On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 10:26 PM, rory_f <amanda-forum AT backupcentral DOT 
com> wrote:
> i have a feeling it might be hardware too. im gonna try with _brand_ new 
> tapes tomorrow, to see if i cannot reproduce this..

It looks like it might be a changer problem -- I'm seeing several:

1226376231.524952: taper: changer: got exit: 2 str: <none> barcode
"MRX157L3" not found in mtx status output

you should probably check the changer logfile to see if anything else
appears there.  You may also want to increase the initial_poll_delay
so that the changer waits longer for the next tape to appear.  Usually
when we see this kind of problem, it occurs because the tape drive
hasn't "settled down" by the time Amanda starts writing to it.

Dustin

-- 
Storage Software Engineer
http://www.zmanda.com