--On Monday, November 08, 2004 14:36:32 -0600 Casey Milford <cmilfo AT gmail 
DOT com> wrote:

> I've finally found reason to join the list.  Up until now I've either
> not had enough knowledge of Amanda to contribute or not had a big
> enough issue to warrant a post.
> 
> Now I have both.  :)
> 
> I need to split several servers off from my main backup group to be
> backed up to separate tapes.  I have an 8 slot, 1 drive tape drive. 
> Here's how I decided to split the tapes up:
> 
> slot 0-4 All other servers
> slot 5    Customer 1's servers
> slot 6    Customer 2's servers
> slot 7    Customer 3's servers
> 
> I've created separate configuration folders for each group of servers.
>  I sacrificed the cleaning slot I was using to allow M-F backups for
> the main group.  Cleanings are run by hand each Sunday.  The 3
> customer slots will be switched out each night.  The 0-4 slots will be
> switched out each Sunday during the cleaning.  I think the planning so
> far is sound.  It allows separate backups for the customers while
> still allowing backups for the main group.  My problem arises when I
> try to run the backup sets one after the other.  amtape will not allow
> me to switch to the other sets.  It stays within the current set when
> asked to switch.  Is there a way to make amtape, amcheck, amdump, etc.
> switch sets without using something like mtx to switch the tapes
> between commands?

So what you are proposing is one config with a 5-slot changer, and three
configs with a 1-slot changer each, all sharing a single drive?
    I'm not sure how a 1-slot changer would work in practice (where the
previous and next tape in that config is the same as the tape loaded, and
firstslot == lastslot).
   Also, Amanda leaves the last tape used in the drive, so on each config's
run the tape in the drive would be from the previous config, and Amanda
might not know where to put it (the chager might be smart enough to find
the empty slot, but if you were to have two empty slots for some reason,
it might not end up in the right one.
    You could append '&& amtape config eject'  to your amdump cron
entries to have it put the tape back where it came, and in theory your
1-slot changers would load the correct tape, but your 5-slot config
might end up  cycling through all of those tapes to find the correct one.
    If that doesn't work out,  you could try a wrapper script calling mtx to
load and unload the right tape foe each config.
    Wouldn't it be simpler to put all the DLEs in one config using all 8 slots,
or is there some requirement to physically separate the data?

Frank

> 
> Thank you,
> Casey



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