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I'm looking for open minded person who can answer my unusual question that might defy logic at first glance but might be valid.

Recently I got need for reading LTO tapes that act as archive. I would like have LTO drive next to my apple laptop without need to run noisy server or doing RDC and walking out to change tape.

There are dedicated LTO drives that are compatible with mac out of box using thunderbolt, for example:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1443346-REG/mlogic_mtape_tb3_lto6_mtape_tb3_lto_6_desktop.html

or

https://magstor.com/products/magstor-lto8-12tb-thunderbolt-3-tape-drive

they have one thing common and it's PRICE.

Cheaper way is to use external Thunderbolt 3 -> SAS adapter like this:

https://www.atto.com/downloads/165

this model (from first pdf) is compatible with LTO + LTFS drive.

I'm kind of open minded person who like ask question - is there dedicated LTO thunderbolt drive? Answer is NOT.

What I expect, inside this external device is thunderbolt -> PCIe + PCIe SAS card -> connected to generic LTO drive fit into nice enclosure to make look pro.

My question for You mac server / pro user guys - how looks compatibility of non-raid SAS PCIe cards on MAC? Are they any?

I would like buy cheap thunderbolt 3 -> PCIe external enclosure (they can be found cheap, lot of people are using them to play on mac computers, it have slot for graphic card but i expect it won't know difference between SAS card or GPU (i might be wrong).

If im correct, only question would be non RAID SAS card. I'm using laptop but there are desktop mac that allow stuffing cards, maybe there are compatible SAS cards?

What i read LTO on MAC is baked by LTFS and i can live with it.

Any ideas on this topic?

electronicnoobblog
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1 Answers1

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I am using LTO-6 FC tape drive from my laptop without any issues. Here are my interfaces:

(Lenovo laptop X280, Windows and Ubuntu) -> (Thunderbolt 3 USB type-c port) -> (Apple Thunderbolt 3 to 2 adaptor) -> (Sonnet Echo Express SE II Expansion Chassis for PCIe Cards) -> (8G Fibre Channel Card) -> (LTO-6 FC Drive)

I had to convert Thunderbolt 3 to 2 with the adapter, however, this is not necessary as long as your enclosure supports Thunderbolt 3. I have not tried Mac and SAS, but it should be possible.

how looks compatibility of non-raid SAS PCIe cards on MAC? Are they any?

Yes, there are. As an example, I found that ATTO SAS card is compatible with Mac. You can contact SAS card vendors for more information.

I would like buy cheap thunderbolt 3 -> PCIe external enclosure

This should work fine.

Kevin Nakamoto
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    Thank You for input, Only thing im afraid is that on Windows / Linux everything is kind a simple, on MAC You can hit wall and can't do anything with it. I think I will wait until Big Sur will be more common to check if this don't bring any issue with LTFS or tape drives in general thats my main concern - just in case they drop support. I will be posting in this topic as soon I get more info. – electronicnoobblog Sep 22 '20 at 09:23
  • FYI - I found an interesting article using MacOS and Thundervolt: http://tech.mattmillman.com/attaching-lto-tape-drives-via-usb-or-thunderbolt/ – Kevin Nakamoto Sep 22 '20 at 18:19