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Re: Changing the label of an Amanda tape
2007-07-11 12:40:52
Craig Dewick wrote:
On Tue, 3 Jul 2007, Marc Muehlfeld wrote:
Yogesh Hasabnis schrieb:
For that, when I use
the amlabel command to change the tape label and
configuration, I get a message as follows: "tape is in another
amanda configuration
rewinding tape not labeled"
amlabel -f {Setname}
In my case (just recently reconfigued my rack entirely and have set up
the L9 array again), Amanda is reporting 'changer problem: no slots
available (expecting a new tape).
Last time that happened I actually got a fresh set of tapes since the
old ones did need to be replaced anyway, but this time I'd like to use
some of the old ones again so that the batch of tapes I keep aside is
properly cycled (not just with the ones in the array itself).
Is there a way to convince Amanda that it's ok to re-use tapes with
existing labels written onto them or is the only way to get around
this to either 'scramble' the data with something else writing to the
tapes then re-labelling, or replace the old tapes with brand new ones
(using different tape names when writing the labels?)?
The other way might be to reconfigure Amanda so that the only tapes it
knows about are the ones in the array without telling it there are
other tapes stored off-array that I'd be manually putting in the
carrier at regular intervals as a 'batch swap'. What's the general
consensus on this theory?
It's best to maintain consistency in all the information amanda has
about tapes and backups.
I have about twice as many tapes in my regular rotation as my tape
library holds. I periodically swap out a batch of tapes from the library
and cycle in the ones that will be coming up soon. I do all that from
the console of the library. Then I run `amtape daily update`, which both
tells me what I have in the library now and also updates amanda's
information.
If you have tapes from another configuration of amanda that has been
decommissioned and is obsolete, then relabel the tapes. It takes a bit
of effort, but it is best that you do it yourself and know exactly what
has been done. I don't like the idea of some other backup software that
automatically relabels tapes.
In my case, I would do `amtape daily slot 10` and then `amtape daily
current` to see exactly what I have loaded from slot 10. Once I was
sure, then I would do `amlabel daily bio-daily-025`. If it was already
an amanda label, and you were sure you wanted to re-use it, then you
could use the "-f" on amlabel. Alternatively, you could do `mt erase`
first (or `mt -f /dev/rmt/1n`, or whatever).
I had an instance where the tapedrive barfed on the writing of the tape
the night before (first time for that). The dump results were left on
the holding disk. After running the cleaning tape that the library
requested, I loaded the tape. Amanda said it was not an amanda tape. I
knew I wasn't losing any data from it, because amanda had been about to
overwrite it. However, just to keep things totally clean, I did
`amrmtape daily bio-daily-025`, followed by `amlabel daily
bio-daily-025`, to re-create the labeled tape. Then I ran `amflush
daily` and I was right where I should have been at that point.
All of that is just to say, keep amanda's databases informed and consistent.
---------------
Chris Hoogendyk
-
O__ ---- Systems Administrator
c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
(*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst
<hoogendyk AT bio.umass DOT edu>
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Erdös 4
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