Pro-Fit wrote:
Hey folks - thanks for all your help - another newbie
question...
Is it possible to put the amlabel process in the CRON
as opposed to running it manually everyday? How would
one do this?
I wouldn't do it... :-)
The label on the tape serves some useful purposes. First it verifies
that the tape in the device is indeed an Amanda tape, and not some
other tape containing the data for your nobel prize project.
With the tapelabel, Amanda can verify that she has the expected tape
and not one that should not yet be overwritten (i.e. not yesterdays
backup that you forgot to take out, because you had a day off for example).
That's why you first label your tapes, when you awake, and not half
sleeping, and after three times verifing that you put in the correct
tape in the drive. And you also put a sticker on the tape with the
Amanda's label on it, e.g. DailySet1-001. Stickers cannot be put on a
tape by cron afaik.
Once labelled, you normally never ever have to relabel a tape.
Taking this in consideration, you don't need to amlabel a tape by a cron
command at night, wiping out whatever tape was someone put by accident
in the tape drive. There is nobody around to verify that the tape that
you put in around 5 PM is still the same...
If you do feel the need to relabel a tape each time it is used by
Amanda, you are probably trying to force Amanda into something for which
she is not designed, like labeling your tapes "monday", "tuesday", etc.
Look in the archives of this list to find the arguments against this scheme.
ps. If you really are smarter than Amanda, try this command in your
crontab: "amlabel -f <config> <label>", about 5 minutes before the
amdump entry.
pps. if you really are smarter than Amanda, you would already know the
above command too :-)
--
Paul Bijnens, Xplanation 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
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