On Sat, 2008-04-12 at 08:42 -0400, Scott R. Ehrlich wrote: > Hello to all: > > I have an Overland tape library connected, via SCSI card, to an out-of-box, > full install of CentOS 5 install on an old PC. > > I have a script that uses tar to archive data to tape and mtx to change tapes. > What I don't know, if possible, is to obtain the status of how much tape is > left in the drive. If I get a write failure, I'd like to know if the tape is > bad or has run out of space. > > I know of bacula, amanda, and other backup methods, but I prefer to use the > simplest options possible, mainly because if a hard drive failure occurs, which > has happened at the last minute, I can take the original CentOS 5 media from > CD, install it, and get back up and running in no time. > > So, any way to inquire remaining tape status and [estimated] capacity? > > Thanks. > > Scott I am answering your message only because no one else has. My knowledge of Overland tape systems is very limited - I have only worked on some of the Neo series hardware on M$ servers - never had to use them on a day to day basis. Seems to me that if you are concerned with an individual tape, the system isn't working properly. It should mark a defective tape as bad and move on to the next tape in the library. This is a link to one of Overlands IBM AIX pages - don't know if you have seen it or if anything there may help you. http://support.overlandstorage.com/jive/entry.jspa?externalID=6336&categoryID=407 I believe Overland has decent support, although at what cost I don't know. Good luck.
