On a Bacula server running openSUSE 11.4 and Bacula 5.0.2
I have replaced the previous LTO-1 drive by an LTO-2 one.
The LTO-2 drive can read and write LTO-1 tapes, and so I
naively assumed I should be able to continue using my old
tapes without further ado.

Not so. When I mounted the current backup tape in the new
drive, Bacula insisted:

Cannot find any appendable volumes.
Please use the "label" command to create a new Volume for:
    Storage:      "LTO-2" (/dev/nst0)
    Pool:         Daily
    Media type:   LTO-2

The mounted tape was in pool "Daily" and state "Append", but
still Bacula refused to use it. The only difference was that
it had media type "LTO-1" and Bacula requested "LTO-2".

I then purged and relabeled it, losing all the backups on
it. Purging alone did not help, but after relabeling, Bacula
listed it as media type "LTO-2" (even though it is of course
still an LTO-1 tape) and willingly wrote the waiting backup
to it.

- Am I right to assume that it was the difference in the
  media type which caused Bacula to refuse that tape?

- What is the rationale behind that behaviour?

- What would happen if I tried to restore with the LTO-2
  drive one of my old backups written with the LTO-1 drive?
  Would Bacula refuse that too?

- If I connect two LTO drives of different levels to the
  same Bacula server, is there a way to use the same tape
  alternatingly in both drives as supported by the
  hardware? (*without* losing the data on it, that is)

Thanks,
Tilman

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