Mtrento,

There are a few different issues here:

1. Setting tape_splitsize affects the way dumps are broken up when writing to 
tape, but does not affect they way they are stored on the holding disk. So 
dumps will still be done directly if they are larger than the holding disk, 
even if you have configured a tape_splitsize.

2. With tapes, the tapelength parameter is used only to predict how much data 
a tape will accomodate. Once Amanda has started writing to tape, there is no 
reason to stop as long as more space remains and more data is available to 
write. Amanda will go on until reaching end-of-tape or until everything has 
backed up, and stop only then. Depending on a variety of factors, this could 
be more or less (even considerable more or less) than the manufacturer's 
claim or than whatever you have set as tapelength.

Cheers,

--Ian

On Thursday 24 July 2008 17:04:42 Mtrento wrote:
> hello everybody.
> im running amanda 2.6.0P1
> and i try to backup a DLE bigger than my LTO4 tape.
> (850GB DLE on a 800 GB LTO4 TAPE)
>
> when the backup starts , the amdump log says that there's not enough
> holding disk space and it dump directly to tape.
>
> i'am surprised because i defined a tape_splitsize as defined in the manual.
>
> another weird thing i noticed in the amdump log. the tapelengt is about
> twice as big as my tape definition (1581252608 KB VS 772096 mbytes)
>
> Is it a normal behavior?
>
> here's a sample of my amanda.conf
>
>
>
>  holdingdisk hd1 {
>         comment "Temporary holding space"
>         directory "/var/tmp/amanda"
>         use -5000 MB # use all but 5gb
>         chunksize 2Gb
>    }
>
> define tapetype HP-ULTRIUM4 {
>     comment "HP Ultrium 4-SCSI (compression off)"
>     length 772096 mbytes
>     filemark 0 kbytes
>     speed 75283 kps
> }
>
>
> define dumptype root-tar {
> program "GNUTAR"
> compress none
> tape_splitsize 2Gb
> fallback_splitsize      256M
> split_diskbuffer "/var/tmp/amanda"
> comment "root partition dump with tar"
> index yes
> dumpcycle 0
> exclude list "/etc/amanda/fullbackup/fullbackup.exclude"
> priority high
> auth "bsdtcp"
> holdingdisk yes
> estimate calcsize
> }
>
>
>
>
>
> part of amdump log
>
>
> DELAYING DUMPS IF NEEDED, total_size 855334735, [b]tape length
> 1581252608 [/b]mark 0   delay: Total size now 855334735.
>
> PROMOTING DUMPS IF NEEDED, total_lev0 855334639, balanced_size 855334639...
> planner: time 1.306: analysis took 0.000 secs
>
> GENERATING SCHEDULE:
> --------
> DUMP bkplin01 ffffffff9ffeffffffff00 /data 20080724112225 3 0
> 1970:1:1:0:0:0 855334639 855334639 0 4330054624 1
> 2008:7:23:8:51:27 420 420 0 1024 --------
> taper: using label `FULLBACK-03' date `20080724112225'
> driver: result time 11.038 from taper: TAPER-OK
> driver: state time 11.038 free kps: 100000 space: 37982208
> taper: idle idle-dumpers: 4 qlen tapeq: 0 runq: 0
> roomq: 0 wakeup: 0 driver-idle: not-idle driver:
> interface-state time 11.038 if default: free 100000 driver:
> hdisk-state time 11.038 hdisk 0: free 37982208 dumpers 0 driver:
> flush size 0
> find diskspace: not enough diskspace. Left with 817353088 K
> driver: dumping bkplin01:/data directly to tape
>
>
>
> +----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
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> +----------------------------------------------------------------------
-- 
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