I'm using amanda-2.4.4p3 with the file driver and chg-disk changer for
vtapes.

Sometimes a dump fails and driver retries:

  driver: client /some/path 1 [dump to tape failed, will try again]

and then it fails again and retries again, and this repeats until I kill
the amanda processes.

This last time this happened I caught it after driver/dumper/taper had 
created about 200 0 length dump files in the vtape directory.  The client 
machine it was trying to dump from was offline.  It had gone offline 
sometime after the planner stage and so the planner had included it.  
There was no indication that this retrying was ever going to stop.

I have been using amanda for years with tapes and I never experienced 
this behaviour before so it came as quite a surprise.

Is there any way to limit this retrying by driver?

Thanks,
--
Todd Pfaff <pfaff AT mcmaster DOT ca>
Research & High-Performance Computing Support
ABB 132, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, L8S 4M1
phone:  voice: 905-525-9140 ext 22920  fax: 905-528-3773