On Mon, Jun 09, 2008 at 10:39:16PM -0400, Robert Kuropkat wrote:
> 
> Did something bad, but not sure what.  I had a tape with a bar code 
> label but apparently no Amanda label.  So I labeled it and hoped the 
> next backup would write to it.  It did not.  It was tape #28 and I had 
> already passed that number in the sequence (Tape #30).  So I figured I 
> did something goofy and just loaded the next set.  Unfortunately, it 
> still says it needs a new tape.
> 
> Unfortunately, I was confident I knew what I was doing, so I also made 
> other changes while I was there.  I had taken the top 10 tapes out of 
> the sequence reducing it from 100 to 90.  So I took the top ten entries 
> out of the tapelist file and changed the tapecycle entry in amanda.conf 
> to 90.
> 
> I'm new to Amanda and inherited this setup so aside from posting every 
> config file, I'm not sure what the relevant entries to post would be.
> 

Couple of things.  First the entries in the tapelist file can be
active or inactive as indicated by the "reuse/noreuse" tag.  If
you are getting a "need a new tape" message, the number of "reuse"
tapes is less than the tapecycle value.

Second, tapecycle need not match the actual number of tapes
in rotation.  It must be equal to or less.  By having it less,
when a tape is damaged or archived (and marked "noreuse" in
tapelist) you will not get the dreaded "need a new tape".

Third, amanda does not use the tapes in human defined numeric
order.  If it originally saw the tapes in the order 1,3,5,99,
that is the order it will expect them in the future.  And there
are several ways the expected order can be affected later on.

So, even thought tape 30 has been passed, tape 28's turn may
be coming up.  Alternatively, as you labelled it just recently,
it may be the "new tape" that amanda is seeking.  If there
are 90 tapes listed as "reuse" in tapelist and tape 28 is the
only one without a date last used, that is likely the case.

jl
-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
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