Hello John,

vchanger gets the job done as does the "disk-changer" script in
Bacula, from which vchanger was derived (and extended) if
I remember right.  The disk-changer script works fine, but we
use it only for "tape" regression testing with our Virtual Tape driver.

I am a bit surprised that no one mentioned Bacula's built-in virtual
autochanger feature that has been there for years.  The syntax for
enabling it is a bit of a  "kludge" in my opinion, but it is the way 
that Bacula
Systems is recommending to handle multiple disk backup.

In the bacula-dir.conf file, define the autochanger in
the normal way for a physical tape autochanger library.

In the bacula-sd.conf, one defines:

Autochanger {
   Name = FileChgr1
   Device = FileChgr1-Dev1, FileChgr1-Dev2
   Changer Command = ""
   Changer Device = /dev/null
}

Device {
   Name = FileChgr1-Dev1
   Media Type = File1
   Archive Device = /tmp
   LabelMedia = yes          # lets Bacula label unlabeled media
   Random Access = Yes
   AutomaticMount = yes      # when device opened, read it
   RemovableMedia = no
   AlwaysOpen = no
   Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 5
}

Device {
   Name = FileChgr1-Dev2
   Media Type = File1
   Archive Device = /tmp
   LabelMedia = yes          # lets Bacula label unlabeled media
   Random Access = Yes
   AutomaticMount = yes      # when device opened, read it
   RemovableMedia = no
   AlwaysOpen = no
   Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 5
}

You will have a virtual autochanger, which should do what most people
want in a very simple way.  Of course, the above is an example. I definitely
do not recommend writing your Bacula Volumes to /tmp.  Needless to say,
you can have multiple autochangers (but you probably want different Media
Types), and you can have a large number of drives in each one.  No symlinks
are involved and any volume that is in the Archive Device can be mounted on
any Device.

Best regards,
Kern


On 05/03/2013 11:00 PM, John Drescher wrote:
> On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 4:59 PM, John Drescher <drescherjm AT gmail DOT com> 
> wrote:
>>> Fair enough. So what happens when a new volume is needed and there's no
>>> room on the current device? -- this is the point where you'd switch to
>>> the next device in the list and try again until you run out of devices.
>> It returns volume full and asks the user to label the next volume.
> Also its not advisable to make a single volume on a disk or array
> since this basically prevents recycling.
>
> John
>
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