> If I set the " volume use duration period" the tape will expire before it get 
> filled up and  I have to make sure there are enough tapes in the pool all the 
> time.
>
> If I just reduce the "retention period" in the pool to 1 week so that after 
> the 2TB tape get filled up, in a week's time the job will expire and a full 
> backup is automatically started.
>
> Is it enough if I just reduce the "retention period" of my pool to 1week?
>
No. Again the retention period does not start counting until the tape
is marked Full or Used. So for your example after the tape was marked
Full or Used bacula will keep it for at least 1 week after that. When
it is in the Append status it will keep appending and the retention
period does not apply at all.

>
> Once I reduce the retention period how do I force it to be applied on the 
> existing jobs?
>
Short Answer: There will be no change to existing jobs by adjusting
the retention period.

Longer Answer: The pool settings in bacula-dir.conf are only applied
to new volumes. If you want to apply them to existing volumes you need
to open bconsole and

update pool from resource

then

update all volumes in pool

or

update all volumes in all pools


After that if you want to begin your 1 week retention period you need
to go into bconsole and select volumes and mark then Full or Used.
Then and only then will the 1 week retention period start.

And finally after it expires that does not mean any jobs will be
recycled. Its just that the next time bacula needs a volume and has
none in the append state it will look if it has any in your pool that
have expired retention periods.

John

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