How to reduce the Number of Virtual Tapes for a Backup Set

This article is for Amanda Enterprise (AE) v. 3.1

Info Description:

Virtual Tapes are stored as slots in your disk changer on the Amanda server. To reduce the number of virtual tapes used by your Backup Set, you must reduce the number of slots in its changer. You must do this by removing the highest numbered slots.

Perform the following steps to decrease the number of virtual tapes specified for a Backup Set using a ZMC Disk device:

  • Determine the number of tapes you want to be used by your Backup Set and thus the number of slots you want to eliminate from your virtual changer.
  • Decrease Media in Rotation on Backup|when to be the number of tapes you ultimately wish to have in rotation for your Backup Set.
  • Use amtape <backup_set_name> show command on the Amanda server when no backup nor restore is in progress to identify which tape labels are in the slots you want to eliminate.
  • When possible, use the ZMC Backup|media page to Archive these tapes so they won’t be reused by Amanda.

When all data on tapes in the slots you want to eliminate is obsolete, perform the following steps one after the other before any new backups are performed to eliminate the unwanted slots:

  • Drop the Archived tapes using the Backup|media page (this can take time depending on how much data there is to delete).
  • Navigate to the Backup|where page for this backup set.
  • From command line, change to the “Backups stored at” directory as displayed on the Backup|where page.
  • Delete the unwanted slot directories from disk using the rmdir command on the Amanda server.
  • Immediately return to your browser already positioned at the Backup|where page and reduce the Number of Virtual Tapes to the number of remaining tapes/slots. Save page by clicking the Update button.
  • View ZMC Admin|backup sets page to confirm no errors are displayed.