On Friday 05 March 2010, Brian Cuttler wrote:
>Gene,
>
>I had no idea it was that difficult to reset.
>
>I apologize if I left the impression that I thought it
>was an amanda issue, I was sure it was in the HW and
>the driver, but I didn't express.
>
>In truth I seldom touch a drive for other amanda amanda
>related work, only when assisting an end-user backing up
>their own data or installing a new drive for an end-user use.
[...]
I do think this is the list to ask about it though, as I'm not sure you would
find experienced folks to comment about such a narrow subject on some distros
mailing list.
And once the mechanism for its 'infection' is known the fix then becomes
fairly obvious.
You, I believe have far wider experience than I, you are involved with, I
assume, several hundred users, some of which probably need a reminder
occasionally, and this, in the Lazarus Long view, is just a small detail and
easily forgotten in the rush of the days work when there are that many
machines to administer.
I don't think I would want your job, being the CE at a TV station, and
resisting the urge to kill somebody who desperately needs it on a daily basis
was bad enough when there were only about 45 people to contend with. Those
that didn't want to learn, were eventually invited to find another line of
work though.
I doubt this almost virus like thing about a drives compression use will pass
anytime soon as the drive makers are bound and determined to treat us as
Neanderthal's who just moved out of our caves last week. You know, bad B.O.,
knuckles with callouses from dragging on the ground etc.
Needing a head for a DDS2 drive, I called Seacrate, who makes all those
things, all of which are fond of spending the Holidays every fall in Oklahoma
City. I wanted to see if I could obtain the drum & save me some time. They
refused to sell it to me at any price, claiming it took 20 grand worth of
special tools & gauges to do it right. That drum is about 2/3rds the size of
a std vhs machines drum, and you probably have at least 2 of them at your
home place. Piece of cake, I can install one of those and track it correctly
in 30 minutes if the machine itself has a decent transport. And I had, by
that time, replaced about half a dozen DVC-PRO
head drums, which are only about as big as a quarter & cost in the
neighborhood of 3$ to 5k $, and $17k for the tool kit. So I figured I was
capable of doing the relatively huge drum they use in those drives. Nuh, no
way Jos'e. Sigh.
I bought a then humungous 500Gb drive & switched to v-tapes. 2 drives & 4 or
5 years later its 'just' a terrabyte, and still working with much less hassle
than any of the tapes every thought of being. Generally, it Just Works(TM) &
all I do is give the email a cursory glance the next morning. It seems to me
that that is how it is supposed to work, even if I am building each new
snapshot for that nights backup when the snapshot comes out, anywhere from
once to 5 or 6 times a week. In that sense, I play the canary in the coal
mine.
--
Cheers, Gene
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
The only two things that motivate me and that matter to me are revenge
and guilt.
-- Elvis Costello
