We recently crossed the threshold of requiring two tapes for our AFS backup.
Unfortunately, when we try to reuse these tapes, AFS often refuses to write
to previously-used tapes because they have the wrong label. For example,
when we reach the end of the first tape, we get the following message in the
backup log:
01:05:38 Task 3: Can't write VolumeData on tape
butm: end of tape
01:05:38 Task 3: Warning: Dump (sun22bck.sun22dbck) hit end-of-tape
inferred
butm: end of tape
01:05:42 Task 3: Volume user.dario.logs.backup (536871074) hit end-of-tape
inferred - will retry on next tape
butm: end of tape
01:05:53 Task 3: Prompt for tape sun16bck.sun16dbck.2 (832824355)
When we put in a second scratch tape for writing, we get
01:16:57 Task 3: Proceeding with tape operation
01:17:10 Task 3: Tape label expected sun16bck.sun16dbck.2, label seen
sun16bck.sun16dbck.1
01:17:11 Task 3: Prompt for tape sun16bck.sun16dbck.2 (832824355)
The second tape was apparently scanned, its label was '1' instead of '2',
and AFS rejected it because it expected a tape labeled '2'. The tape was
given the label '1' during its previous use, when it was the first tape
in the set, rather than the second.
Is there a way to tell AFS not to check the tape's label? After all, the
tape should be considered a scratch tape. New tapes work fine.
Thanks,
--Andrew Mickish
