[Bacula-users] question about tape positioning

today a restore of /etc/services took over 2 hours.
130 minutes are needed to "find" the file on the tape:


15-May 14:49 backup-sd-bb JobId 72185: 3301 Issuing autochanger "loaded? drive 
0" command.
15-May 14:49 backup-sd-bb JobId 72185: 3302 Autochanger "loaded? drive 0", 
result is Slot 15.
15-May 14:49 backup-sd-bb JobId 72185: Ready to read from volume "FUL112" on 
device "JBBB-1" (/dev/nst0).
15-May 14:49 backup-sd-bb JobId 72185: Forward spacing Volume "FUL112" to 
file:block 119:0.
thomas-fd JobId 72185: -rw-r--r--   1 root     root        418412 2009-03-05 
09:26:54  /tmp/bacula-restores/etc/services
15-May 16:56 backup-sd-bb JobId 72185: End of Volume at file 119 on device 
"JBBB-1" (/dev/nst0), Volume "FUL112"
15-May 16:56 backup-sd-bb JobId 72185: End of all volumes.
15-May 16:56 backup-dir JobId 72185: Bacula backup-dir 3.0.1 (30Apr09): 
15-May-2009 16:56:10
  Build OS:               x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu debian 5.0
  JobId:                  72185
  Job:                    RestoreFiles.2009-05-15_14.21.01_38
  Restore Client:         thomas
  Start time:             15-May-2009 14:21:03
  End time:               15-May-2009 16:56:10
  Files Expected:         1
  Files Restored:         1
  Bytes Restored:         418,412
  Rate:                   0.0 KB/s
  FD Errors:              0
  FD termination status:  OK
  SD termination status:  OK
  Termination:            Restore OK

why does it sometimes took so much time?
i have seen this a few times over the last years.
sometimes, when an appendable tape is loaded, it ends up with an error "unable 
to position volume to end of data" after ~ 4 hours.

what happens in the background?
is bacula not able to find the correct file and scans the whole tape?
or this something the hardware does while bacula is only waiting?

our sdlt drives have ~5000 "tape motion hours" and ~40000 "power on hours".
also the cartridges are getting old, after how many motion hours a sdlt dies?
is it really time to change to lto?


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