On Tue, 2003-04-15 at 14:51, Reidar Nordin wrote:
> Hi!
> Amanda is not asking for the tapes in the same order I labeled the
> tapes, it seems that Amanda is using tapes randomly... Anyone have a
> clue???
> 

Amanda is trying to avoid overwriting full backups performed at the
start of the previous dumpcycle.

> Does anyone know what I've done wrong?????

Try increasing the number of tapes that you have available (tapecycle)
in amanda.conf.  The formula for the tape cycle (from the comments in
amanda.conf below) is:

[(dumpcycle in weeks) * (tapes per week)] + [A few more]
                                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^
The extra tapes are needed so that amanda does not have to overwrite the
first full backups of the previous cycle.  I thin the symptoms you're
seeing suggest that Amanda is trying to avoid this with the tapes that
it has.

> 
> 
> Parts from amanda.conf:
> 
> **********
> dumpcycle 4 weeks       # the number of days in the normal dump cycle
> runspercycle 20            # the number of amdump runs in dumpcycle days
> 
>                                     # (4 weeks * 5 amdump runs per week
> -- just weekdays)
> tapecycle 20 tapes        # the number of tapes in rotation
>                                     # 4 weeks (dumpcycle) times 5 tapes
> per week (just
>                                     # the weekdays) plus a few to handle
> errors that
>                                     # need amflush and so we do not
> overwrite the full
>                                     # backups performed at the beginning
> of the previous

James.

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