no
  17	LTO-50GB	LTO Generation 1 data cartridge	L	A	no
  18	LTO-35GB	LTO Generation 1 data cartridge	L	B	no
  19	LTO-10GB	LTO Generation 1 data cartridge	L	C	no
  20	LTO-CLN2	IBM cleaning cartridge	C	2	yes
  21	LTO-CLN3	Certance cleaning cartridge	C	3	yes
  22	LTO-CLN1	HP cleaning cartridge	C	1	yes
  23	SDLT	Super DLT Generation I cartridge	1***	S	maybe
  24		reserved
  25	LTO-CLNU	LTO universal cleaning cartridge	C	U	yes
  26	LTO-200G	LTO Generation 2 data cartridge	L	2	no
  27	SDLT-2	Super DLT Generation II data cartridge	Sketchup pro 2015 free license. 1***	2	no
  28	T10000T1	T10000 data cartridge	T	1	no
  29	T10000TS	T10000 sport data cartridge	T	S	no
  30	T10000CT	T10000 cleaning cartridge	C	T	yes
  31	LTO-400G	LTO Generation 3 data cartridge	L	3	no
  32	LTO-400W	LTO Generation 3 WORM data cartridge	L	T	no
  33		reserved
  34	SDLT-S1	Super DLT Generation I data cartridge in SDLT-220 format	S	1	maybe
  35	SDLT-S2	Super DLT Generation I data cartridge in SDLT-320 format	S	2	no
  36	SDLT-S3	Super DLT Generation II data cartridge	S	3	no
  37	SDLT-S4	Super DLT Generation 4 data cartridge	S	4	no
  38	SDLT-4	Super DLT Generation 4 data cartridge	1***	4	no
  39	STK1Y	T9840D cleaning cartridge	0*	Y	yes
  40	LTO-800G	LTO Generation 4 data cartridge	L	4	no
  41	LTO-800W	LTO Generation 4 WORM data cartridge	L	U	no
  42	T10000T2	T10000 Version 2 data cartridge	T	2	no
  43	T10000TT	T10000 Version 2 sport data cartridge	T	T	no
  44	T10000CC	T10000 Version 2 cleaning cartridge	C	C	yes
  45	LTO-1.5T	LTO Generation 5 data cartridge	L	5	no
  46	LTO-1.5W	LTO Generation 5 WORM data cartridge	L	V	no
  47	T10000CL	T10000 Backwards compatible cleaning cartridge	C	L	yes
  48	LTO-2.5T	LTO Generation 6 data cartridge	L*****	6	no
  49	LTO-2.5W	LTO Generation 6 WORM data cartridge	L*****	W	no

  
  

Tape Drive and Media Compatibility Supported

The following table lists the compatible media for each drive type. Use these values as input to the mediamedia_type and drivedrive_type parameters on ACSLS commands.

An R/O identifies media types that are read-only by the specified drive type.

Table 2-4 Drive and Media Compatibility