On Fri, 2004-01-23 at 00:10, Jobst Schmalenbach wrote:
> all,
> 
> When you want to extract tapes from a tape WITHOUT using amanda
> how do you know which file a particular archive is located?
> 
> Wouldnt it be a good idea to have a "table of content" located
> in the second BLOCk?

Jobst,
My approach to this is to run amtoc after each backup run and copy the
resulting TOC file to at least one other machine, if not more.  This
ensures that even if I completely lose my indexes and logs, I will still
know what is on each tape and where.  Knowing the tape file number of
the DLE I want to recover enables me to precisely position the tape with
mt, then dd the file off the tape and begin the restore.

Check out the manpage on amtoc-- it's pretty simple to use.  I made a
small shell script that runs from the AMANDA user's cron.  This script
runs amdump, then amtoc, then scp's the amtoc file to a remote server.

For extra redundancy, you can also print the latest run's TOC to
hardcopy (like Paul says he does using amreport and a Postscript
template).

I try not to mess with the tape after AMANDA gets hold of it.  She knows
best.  ;)

Cheers,
Eric