Hello, 

I apologize if this has been answered, but after googling I’m having
trouble finding something like this particular case. We have an ML6000
autochanger with two LTO-6 drives. For a long time we were just using one
pool, but we had two SSD disks (for spooling) and two tape drives, so we
ordered some new tapes and set up a second pool. It seemed like it could
be a good thing, and it worked for over a month... then it suddenly and
mysteriously stopped working when the new pool's tapes came back around
again. I'll give some configuration below, but here is basically how it
works:

Pool1 - tapes 000101-000140
Pool4 - tapes 000401-000420

None of these are newly labeled. They have all been through successful
backup rotations. It was all working.

Then a large backup had the status:

is waiting for an appendable Volume

In the Job definition:

  JobDefs = "Pool4Job"

which is assigned to Pool4.

+------------+-------+-------+------+-----------+---------------------+
| volumename | pool  | gb    | slot | volstatus | lastwritten         |
+------------+-------+-------+------+-----------+---------------------+
| 000401     | Pool4 | 2,439 |    3 | Full      | 2016-08-23 20:36:42 |
| 000402     | Pool4 | 2,460 |    5 | Purged    | 2016-07-07 01:21:20 |
| 000403     | Pool4 | 2,927 |    8 | Purged    | 2016-07-09 04:51:54 |
| 000404     | Pool4 | 2,502 |    9 | Purged    | 2016-07-10 22:23:54 |
| 000405     | Pool4 | 2,551 |   10 | Purged    | 2016-07-06 01:08:40 |

There are several volumes in Pool4 in the autochanger, and they have
already been written to during the last rotation. However:

Device tape: "Tapedrv-1" (/dev/nst1) is not open.
    Device is BLOCKED waiting to create a volume for:
       Pool:        Pool4
       Media type:  LTO-6
    Drive 0 is not loaded.

I also see a message:

Please use the "label" command to create a new Volume for:
    Storage:      "Tapedrv-1" (/dev/nst1)
    Pool:         Pool4
    Media type:   LTO-6

bconsole seems to agree that there are Pool4 tapes in the autochanger with
status Purged, so I can’t figure out why bacula won’t use them anymore.

After I wrote all of that, as a drastic measure I deleted and relabeled
those tapes. They worked fine, and jobs assigned to Pool4Job were writing
to them. Then the next batch came back into rotation, and it happened all
over again. I tried mounting the volumes, but bacula wouldn't do it.

At this point, I'm not sure what to look at. It's possible that we're
missing something very simple and obvious. Any suggestions?

Thanks for any help or advice that you have,

Mark





Also, Here are selections from configuration files in case that’s useful:

JobDefs {
  Name = "Pool4Job"
  Type = Backup
  Level = Incremental
  Client = (hostname)-fd
  FileSet = "Full Set"
  Schedule = "WeeklyCycle"
  Storage = "autochanger"
  Messages = Standard
  Pool = Pool4
  SpoolAttributes = yes
  SpoolData = yes
  Priority = 10
  Write Bootstrap = "/bacula/working/%c.bsr"
}

Pool {
  Name = Pool1
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = no                       # Bacula can automatically recycle
Volumes
  AutoPrune = no                     # Prune expired volumes
  Volume Retention = 40 days
  Maximum Volumes = 100               # Limit number of Volumes in Pool
}

Pool {
  Name = Pool4
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = no                       # Bacula can automatically recycle
Volumes
  AutoPrune = no                     # Prune expired volumes
  Volume Retention = 40 days
  Maximum Volumes = 100               # Limit number of Volumes in Pool
}

Autochanger {
  Name = "changer3"
  Device = Tapedrv-1,Tapedrv-2
  Changer Command = "/bacula/etc/mtx-changer %c %o %S %a %d"
  Changer Device = /dev/sg5
}

Device {
  Name = Tapedrv-1
  Drive Index = 0
  Media Type = LTO-6
  Archive Device = /dev/nst0
  AutomaticMount = yes;
  AlwaysOpen = yes;
  RemovableMedia = yes;
  RandomAccess = no;
  AutoChanger = yes
  Spool Directory = /bspool1
  Maximum Spool Size = 700G
  Maximum File Size = 5G
  Alert Command = "sh -c 'smartctl -H -l error %c'"
}

Device {
  Name = Tapedrv-2
  Drive Index = 1
  Media Type = LTO-6
  Archive Device = /dev/nst1
  AutomaticMount = yes;
  AlwaysOpen = yes;
  RemovableMedia = yes;
  RandomAccess = no;
  AutoChanger = yes
  Spool Directory = /bspool2
  Maximum Spool Size = 700G
  Maximum File Size = 5G
  Alert Command = "sh -c 'smartctl -H -l error %c'"
}

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Bacula-users mailing list
Bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users