Can those with experience with changers elucidate some details for me?
What is the AMANDA/amtape policy when "rolling over" from the last
tape to the first tape in my "Backup Set"? My config specifies the
following:
dumpcycle 2 weeks
runspercycle 5
tapecycle 10 tapes
In my changer the slot numbering is zero-based. So I have tapes in
slots 0 thru 9.
Since I do not have a working changer script between amtape and my
tape library manager sw layer, I am manually running robot load
commands (etc...). I have three general questions:
1) Will amtape manage the rollover from tape slot 9 to slot 0, and,
in general, do the right thing? Is there any manual intervention on
tape slot rollover? For example. must the admin tell AMANDA that it
is OK to write over a tape (tape "00")?
2) Is there any important information omitted from the document,
"AMANDA Tape Changer Support"? Can it generally be trusted to specify
the correct interfaces? I have found that some of the tape changer
implementations in the AMANDA distribution do not correctly follow
the API specifications in that document.
3) Do people with single tape robots use multiple tape magazines;
swapping them out after one tapecycle... as in Magazine A then
Magazine B, then back to A? Or do some people just keep running tapes
through the magazine, ad infinitum? Or do most people leave the same
magazine installed until the tapes wear out? I presume this last
question (3) is largely dependent upon one's goals... So if anybody
cares to elaborate on changer methodologies used to achieve
particular goals, then I would be grateful. Other will surely benefit
as this is not an area that is discussed in much depth.
Thanks for your time...
J
