On 2006-03-29 14:58, stan wrote:

I'm setting up a new system using RAIT with one vtape, and one physical
tape in each RAIT set. I only have room on my disks for 5 vtapes, but I
have 25 tapes. I would like to just have the last 5 backup sets (one week)

on the vtapes at any one time, but rotate through all 25 physical tapes.

Can I do this?

How can I label just the physical tapes without overwrite the labels on the
vtapes?

You can label all 25 vtapes.  That does not take significant space.

And with a script you remove the files inside the data directory
of the vtape when it is no longer needed (effectively erasing
half of the mirror). But keep the label!

The label is the pair of files starting with number "00000*". Remove
all the other files of that vtape (files starting with "00001*" etc.
You may even remove the 0000x*TAPEEND pair of files: it is not strictly
needed.

(At least, a quick test here succeeds.  I'm interested in the results.)

--
Paul Bijnens, xplanation Technology Services        Tel  +32 16 397.511
Technologielaan 21 bus 2, B-3001 Leuven, BELGIUM    Fax  +32 16 397.512
http://www.xplanation.com/          email:  Paul.Bijnens AT xplanation DOT com
***********************************************************************
* I think I've got the hang of it now:  exit, ^D, ^C, ^\, ^Z, ^Q, ^^, *
* F6, quit, ZZ, :q, :q!, M-Z, ^X^C, logoff, logout, close, bye, /bye, *
* stop, end, F3, ~., ^]c, +++ ATH, disconnect, halt,  abort,  hangup, *
* PF4, F20, ^X^X, :D::D, KJOB, F14-f-e, F8-e,  kill -1 $$,  shutdown, *
* init 0, kill -9 1, Alt-F4, Ctrl-Alt-Del, AltGr-NumLock, Stop-A, ... *
* ...  "Are you sure?"  ...   YES   ...   Phew ...   I'm out          *
***********************************************************************