My sysadmin says, I cannot have multiple session of tar on a LTO tape.
Is this true ?
If the answer is yes, how can we accomplish that without buying a 3rd
party software. Basically, I want to tar a 20 GB file to a 200GB tape
today and tar another 20GB tommorrow to the same tape (add i mean) and
so on.

Whats the solution to this ?

Thanks

Wonderinguy wrote:

> My sysadmin says, I cannot have multiple session of tar on a LTO tape.
> Is this true ?
> If the answer is yes, how can we accomplish that without buying a 3rd
> party software. Basically, I want to tar a 20 GB file to a 200GB tape
> today and tar another 20GB tommorrow to the same tape (add i mean) and
> so on.

Isn't your LTO drive a normal rmt device? Nearly all types of tapes supports
multiple files on one tape.

You may try (if you drive isn't rmt0 use your device name):
1. day:
tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind
tar cvf /dev/rmt0 filenametosave

2. day:
tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind
tctl -f /dev/rmt0.1 fsf 1
tar cvf /dev/rmt0 filenametosave

3. day:
tctl -f /dev/rmt0 rewind
tctl -f /dev/rmt0.1 fsf 2
tar cvf /dev/rmt0 filenametosave

Lothar

In article <c285q4$98m$03$1@news.t-online.com>, Lothar Krauss <news5@lkrauss.de> wrote:
> Wonderinguy wrote:
>
>> My sysadmin says, I cannot have multiple session of tar on a LTO tape.
>> Is this true ?
>> If the answer is yes, how can we accomplish that without buying a 3rd
>> party software. Basically, I want to tar a 20 GB file to a 200GB tape
>> today and tar another 20GB tommorrow to the same tape (add i mean) and
>> so on.
>
> Isn't your LTO drive a normal rmt device? Nearly all types of tapes supports
> multiple files on one tape.

Yep, you can have multiple sessions on LTO just fine, as with any normal
tape device. We've got a nice LTO library and I have tested this stuff
manually. Works fine.

-Dan