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List:       amanda-users
Subject:    Re: Manual Tape changing
From:       "John R. Jackson" <jrj () gandalf ! cc ! purdue ! edu>
Date:       2001-06-28 19:58:06
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>When we change the "request()" in "src/changer-src/chg-manual.sh.in" to
>include notification every 60 minutes will AMDUMP automatically detect
>the inserted tape and continue the backup?  ...

That depends on how you changed request().  :-)

If you took the code in the comments and put that in the changer.conf
file so it overrides the builtin request, it will check for the tape being
mounted every minute (not every hour).  As soon as the drive goes ready,
amdump (or amcheck, etc) will continue.

The one hour timer in the script is for the E-mail notification only.

>Also, suppose that I want I don't want to be mailed every hour but
>instead I want Amanda to dump to the holding disk and wait for me to
>make the next tape available in the morning.  How would I change the
>"request()"?

I think you'll have to do more than just change request() to accomplish
this.  Here's how I'd try it:

  * Change request to set "tape" to "skip" (or some non-/dev name)
    after an hour.

  * Change the code in loadslot that calls request() to look for $tape
    being "skip" after the call, and if so, return an error back to the
    caller (e.g. look at how eject() handles an error).  Amanda will
    handle this and do the rest of the dumps in degraded mode (into the
    holding disk).

>My understanding of the need for the changer.conf file is for automatic
>tape changers...is this correct?

Not necessarily.  Contents of the changer.conf file (or files) is entirely
up to the changer.  For most, it is configuration information, such as
the range of slots, and other hardware characteristics.  For chg-manual,
the file is sourced into the script, which means it can do things like
override the request() function.

>Finally, do I need to put some special label sequence on the tapes for
>this configuration (ie Monthly-XXX-Slot-X)?  ...

No, although it might make your life easier.  As long as you know what
slot 14 is when the changer asks for it, Amanda doesn't care what the
actual label is on the tape.

Actually, the slot number is pretty meaningless to chg-manual.  As long
as you load the next tape Amanda wants, the slot number itself is not
used for anything.  In fact, if you do an "amtape <config> eject" after
each run, the slot number will be reset to zero.  If you do an "amadmin
<config> tape" before the run, slot zero means the first tape, slot 1
means the second and so on.

>Luc Lalonde

John R. Jackson, Technical Software Specialist, jrj@purdue.edu

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