Files in this download contain Licensed Materials, property of IBM,

(C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1998-2017. All Rights Reserved. See the
Licensing agreement presented when the driver is downloaded.

The IBM Tape Device Drivers for the Linux platforms are responsible
for assisting in communication between the Linux host and the tape or
changer device. The tape driver for Linux (lin_tape) and the tape
driver daemon (lin_taped) work with IBM System Storage Tape Products
in providing basic and advanced tape functionality for backup/restore
and archive environments.

ATTENTION: Tapeutil provides only a subset of device and command

support that the IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool (ITDT) provides. The
functions and capabilities of tapeutil are now performed by ITDT.
Please use ITDT in place of tapeutil, as tapeutil is deprecated.

IBM Tape Diagnostic Tool (ITDT) provides the customer with functionality
to perform maintenance tasks and run diagnostic tasks to determine tape
device issues. This is available to download with the device driver.

"IBM Tape Device Driver Installation and User's Guide" (IUG) describes
the IBM Tape and Medium Changer Device Drivers for AIX, HP-UX, Linux,
Solaris, and Windows operating systems. For basic installation and
usage infromation, please refer to the IUG. This is available to
download at:
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=577&uid=ssg1S7002972

The readme files contain information that may not be included in the
IUG. The readme files take precedence over the IUG. Therefore, any
information in this file that conflicts with information in the IUG
will supercede the IUG.

Supported Operating Systems

The tape driver for Linux (lin_tape) and the tape driver daemon
lin_taped) are developed to support various versions of Linux. For
details on supported tape attachment please refer to the System
Storage Interoperation Center website.
http://www.ibm.com/systems/support/storage/config/ssic/
This are the minimum kernel versions supported:
RHEL 7.3 - 3.10.0-514
RHEL 7.2 - 3.10.0-327
RHEL 7.1 - 3.10.0-229
RHEL 7.0 - 3.10.0-123
RHEL 6.9 - 2.6.32-696
RHEL 6.8 - 2.6.32-642
RHEL 6.7 - 2.6.32-573
RHEL 6.6 - Not supported due to kernel bug at released version 2.6.32-504,
unless at special RHEL patch: 2.6.32-504.8.1
RHEL 6.5 - 2.6.32.431
RHEL 6.4 - 2.6.32-358.18.1
SLES12 SP2 - 4.4.21-69
SLES12 - 3.12.28-4 (No support for System p and Power Systems by now)
SLES11 SP4 - 3.0.101-63
SLES11 SP3 - 3.0.79-0.11
SLES11 SP2 - 3.0.13-0.27
For previous versions please refere to lin_tape.fixlist

Supported Applications
If you use a third party application, consult with your application
provider as to the compatibility with lin_tape.

Tape Drivers for Linux

The tape driver for Linux is named as lin_tape-n.nn.n-n.src.rpm,
where n.nn.n-n is the version number of the device driver. The lin_tape
module is open source. It can be compiled in newer kernel versions.

The tape driver daemon for Linux is named as

lin_taped-n.nn.n-<distro>.<arch>.rpm, where n.nn.n is the version
number of the daemon, <distro> specifies the Linux operating system,
and <arch> specifies the architecture platform.

i386, i586, i686 - 32-bit Intel-compatible servers

s390x - 64-bit zSeries processors
ppc64 - 64-bit pSeries processors
ppc64le- 64-bit pSeries processors LE
x86_64 - 64-bit Intel EM64T or AMD Opteron servers

The lin_taped module is a binary rpm, so the correct selection for the
correct Linux operating system and architecture platform is required.

The two modules, lin_tape and lin_taped, are qualified together, so both
are required for supported configurations. Please refer to specific
install instructions for more information.

Archive drivers are available for older Linux Operating Systems.

========================================================================

lin_tape Notices:

1. Known limitations
2. Setting up the environment
3. Notes for lin_taped daemon
4. Known issues

----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Known limitations
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Join driver (SFMP feature to enable st/sg interfaces through lintape) is not
supported on 3.0.10 and 3.0.18. For join driver use latest version.
2. Block size bigger than 2M is not supported in kernels >= 2.6.29 with lin_tape
versions previous to 2.9.9

3. TS3310 Library: Control Path Failover is supported. However,

there may be scenarios where manual intervention is required to
reconfigure the failed path.

4. lin_tape Device Driver for 64-bit will only support 64-bit

applications. 32-bit applications are not supported.

5. lin_tape does not support any SCSI-to-FC bridge connection

6. Limited error recovery exists with Fibre Channel attachment due to

environment limitations.

7. To backup data in IBM SAS drives in the fixed blocksize mode, the
blocksize must be set to a multiple of 4; otherwise it will cause
 the open or set blocksize commands to fail.

8. The maximum SCSI transfer limit on zSeries FCP is 2 MB, but

256KB (lin_tape default setting) is highly recommended.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Setting up the environment
----------------------------------------------------------------------
1. If you would like to ensure all of the special files
/dev/IBMtape* or /dev/IBMchanger* can be readable/writable
by all users, you may add the following two lines in the
/etc/udev/udev.permissions file:

IBMtape*:root:root:666
IBMchanger*:root:root:666

2. If you are running a CVT or other device for which the medium
changer is reported at LUN 0, you may need to set a parameter
in /proc/scsi/device_info in order to get the tape drives to be
scanned properly. This can be done by issuing the following at
the command prompt:

echo <vendor-id>:<model>:200 > /proc/scsi/device_info

For example:

echo IBM:ULT3582-TL:200 > /proc/scsi/device_info

This will create a line similar to the following in

/proc/scsi/device_info:

'IBM ' 'ULT3582-TL ' 0xc8

At that point you may need to reinstall your adapter driver or

reboot your Linux host for the virtual tape drives to appear.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Notes for lin_taped daemon
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The lin_tape device driver provides facilities for device
driver tracing, obtaining SIM/MIM data (for IBM 359x tape
devices), automatically storing drive dumps, and saving log sense
information when log threshold values are exceeded. A daemon
(lin_taped) is provided with the device driver to process this
information. Also, the lin_taped daemon needs to be running for tape
device path failover support.

For more information on lin_taped please refer to

lin_taped.readme.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Known Issues
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- At lin_tape 3.0.20 and 3.0.21 device name /dev/IBM* for a removed path/device
does not persist as in previous versions where the device name is tagged as removed
but still exists.

- There is a known issue with particular Emulex HBA driver / FW level(s) included
in later Linux kernel distributions. Please update the HBA driver to 8.3.7.33-1 or
later.