Imported Debian patch 2.4.5-1

[debian/amanda] / docs / tapetypes.txt

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+
+                  Chapter 7. Tapetypes
+Prev  Part II. About Tapes and Changers  Next
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Chapter 7. Tapetypes
+
+
+Note
+
+Refer to http://www.amanda.org/docs/tapetypes.html for the current version of
+this document.
+Several tapetype definitions are available in example/amanda.conf They inform
+AMANDA how much it is supposed to be able to store in a tape (length), how much
+space is wasted at the end of a dump image with the EOF mark (filemark) and how
+fast the tape unit is (speed).
+The most inportant parameter is length, since AMANDA may decide to delay a
+backup if length is too small, but, if it is too large, AMANDA may end up
+leaving dumps in the holding disk or having to abort some dump.
+Filemark is important if you have many disks, particularly with small
+incremental backups. The space wasted by so many filemarks may add up and
+considerably modify the available tape space.
+The speed is currently unused.
+If none of the sample tapetype entries match your needs, you may search the
+mailing list archives or look up the on-line list of tapetype entries. Just
+follow the links from http://www.amanda.org.
+AMANDA provides the amtapetype utility to calculate the size of a tape, to
+generate a "tapetype" entry for your amanda.conf.
+Specifying the appropriate tape device, but beware that it may take many hours
+to run (it fills the tape twice ...). Make sure you do not use hardware
+compression, even if you plan to use hardware compression in the future.
+amtapetype writes random data to tape, and random data will expand instead of
+compressing, therefore you'll get an estimate that's smaller than expected.
+
+Note
+
+Please note that amtapetype in releases up to snapshot 20040915 expects to be
+given a tape that can be overwritten without causing harm.
+It does NOT warn you if the tape contains a label or data. amtapetype will
+OVERWRITE the tape so be cautious. You have been warned.
+Snapshot 20040915 introduces a warning and the flag -o to overwrite a labelled
+tape.
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Prev                                Up                                     Next
+Part II. About Tapes and Changers  Home  Chapter 8. AMANDA Tape Changer Support
+