LTO Tape/6
Don't trust this information.
LTO-6 SAS Drive is assumed to be used (for now).
Links:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/3qfyhm/how_to_start_using_an_lto6_tape_backup_drive_with/cyxpzo5/ https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/3qfyhm/how_to_start_using_an_lto6_tape_backup_drive_with/ https://www.quantum.com/serviceandsupport/softwareanddocumentationdownloads/ltfs/index.aspx?whattab=Third https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/en/STQNYL_2.2.2/ltfs_reference_tools_linux.html
HBA (Host Bus Adaptor)
Drive
LTO5 and up support LTFS. But all support Tar and BareOS.
First check that /dev/tape/by-id exists and contains an nst0 device. If so, the Linux kernel already detected your tape drive and no further drivers are necessary. As for software though...
Backup Software
Backup Software determine the format of the data being pushed to the tape.
Tar (Simplest)
See LTO Tape
LTFS (Medium)
Build from the upstream source code rather than using vendor source code, which sucks. A handy source rpm is provided.
https://github.com/LinearTapeFileSystem/ltfs/wiki
BareOS (Enterprise)
Not an operating system, but "Backup Archiving REcovery Open Sourced" with tape as one key storage backend. It was forked from Bacula. Does not require LTFS.