The ZMC and Amanda use labels to identify backup media. Labels ensure that the correct backup media is loaded for the backup set, and that no backup is overwritten before the planned cycle is complete. When ZMC finds a labeled piece of media (or media that appears to already contain backup data), it will not write a backup to that tape. When the ZMC finds unlabeled media, it:
When the ZMC finds media that belongs to some other backup set (or media that has been written to by another application), it is not used, and an error message is returned. You can manually "force" labeling of such media by setting the Overwrite Media Option described below to Yes.
ZMC will not overwrite an existing backup tape until it has first written a number of fresh tapes equal to the number of tapes in the planned Backup How section.
The Backup->Media page includes two tabs:
Click Load New Media to display a dialog that prompts you to load new media in the selected slots. When you load media and click Done, the ZMC reads the tape labels and refreshes the display. The Suggested Label column shows how Amanda will label the tapes when you click Save Labels. Editing the prefix and starting number of the sequence is described below.
Note: If you are backing up using virtual tapes (vtapes) or Amazon S3 storage, there is no media to manage, so the Backup Media displays a message to that effect. The table is described in more detail at the bottom of the page.
From the Label tab, click the Edit button above the list of Suggested Labels to display the following dialog:
The Media tab lists all of the media in Amanda's catalog for this backup set. Archive buttons by each item allow you to set the media as "read-only" to Amanda. Use the check boxes to select media for recycling, dropping, or commenting as described below:
Amanda Enterprise edition supports tape changers with bar code readers. To use bar codes in a backup set, it is necessary to initialize the bar code database. Initialization steps must be performed using command line tools. Initialization is required only if tapes were not labeled with bar code enabled or not managed using Zmanda Management Console.
1. Remove the existing bar code database file (if any) on the Amanda server.
$ /etc/amanda/<backup set name>/changer-barcodes
2. Create bar code database file for the backup set on the Amanda server. This process can take a lot of time. The process involves loading of all tapes in the tape changer and bar codes are read.
$ /usr/sbin/amtape <backup set name> update
This operation can be performed only after saving a Backup Where configuration for the backup set, and must be performed as the amandabackup user on the Amanda server.
ZMC returns detailed error messages when it encounters situations such as: