On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 05:38:15PM -0400, George Sinclair wrote:
> Here are some questions:
> 
> 1. What if you instead marked one save set on the tape as
> notrecyclable. If even just one save set is set like this then the
> tape cannot be made recyclable, right? Wouldn't this accomplish the
> same thing as the manual option?
>
> Note: Here I'm assuming that the save set has not expired. If it has
> then I guess you need to first use nsrmm -e to change its clone
> retention time, and then you can make it notrecyclable which would
> then reset the ssretent to the same.

If it hasn't expired then it's already notrecyclable.  It's probably
either "browseable" or "recoverable".  So this wouldn't be a change.

"recyclable" corresponds to the "E" flag.  So this is something nsrim
can change automatically.

"manual" is an administrative setting.  nsrim or other components will
not change that in the future.

> 2. What if you set the clone retention time of one of the save sets
> to 'forever' or some date far in the future. Would this likewise
> result in basically the same result?
> 
> 3. What's the better option? To make one save set notrecyclable or
> instead just assign it a clone retention time of 'forever'?

You'd need to change the retention period. 

> 4. It seems like the safest way to prevent a volume from being
> overwritten would be to:
> a. change at least one save set to have a clone retention time of
> 'forever' or set that save set to notrecylable
> b. change the tape to manual
> c. write protect the tape
> d. lock it away with a big ugly warning.
> That sound right, in a paranoid way?

To me it depends on why I don't want it overwritten.  If it's because I
want to retain a particular data set, I'd certainly do "a".

If it's because of something physical with the tape, I'd prefer b (and
maybe others), and I wouldn't mess with a (because it's about the
volume, not the data).

> 4. Can a tape marked as either manual recycle or notrecyclable be
> removed from the volumes listing?

Yes.  That doesn't recycle the volume immediately, but then the setting
is then lost for the future.

> 5. Can a tape be made both nonrecyclable and manual?

Yes.  The manual setting means that nsrim will not make it "recyclable"
in the future.

> 6. Can a save set that is made notrecyclable be deleted from the
> media database (nsrmm -d)?

Yes.

> 7. Once a volume is made manual recycle will NW also make it
> read-only(R)? Does that happen automatically?

Not related.  You can have a "manual recycle" volume that is still
appendable and can be written to.  It may make it read-only in the
future, but would not have anything to do with the "manual" setting.

-- 
Darren

To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and 
type "signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to 
networker-request AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this 
list. You can access the archives at 
http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER