Jon, Frank, Thank you - I was able to debug with your help and quickly realized that the driveslot wasn't set properly, updating the conf file and examining the script I realized that the value was not being checked.
Since I'd had an issue with this on the Solaris 9 box last year and I knew that "driveslot" was a valid parameter I realized that the chg-zd-mtx script with 2.4.2p2 on my SGI was invalid and replaced with the script that came with 2.4.4 on my Solaris system. This seems to have resolved the immediate problem, now I have to load up the tapes, label them (not sure the currently loaded one is writeable) and configure my DLE entries... oh, and install gtar. DLE on .8 TByte will not fit on SDLT 320 so its subdivide and conquer time. Thank you both, Brian samar 102% amcheck samar Amanda Tape Server Host Check ----------------------------- ERROR: log dir /amanda/samar: not writable amcheck-server: slot 1: rewinding tape: I/O error ERROR: new tape not found in rack (expecting a new tape) NOTE: skipping tape-writable test NOTE: info dir /amanda/samar/curinfo: does not exist NOTE: it will be created on the next run Server check took 32.700 seconds Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check -------------------------------- ERROR: samar: [host samar: port 1139 not secure] Client check: 1 host checked in 0.707 seconds, 1 problem found (brought to you by Amanda 2.4.2p2) samar 103% amlabel samar SAMAR01 labeling tape in slot 1 (/dev/sdlt): rewinding amlabel: rewinding tape: I/O error