--On Tuesday, October 12, 2004 16:22:16 -0500 Erik Anderson <erikerik AT gmail 
DOT com> wrote:

> Hello - I've been working w/ linux for many years, but have never had
> the occasion to work with any sort of tape backup software on the
> platform until now, so I'm pretty clueless about how to
> access/configure/etc tape devices.  Here's my current setup:
> 
> I have a Dell Powervault 120T hanging off of an Adaptec SCSI card. 
> The card is recognized by the OS, as well as the tape changer.  Here's
> how the device shows up in proc:
> 
> host root # cat /proc/scsi/scsi
> Attached devices:
> Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
>   Vendor: QUANTUM  Model: ATLAS10K2-TY367L Rev: DA40
>   Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 03
> Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 01 Lun: 00
>   Vendor: ADIC     Model: FastStor DLT     Rev: D116
>   Type:   Medium Changer                   ANSI SCSI revision: 02
> Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00
>   Vendor: QUANTUM  Model: DLT7000          Rev: 2561
>   Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 02
>

It's always a good thing for the OS to see the tape drives and changer,
so you're well on your way to being able to use it.

> The tape device is a 6-tape changer, but only 5 tapes are accessible
> from the front of the device, so I'm only planning on using 5 tapes.
> 
> Are there any "beginner's guides" out there that could hold my hand
> for a few days until I get my head around amanda?

The best place to start is "the chapter" on Amanda from W.Curtis Preston's
book 'UNIX Backup & Recovery'.  You can read that chapter online, the
link is on the amanda.org home page.  In my opinion the book is also
worth buying and reading in its entirety.

Once you've read that you might want to ask further questions of this
list and get possibly get some feedback on your backup strategy.  Every
site is different, and there are tradeoffs to be made, so it helps to
get ideas on what is best for your situation before spending too much
time implementing something.

Next step would be getting your changer working without Amanda. If you
are going to use mtx make sure you can load, unload and move tapes with
that before starting on Amanda.

Two things you really don't want to do (or at least ask before trying):
  Label your tapes with a day of the week, month, or similar.
  Use 'localhost' as a hostname to back up.


Frank

> 
> BTW, I'm running gentoo linux, a 2.6.7 kernel, and amanda 2.4.4_p3.
> 
> Thanks!
> -Erik Anderson



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