OK, we have a Quantum SuperDLT1 tape drive, and an Overland LXB
autoloader, with ten (10) slot magazine and barcode reader.  One slot is
the cleaning tape, which is controlled by the autoloader, and not by
the Amanda changer.  Backups are to be performed seven (7) days per
week.

Amanda is backing up as expected, and tapes are being selected and
loaded without a hitch.  This is a recent setup, and DLE's are being
configured and added every couple of days.  So far, everything can fit
on one tape, even assuming level 0 on each DLE.  As this environment
grows, that will not be the case.

Normally, Amanda's logic loves a large number of tapes.  My office LAN,
manually changed, uses eighteen (18) DDS3 tapes.  I have followed this
setup carefully for more than one year, and even as I add DLE's, Amanda
manages to get everything necessary on one tape per backup.  All is
good.

With this current setup, nine (9) usable tapes, I wonder how best to
configure Amanda?  Yes, we can manually swap out magazines as necessary;
but, we prefer that this site run as automagically as possible.  To wit,
one magazine and nine tapes -- period.

How do you setup similar environments?  What happens if a tape is, of a
sudden, bad when you need to restore?

What do you think?

-- 
Best Regards,

mds
mds resource
877.596.8237
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Dare to fix things before they break . . .
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Our capacity for understanding is inversely proportional to how much
we think we know.  The more I know, the more I know I don't know . . .
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