--On Monday, November 03, 2003 14:57:58 -0500 Jason Lavigne <jlavigne AT 
bwlogic DOT com> wrote:

> (I have a few questions and figured I would split them up as opposed to
> asking all in one email)
> 
>  
> 
> I have the tapes set to "reuse" and for some reason I am getting the
> following error from time to time:
> 
>  
> 
> The dumps were flushed to tape Daily-001.
> 
> *** A TAPE ERROR OCCURRED: [[writing file: short write]].
> 
> Some dumps may have been left in the holding disk.
> 
> Run amflush again to flush them to tape.
> 
>  
> 
> FAILURE AND STRANGE DUMP SUMMARY:
> 
>   samba.bwlo /backup/bwlogic lev 2 FAILED [out of tape]
> 
> ....
> 
>  
> 
> NOTES:
> 
>   taper: tape Daily-001 kb 7719904 fm 21 writing file: short write
                          ^^^^^^^^^^

Amanda got an error after writing 7.7GB to tape.
 
> 
> Is this telling me that the tape is no longer good and I should replace
> it? There is no way that it could be full as it is 35GB and I don't have
> that much data, maybe 5GBs at most.

If your tapes are really 35GB then something is causing it to error while
writing.  The heads might need cleaning, the tape could have a bad spot,
or you could be getting SCSI errors. Try looking in your system logs and
and your /tmp/amanda/*debug logs to see if you can find a more specific
error message.  If it only happens on that one tape its probably a bad
tape, if it happens on several and is becoming more frequent then its
more likely to be dirty heads.  On a new system I'd bet on SCSI cabling
or termination, on a setup that's been running untouched for awhile I'd
bet on dirty heads.

Frank 

> 
> TIA
> 
>  
> 
> Jay
> 
>  
> 



-- 
Frank Smith                                      fsmith AT hoovers DOT com
Systems Administrator                           Voice: 512-374-4673
Hoover's Online                                   Fax: 512-374-4501