Some may remember that I was having a problem, with scanning old tapes
that had savesets that spanned multiple tapes. Using the GUI, I could not
browse for a saveset that spanned multiple tapes; it just wouldn't show up
at all in the GUI. nsrinfo would show the saveset; mminfo would show the
saveset, even showing which volumes it was one, and which was the head,
middle, and end (in my testing case, my saveset spanned across 3 tapes).
Tech Support was totally confused, and have escalated my case.
Now, when I scanned, I scanned in parallel - I scanned all 3 tapes at
once. I did not feed it one tape, and wait for it to ask for the next.
Tech Support told me I didn't have to; my previous experience with
scanning tapes told me I didn't have to; NetWorker knew enough to figure
out which tape held which part of the saveset.
As an experiment, Tech Support had me delete the saveset, and scan the
tapes in sequence (the only way I knew the sequence - which tape was first
- was because I had previously scanned them in, and knoew which volume had
the "head" of the saveset - fragflags = "hb"). This took 3+ hours per
tape, and 2 days (since I started the scan around 8:30AM, and didn't want
it still running when my nightly backups started at 6PM, especially since
I can't sit and watch it, so it sat there, waiting for the next tape for
an hour, because I was busy doing other things).
And guess what? Now the saveset shows up, in all it's glory. :-(
I certainly can't always scan tapes in sequence; that can take way too
long (imagine scanning 4 tapes in sequence, at 3+ hours). Plus, if
Networker is smart enough to know which is the head, middle, tail of the
saveset (as evidenced by the fragflags), then why can't it just stitch it
all together properly? What is so different about scanning in sequence,
versus scanning in parallel? I have no idea which tape is first in the
sequence; all I have is 4 old tapes that need to be scanned.
Anyone else seen this? Am I the only one who thinks this is odd behavior
(that volumes/savesets *must* be scanned in sequence, because NetWorker
apparently can't figure out the sequence after scanning all the tapes in
parallel) ?
--
Michael Leone
Network Administrator, ISM
Philadelphia Housing Authority
2500 Jackson St
Philadelphia, PA 19145
Tel: 215-684-4180
Cell: 215-252-0143
<mailto:michael.leone AT pha.phila DOT gov>
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