> > You left out your runspercycle setting, which is pertinent to your
> > complaint.
>
> It is not in my configuration file (not even as comment), so I assume
> it's at the default. I started off with some older amanda 2.4 version
> which apparently didn't have this setting.
>
> I've now moved in the "missing" bits from a current example.conf.

runspercycle has been around since I've known Amanda (2.4.2).

If you've really been using amanda for over 4 years (as you state in a
separate response in this thread) and you've never heard about runspercycle,
I seriously think a few hours of reading the man page is in order.

> > Perhaps a warning should be added to amdump and amcheck to
> alert users to
> > the situation when tapecycle is less than dumpcycle.
>
> Much appreciated.
>

As with all open source software, you're free to modify to your liking --
patches are appreciated.

BTW, I don't mean to sound like I'm one of the maintainers of amanda because
I'm not -- just a contented user.

>
> This should then be safe for me:
>
> dumpcycle 7 days
> tapecycle 6 tapes
> runspercycle 3 # or maybe four if I run four times a week
>
> (I can't bump tapecycle up on short notice, so I'll simply force level 0
> more often.)

Those settings would be safer, e.g. you wouldn't be overwriting level 0s
during your dumpcycle as you've seen. Those settings would also give you the
ability to recover data up to two dumpcycles old. Don't change runspercycle
as you show in your comment though, that will cause the overwrite problem
you have observed.

I can't emphasize enough understanding the following para from man amanda,
it holds quite a bit of wisdom:

       For  instance,  if dumpcycle is set to 14 days, one
       Amanda run is done every day (Sunday through Satur-
       day),  and  runtapes  is set to one, then tapecycle
       must be at least 15 (14 days * one  run/day  *  one
       tape/run + one tape).


Unless your budget is extremely prohibitive, I'd get some more tapes.

Cheers,
Doug