Hey, all.

I've got an inherited Amanda system I'm managing, and we're using an AIT-2
tape drive / changer. I see the following:

define tapetype AIT-2 {
          comment "Generic AIT 2 Drive -- real world numbers"
          length 41000 mbytes
          filemark 1000 kbytes
          speed 2920 kps

}

Now, we've got data compression turned on on the tape drive, which should
theoretically make more space, and we also have clients doing compression.

Looking at the Faq-O-Matic, I see this:

        http://amanda.sourceforge.net/fom-serve/cache/439.html

In short, the person entering that data got less space and speed with
hardware compression enabled. They were using the same drive we use here.

My questions are profligate, but I'll limit them to these:

1. Why would the "length" parameter end up being so much shorter with
hardware compression enabled on that drive? This confuses me.

2. Am I to take it from the derived speed parameter that dumps will go
quicker without hardware compression enabled? It seems strange that
hardware compression would create that sort of impact, even when it's
dealing with already-compressed data.

I'll try to schedule some time to run amtapetype at work, but we're in the
middle of a move, so I might not get the chance for a while, and if I can
safely get more speed and space out of my tapes with such a small change,
I'd like to do so.

Thanks kindly and heart-feltedly in advance!

-- 
    Mason Loring Bliss     mason AT blisses DOT org       They also surf who
awake ? sleep : dream;     http://blisses.org/     only stand on waves.