HP LTO 15000 Tape

Install Drivers:

According to HP, non-windows OS's should already have the drivers installed.

If tape drivers are not installed (other operating systems)

Drivers are included with the operating system and should be loaded automatically. To upgrade drivers, Hewlett Packard Enterprise recommends upgrading to the latest version of the operating system.


confirming that it's mounted

[root@host ~]# cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
[...]
Host: scsi8 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: HP       Model: Ultrium 7-SCSI   Rev: G9Q1
  Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI  SCSI revision: 06
[root@host ~]#


Install Library and Tape Tools:

Download the linux drivers from the HP site. Specifically, the file hpe_ltt425_linux_x86_64.tar (72 MB)

from /root

tar -xvf hpe_ltt425_linux_x86_64.tar

then run the installer

[root@host ~]# ./install_hpeltt
Preparing...                          ################################# [100%]
------------------------------------------------------------------
Checking distribution release version of current OS......
Current OS distribution release version is :"CentOS Linux release 7.3.1611 (Core) "
L&TT is supported on this distribution version of OS.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Updating / installing...
   1:hpeltt-4.25.0.14-4               ################################# [100%]
Archive:  jre.zip
   creating: jre/
  inflating: jre/THIRDPARTYLICENSEREADME-JAVAFX.txt
  inflating: jre/release
[...]
  inflating: jre/Welcome.html
 Installation SUCCESS
[root@host ~]#


Installing LTFS and formatting tape

  1. Install the FUSE kernel module using the following command. Then load the kernel.
    1. yum -y install fuse icu fuse-libs
    2. modprobe fuse
  2. Download the software from the following link and copy it to the server, specifically the 64-bit version 3.3.0
    1. https://support.hpe.com/hpsc/swd/public/detail?sp4ts.oid=1009214665&swItemId=MTX_1ad788618f8343309af7b6fbe8&swEnvOid=4184
  3. Run the following commands once the file is copied to the server to install the LTFS software
    1. tar -xvf HPE_StoreOpen_Standalone_3.3.0_RHELx64_Z7550-02283.tar.gz
    2. rom -ivh HPE-SOS-3.3.0-70.x86_64.rpm --nodeps
  4. Format the drive using the following command
    1. mkltfs -d /dev/st0


Mounting the tape as a local drive

  1. In order to mount the tape as a drive to copy data, create a directory for it to be mounted it.
    1. mkdir /mnt/st0
  2. Once the directory is created, run the following command to mount the tape into the directory. The "-o eject" command tells the drive to eject the tape once it is unmounted.
    1. ltfs -o devname=/dev/st0 /mnt/st0 -o eject
  3. Once the drive is mounted, it is treated as a regular mount location and in order to unmount run
    1. umount /mnt/st0
  4. Below is an example of the screen when the drive is mounted, it displays the serial number along with other important attributes.
[root@host ~]# ltfs -o devname=/dev/st0 /mnt/st0 -o eject
acf2 LTFS14000I LTFS starting, HPE StoreOpen Standalone version 3.3.0, log level 2
acf2 LTFS14058I LTFS Format Specification version 2.4.0
acf2 LTFS14104I Launched by "ltfs -o devname=/dev/st0 /mnt/st0 -o eject"
acf2 LTFS14105I This binary is built for Linux (x86_64)
acf2 LTFS14106I GCC version is 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-11)
acf2 LTFS17087I Kernel version: Linux version 3.10.0-693.el7.x86_64 (builder@kbuilder.dev.centos.org) (gcc version 4.8.5 20150623 (Red Hat 4.8.5-16) (GCC) ) #1 SMP Tue Aug 22 21:09:27 UTC 2017 i386
acf2 LTFS17089I Distribution: CentOS Linux release 7.4.1708 (Core)
acf2 LTFS17089I Distribution: CentOS Linux release 7.4.1708 (Core)
acf2 LTFS17089I Distribution: NAME="CentOS Linux"
acf2 LTFS17089I Distribution: CentOS Linux release 7.4.1708 (Core)
acf2 LTFS14063I Sync type is "time", Sync time is 300 sec
acf2 LTFS17085I Plugin: Loading "ltotape" driver
acf2 LTFS17085I Plugin: Loading "unified" iosched
acf2 LTFS20013I Drive type is HP LTO7, serial number is ABC11111DDD
acf2 LTFS17160I Maximum device block size is 524288
acf2 LTFS11005I Mounting the volume
acf2 LTFS17302W Cannot retrieve attribute (Barcode=0x806)
acf2 LTFS14111I Initial setup completed successfully
acf2 LTFS14112I Invoke 'mount' command to check the result of final setup
acf2 LTFS14113I Specified mount point is listed if succeeded


  1. The list of commands which can be used in addition to those with the ltfs command can be found on the following PDF.
    1. http://www.tandbergdata.com/default/assets/File/PDFs/LTFS_For_Linux_and_Mac_User_Guide_March_2014.pdf

References: