--On Tuesday, February 01, 2005 23:42:19 -0500 Gene Heskett <gene.heskett AT 
verizon DOT net> wrote:

> On Tuesday 01 February 2005 18:42, Tom Simons wrote:
>> Can/should Amanda use an Iomeg REV drive as an output tape?
>> 
>> We've got 2 servers both running RedHat AS 3.0, with 35gb & 70gb
>> hard drives on each, and we're intersted in running Amanda on one
>> of the servers to back up both (& more servers to follow).  The
>> "backup" server has a 35gb Iomega REV drive, which RedHat sees as
>> /cdrom2.
>> 
>> Has anyone used a REV drive with Amanda?
> 
> I can imagine that it may be possible, with some variation of the 
> FILE: device, and as Jon mentioned, they have a 10 disk changer 
> available which to me, would make it *much* more appealing given a 
> reasonable price for both the drive and the media..
> 
> Jon (or anyone else with some thoughts here) how would one go about 
> dealing with the fact that the Iomega drive is probably a random 
> access drive, meaning it would need to use the FILE: device, *and* 
> treat it as a robotic changer mechanism to bring the proper disk into 
> the drive proper?
> 
> The first thing would be to investigate and find out if the mtx driver 
> can control the robot.
> 
> Without the robotics, and just feeding it the disk cartridge by hand, 
> and using the FILE: device, it seems to me that wouldn't be too hard 
> to setup assuming that Tom can build snapshot 
> 2.4.5b1-20041221.tar.gz, obtainable from the amanda.org front page 
> via link near the bottom of the page.
> 
> Whats the rated read/write speeds on that drive Tom?  For amanda to be 
> useable, it needs to be able to do a more or less normal backup in 
> not more than 3-4 hours total elapsed time.  Can it fill that sized 
> disk in a reasonable time frame?

Depending on the environment, that might not be a requirement.  For my
work config, I've got plenty of holdingdisk space, and my main need is
a short backup window, and the time to tape is not really a concern
(although I don't want it to run ALL day).  On my home systems I don't
really care if it takes all day, as long as it finishes. YMMV, of
course.
   I realize that many people using vtapes may not be using a holding
disk due to possible I/O contention issues, but if you are using slow
'disks' then perhaps a holdingdisk would make sense.

Frank

> 
> -- 
> Cheers, Gene