On Thursday 14 May 2009 7:06:57 am Brandon Metcalf wrote:
> m == martineau AT zmanda DOT com writes:
>
>  m> Small disk are often promoted to try to get a balanced schedule.
>  m> If it is a problem, you can set the 'maxpromoteday' for this disk.
>
>
> Yep, this makes sense based on the notes from the planner.  I guess
> the only reason it would be a problem is if I'm running out of space
> on which I stored the backups?
>
> Also, I guess the planner will quit promoting full dumps once it does
> enough backups with the new config?

Another case where this is inconvenient is when the backups COULD fit on a 
certain number of tapes, but the premature promotion of many small 
filesystems makes them spill over onto the beginning of another tape.

I don't know if there is any real solution to that problem, though.  amanda 
tries to balance the load evenly among the runs in each dumpcycle.  But 
sometimes I'd rather she tried to keep me on a single tape, and then write 
two tapes some night, rather than writing 1 1/4 tapes each night.  That would 
save a lot of wear and tear on backup media.

Perhaps the solution is not in changing the planner behavior, but in taper 
options.  It would be acceptible to me if amanda wrote most of the holding 
disk files to tape, but elected to save some for the next night if it meant 
better allocation of media.

-- 
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Jeffrey Anderson                        | jdanderson AT lbl DOT gov
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory   | 
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