Amanda 2.4.2p2, chg-scsi with barcode support, Linux.
(I expect the same problem with amdump, but I show it with amflush
here.)
When amflush needs a new tape, it takes the name of the "oldest" tape
and asks the changer (the chg-scsi program) to insert it. It detects
the changer as searchable and uses the -search option to get that
tape.
In my case this fails because the "oldest" tape is stored "offsite".
And then amanda falls back to scanning the complete library in order
to find the "oldest" tape among all the tapes in the library. It does
this every time a new tape is needed. When 20 tapes will be written,
every tape will be inserted into the tape drive 20 times. This is slow
and might even wear out the tapes.
So an important advantage of a searchable changer vanishes.
>From the log file:
changer: opening pipe to: /usr/lib/amanda/chg-scsi -info
changer: got exit: 0 str: 1 30 1 1
changer_query: changer return was 30 1 1
changer_query: searchable = 1
changer_find: looking for WEEKLY003 changer is searchable = 1
changer_search: WEEKLY003
changer: opening pipe to: /usr/lib/amanda/chg-scsi -search WEEKLY003
changer: got exit: 2 str: <none> no slot `WEEKLY003'
changer: opening pipe to: /usr/lib/amanda/chg-scsi -slot current
changer: got exit: 0 str: 1 /dev/nst0
taper: slot 1: date 20020509 label Set1-Apr-02 (active tape)
changer: opening pipe to: /usr/lib/amanda/chg-scsi -slot next
changer: got exit: 0 str: 2 /dev/nst0
taper: slot 2: date 20010429 label Set1-Apr-03 (first labelstr match)
changer: opening pipe to: /usr/lib/amanda/chg-scsi -slot next
changer: got exit: 0 str: 3 /dev/nst0
... until all tapes are found, and then the tape is inserted:
changer: opening pipe to: /usr/lib/amanda/chg-scsi -slot 2
changer: got exit: 0 str: 2 /dev/nst0
taper: read label `Set1-Apr-03' date `20010429'
taper: wrote label `Set1-Apr-03' date `20020509'
I believe that amanda should ask the changer for a list off all
available tapes (for me -status robot does this quickly via barcode
scan) and the choose the "oldest" of these tapes and insert it using
the -search option.
Opinions?
Sven
