How to use Veeam with tape drives and Microsoft LTO driver in Windows 2012/2012R2

Sporadic LTO tape drives went offline using Veeam on the PERC H330 with IBM driver.

As a possible solution to problems with using Veeam with LTO tape drives on the PERC H330 and using the IBM driver required by VEEAM, we have tested the use of the Microsoft inbox LTO driver. It is a workaround that has been successfully tested in our laboratory with certain hardware and software versions. However, due to the many possible combinations of hardware and software, we can not guarantee that the solution will work in all environments:

Test environment:

- Power Edge T430 with PERC H330 Adapter and LTO 6 Tape drive
- Windows 2012R2 with all Patches (at 06/2016)
- Veeam Backup&Replication 9.0.0.1491
- Tested PERC H330 FW Stände: 25.3.0.0016; 25.4.0.0017; 25.4.1.0004
- Tested PERC driver: 6.603.07.00

In the given scenario, 3 LTO tapes were written with Veeam using the following FW/driver levels with different block sizes (64kB, 128kB, 256kB):

- PERC H330 FW: 25.3.0.0016
- PERC H330 Driver: 6.603.07.00
- IBM Tape driver: 6.2.5.6
- LTO6 FW: F9A1

The written tapes have been validated by recover of files.
Subsequently, the IBM driver was replaced by the current Microsoft inbox driver from Windows 2012R2 as described below:

At first, the installed driver (6.2.5.6) was uninstalled with the "uninst.exe" from the IBM driver package:









After the subsequent reboot, the LTO drive is displayed with a yellow exclamation mark.


Now the Microsoft driver has to be installed manually:










After another restart, the drive should now be displayed as LTO Tapedrive, the installed driver is now the Microsoft driver.
Version: 6.3.9600.16384






After that, a medium previously written with Veeam and the IBM driver was inventoried:




This was done with all 3 previously written media (64kB, 128kB and 256kB blocksize).
At first, each media was used to restore 1 file of the test method and then a further backup to the respective medium was carried out. There were no problems / issues.
In further tests, Veeam's behavior with the Microsoft driver could be determined:

1. Tapes previously described with this Veaam installation could be inventoried without restriction. Recovery of data and further use for backups is possible without problems and regardless of the block size. Deleting or formatting the tape was not required.
2. New, unused tapes could easily be inventoried and fully used for backups and further recovery.
3. Tapes previously used with other backup application or test tools such as ITDT could not be inventoried, described, deleted or formatted with Veeam. This was only possible after deleting the tape with a suitable third party tool (in this case ITDT). However, after deleting the media, unrestricted use was possible under Veeam.

The problem described under point 3 shows the following behavior:
The inventory itself is apparently without error, but the drive will still be displayed as empty, so there is no backup or deletion to this media possible. In this case, the media must be deleted using a third-party tool, such as ITDT.
After that the medium can be easily inventoried and used.
To delete the tape for further use with Veeam using the ITDT utility, do the following:

Start ITDT as administrator:




Type U for "[ U ] Tapeutil" and Enter.


Type 1 for "[ 1 ] Open a Device" and Enter.


Continue with Enter.


Continue with Enter.


Continue with Enter.


The device was opened successfully, continue with Enter.


Type 28 for "[ 28 ] Erase" and Enter.


The deletion process is started.

Note: the deletion process (it is a "long erase") takes several hours. It can be interrupted by resetting the drive (pressing the ejection button for at least 15 seconds), the tape can be used without problems after re-loading by Veeam.

If you receive the following message when starting the deletion process:


Please carry out the following steps and then try to start the deletion process again:

1. Check if the tape is actually loaded in the drive and load it again if necessary.
2. Unload/load the tape.
3. Restart the system.

The following behavior is still unclear:

1. Tapes previously written with Veeam using the IBM driver are recognized by ITDT as read-only when using the Microsoft driver. After deleting, as described above, they are normally usable.
2. If IBM Tapedriver is installed, it is sometimes not possible to up- or downgrade the PERC firmware ('no supported device found'). In some cases, it is possible to upgrade / downgrade after a restart, but sometimes only after the LTO drive has been physically disconnected from the controller.
3. If the IBM Tapedriver is installed, it is partially impossible to up- / downgrade the LTO firmware. Sometimes this is possible after a restart, in some cases only after upgrading or downgrading the PERC firmware or switching to the Microsoft driver.