On Mon, Jan 03, 2005 at 03:28:03PM -0500, pll+amanda AT permabit DOT com wrote:
> 
> In a message dated: Mon, 03 Jan 2005 13:14:02 EST
> Jon LaBadie said:
> 
> >Quick answer is sure, just overwrite the 32KB first file on the tape.
> >
> >Longer answer dependes on what you want to do with the tape and how
> >much you expect amanda to remember about the tape, its contents, and
> >its new label.
> >
...
> 
> Hmm, okay.  Ideally I'd like amanda's knowledge of what's on the tape 
> to change with the tape label.
> 
> This is the problem:  I have a configuration called 'archive', the 
> sole purpose of which is be stored off site indefinitely.  There a 
> no-reuse policy on these tapes.  The tape labels are of the form
> 'YYYY-Q[1-4]-Tape-X/Y'  This way,  I need only know from which 
> quarter I need to restore from should I ever need to pull one of 
> these tapes from storage.  Last week I ran this configuration and 
> labelled the tape as 1/2, but we only used 1 tape, not 2.
> 
> What want to accomplish is changing this tape to be 1/1 instead of 1/2.
> So, I can either edit the tape header and the amanda database, or 
> dump the tape to disk, then flush it to a new tape, which actually 
> sounds easier.  
> 
> So, how would I extract the contents of a tape so I could flush it to 
> another tape?

I know of no way to accomplish what you are looking to do.  Doesn't mean
it can't be done, I just don't know of any and I can see lots of potential
problems trying to accomplish it.

Perhaps for a future version of amanda someone could write a routine to
"import" a tape(s) into the index and tapelist.  Anyone anxious to do
some coding for the amanda project :)


As an alternative, couldn't you change the human aspect of the problem?
Amanda is quite happy with things the way they are.  It has a label,
has written data to a tape of that label, has an index of the contents,
doesn't know (or care) that you expected to need two tapes.  There might
be an extra tape labeled ...2/2, but that can be "rmlabel'ed" and relabeled. 
Seems the only one with problems is the humans involved.  Couldn't they
find a way to note that the second tape was not used for this archive?
Maybe even an empty tape box or slot with a note in it?

Just my one fiftyith of a dollar.

jl
-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
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