--On Wednesday, April 07, 2004 11:25:10 -0700 "Dege, Robert C." <robert.dege AT 
ngc DOT com> wrote:

> 
> Hi,
> 
> I'm currently having problems restoring files from my amanda backup system.  
> I am able to narrow the problem down to my AIT-2 tape drive.  If I restore 
> files from amanda backups that are still on the holding disk, I have a 
> successful restore.  If I
> restore files from any of the AIT-2 tapes, I get tar errors.
> 
> So I have a few questions:
> 
> 1) When amanda uses tar to backup the data, what is the blocking size that 
> amanda uses?

Don't know.
> 
> 2) If anyone here is using an sdx-500 AIT-2 tape drive, what are your dip 
> switches set to? (I'm wondering if I need to enable variable block sizing on 
> the drive).

On my SDX-500 AIT-2 drives, I have 1-7 off and 8 on.  The documentation
says switches 1-4 & 6 are reserved and should be off, 5 is termination
power, 7 is HW compression (0-off,1-on), and 8 is SW compression control
(0 lets host enable/disable compression, 1 disables host control).  I
think the default is 0-6 off, 7 on , 8 off.  The manual says it is
capable of either fixed or variable block sizes, it doesn't mention
anything about enabling/disabling it in hardware; it should be up to
the driver.

> 
> 3) Has anyone else using an AIT tape drive had similar problems?

Not me.

Did this problem recently start or have you never used it before?
Are the tapes new or old?
What is the exact error you're getting?
Can you tar or dump directly to and from the tape without errors?
OS and version?

Frank

> 
> Thanks
> 
> -Rob



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