On Monday 25 September 2006 15:37, Alan Brown wrote:
> On Fri, 22 Sep 2006, Sarath Jayewardena wrote:
> 
> > How about if I had not started a new
> > backup after re-inserting the tape, yet?
> 
> You would probably be ok.
> 
> > Will an unmount/mount before
> > running any jobs make bacula accept the tape?
> 
> Probably.
> 
> The safest action is to NEVER insert a new tape before doing an 
> unmount/mount operation.
> 
> Kern, is it possible to insert some sanity checks when starting jobs to 
> ensure the tape is positioned where bacula thinks it should be? 

It is possible on most systems to do an ioctl().  I'm considering it, but the 
problem is that it is not always reliable. The slightest little perturbation 
and the OS (not Bacula) loses track of where it is on the tape. 

I'm also considering locking the door on those devices that support it.


> If not,  I'd suggest rereading the label.

This is something that I don't think I would do as it would require rewinding, 
reading, and moving back to the end of the tape -- no very nice.

> 
> I have to say I am surprised that a tape drive which was held open by any 
> software wasn't locked. I've never been able to remove a DAT or other 
> individual tape from a drive without using emergency eject procedures.

Yes, and the big question is how much effort should be put into writing code 
and reducing the efficiency of Bacula for something that doesn't or shouldn't 
happen very often.


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