Marilyn,

Amanda's tape selection policy is as follows.

Consider the set of tapes T. We can partition the set into two disjoint 
subsets A (the set of active tapes) and I (the set of inactive tapes). 
Assuming I is nonempty, there exists a subset P of I, called the set of 
preferred tapes. Note that T = A + I, and P is a weak subset of I.

Amanda will only use tapes from I; active tapes are not considered for 
overwriting. Also, tapes from P are preferred to other tapes in I; a tape not 
in P (but in I) will be used only if no tapes in P are available. If no tapes 
from I are available, then no tapes are used and Amanda will go into degraded 
mode.

Tapes are assigned to each of the two sets as follows:
-- Any labeled but unused tapes are in I and P. This includes unlabeled tapes 
if the label_new_tapes option is set.
-- The most recently used "tapecycle" number of tapes is in A.
-- Any remaining tapes are in I. The single least recently used of these is 
also in P.

This algorithm is applied from scratch any time a new tape is needed during a 
backup run. You can run the algorithm without running Amanda by doing 'amtape 
taper'.

What all of this means from a slightly less mathematical perspective is that 
Amanda will not consider overwriting the tapecycle most recent tapes. If you 
want to relax this restruction, just reduce tapecycle, and Amanda will 
countenance the use of newer (more recently used) tapes.

Alternatively, if you have a specific tape that you want Amanda to reuse, just 
relabel it, and it will be treated as a new tape.

Cheers,

--Ian

On Monday 07 August 2006 13:10, HUGHES Marilyn F wrote:
> We have a situation where the next  Amanda tapes that it is asking for
> are currently offsite.  It costs $75 for them to be retrieved so we
> don't want to do that.
>
>
> Besides we have available tapes here onsite.  Is there a way (a command
> or other way?) to force Amanda to select one of the tapes that we have
> onsite?  Does Amanda select from the top of the tapelist on down?
>
>
> Thanks for your help,
>
> Marilyn Hughes
> Multnomah County
> Technical Services
> 4747 E. Burnside Street
> (503) 988-4635

-- 
Zmanda: Open Source Data Protection and Archiving.
        http://www.zmanda.com