Gene Heskett sends Greetings to Anthony Valentine;
AV> Hello everyone.
AV> Does (or can) Amanda verify the contents of a tape after the
AV> backup to verify that it backed up properly? Or does it do
AV> something similar already?
AV> Thanks in advance!
AV> Anthony Valentine
AV> Spenard Builders Supply
AV> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
'amverify' can do that, run it as user amanda (or whatever you used for
'user' when you compiled it).
But, the reasoning for doing it somewhat escapes me for most users.
The tape drives themselves do a read after write verification, and if
required will re-write a block of data until such time as it gets a good
readback, doing all this on the fly as its being written in the first
place. If your software can query the drives error reporting page, then
you'll get a rough idea of the actual error rates encountered, and can
replace a tape (or clean the heads) before it gets so bad you can't
recover from it.
If you are using a changer, I believe chg-scsi keeps a file called
tapestatus, and this will contain such information as can be extracted
from the drive. I don't know if that file is kept if a changer and
chg-scsi isn't being used.
A run of amverify can make you feel better, at the expense of doubling
the hours on the tape drives heads and another pass on the tape. Since
that can reduce the chances of getting a good extraction if you need it,
I no longer do it as a matter of personal preferences. The last time I
needed a rescue, it worked flawlessly.
Cheers, Gene
--
Gene Heskett, CET, UHK |Amiga A2k Zeus040, 70MB ram, 31 gigs
| Linux @ 500mhz, 320MB ram, 50 gigs
email gene underscore heskett at iolinc dot net
#Amiga based X10 home automation program EZHome, see at:#
<http://www.iolinc.net/gene_heskett>
This messages reply content, but not any previously quoted material,
is � 2001 by Gene Heskett, all rights reserved.
--
