Re: Amanda runs "out of tape"

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Hi!

Niclas Ember schrieb:
| Hi
|
| I'm trying to run amanda on a Fedora Core 3 server. I use the rpm:s
| supplied with the distribution.
| I use a HP Surestore WS80 (I think, can't read it now because the tape
| is stuck :( ), with a HP DLT IV Data Cartridge. This tape should be
| capable of storing 40 GB uncompressed data.
|
This must be a HP SureStore VS80 drive, which identifies itself as
Vendor: BNCHMARK Model: DLT1

| I try to backup a directory (/Exports), on the same server as the tape-
| drive, containing about 12,5 GB of data.
|
| What happens is that amanda tries to use the whole tape and then
| "complains" about being "out of tape". In bad cases, like now, the taper
| even pulls the tape out of the cartridge and get stuck.
|
| Could this be a bad configuration, by me, or some hardware-problem with
| the tape-drive?
|
I think you have the same problem we had with exactly the
same tape drive model. We tried to back up about 50-60GB
of data each day, using the tape's hardware compression.
HP replaced the drive three times, but the problem remained:
for a few days or even weeks the backup went fine. After that,
the drive began to produce SCSI errors, the error LED on the
drive started to flash and eventually the cartridge got stuck.
I tried to optimize the backup configuration with various knobs
and switches (buffer and block size, size and usage of holding
disk, etc.), but nothing helped. We finally replaced the drive
with a LTO drive (HP Ultrium) and all is fine now.

In the meantime I found out that the VS80 works quite
reliable, if you

a) give amanda a reduced tape size (e.g. 30 or 35GB) and
b) turn off hardware compression and
c) let amanda use software compression

I'm testing the VS80 drive with this setup for about two
months now with daily incremental backup and no problem
has occured yet. In this test I'm backing up about 100GB
of data, distributed on 8 DLE's, with a dumpcycle of 3 days
and one dump on each day.

HTH

- - andreas

- --
Andreas Haumer                     | mailto:andreas AT xss.co DOT at
*x Software + Systeme              | http://www.xss.co.at/
Karmarschgasse 51/2/20             | Tel: +43-1-6060114-0
A-1100 Vienna, Austria             | Fax: +43-1-6060114-71
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