[Techtalk] Detecting multiple tapes with Dump backup

[Conor Daly]

I'm backing up a 300Gb filesystem to an SDLT320 tape and, occasionally, the
weekly level 0 dump will overflow to a second tape.
 
The same tape is used for a daily level 1 backup using:

mt -f /dev/nst0 eod

to wind to the end of data first.

I'm trying to figure out if there is a way to detect from the first tape if
the backup overflowed to a second tape so that I can load the second tape 
before doing the 'mt eod' bit.  Obviously I cannot ask the dump at the start
of the tape if it overflowed as it will not know at that point.

The tapes are re-used on a 3-monthly basis so it is always possible that the
second tape may have a partial dump already on it so I cannot directly ask 
that.

If I do a

mt -f /dev/nst0 eod

followed by a

mt -f /dev/nst0 status

I get flags:

 EOF EOD ONLINE IM_REP_EN

both in the case of a full tape and in the case of a part-full tape.

Any thoughts?

Conor


-- 
Conor Daly,                   
Met Eireann, Glasnevin Hill,  
Dublin 9, Ireland             
Ph +3531 8064276 Fax +3531 8064247

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