On Thu, Aug 21, 2008 at 07:55:26PM +0700, Olivier Nicole wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have a brand new Amanda server, that uses virtual tapes.
>
> My virtual tapes are set on external hard disks, but I can only
> physically connect one disk at a time.
>
> I uses runtapes 5.
>
> So I can end up in a situation where I have 2 vtapes left one a disk,
> and where I must change disk in the middle of a dump.
>
> I beleive this is close to the situation of a tape caroussel, where
> one wants to reload the caroussel in the middle of a dump.
>
> I'd like to know if the model bellow makes sense with Amanda, does it
> break the general idea or not?
>
> Will it work if I write a changer that would wait for manual change of
> the disk? The dumps would finish to the holding disks and the taper
> would wait for manual change of the disk before finishing to write on
> the tape (wait would be several hours).
>
> I see that amcheck physically tries to access the tapes, so in a
> situation with 2 tapes left on a disk and 3 tapes from the new disk,
> amcheck would request the user tou change disk, that is not really
> necessary, is there any other command that is likely to access the
> changer (beside the amdump/amflush and restore).
My setup is probably similar except I have 2 usb drives plus some space
on the hard disk for my vtapes. However I don't typically unplug the
external drives.
My changer slots are actually symbolic links to the actual location
of the mounted vtapes. If a drive were off line (or more frequently
in my case too full) amanda just looks for the next available vtape.
If none are available it finishes to the holding disk like you suggest.
I wonder if an modified changer script is even needed. If you have
the auto flush parameter set in amanda.conf, the next time you run
amdump it will check the holding disk and begin flushing the old
dumps immediately. I think this begins even while estimates are
being done. So just bring online the other drive and let amanda
do its thing next amdump.
>
> Is there a command to get the label of the tape loaded in the tape
> device?
>From memory, amtape ... show or current.
>
> Does it exist a changer that allow the manual change of a caroussel,
> so I don't have to redesign everything from scratch? (I mean the
> Amanda phylosophy, not the exact way to load/eject a caroussel or
> mout/unmout a disk).
>
I was running an HP SureStore DDS3 changer for a long while. It uses
a 6 tape magazine and I adapted to its size by dumping weekdays and
Sunday night for the weekend. But I had 7 magazines of tapes and
never noted a changer script that automatically or manually tried to
deal with magazines/caroussels.
--
Jon H. LaBadie jon AT jgcomp DOT com
JG Computing
12027 Creekbend Drive (703) 787-0884
Reston, VA 20194 (703) 787-0922 (fax)
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