The reason for my slightly strange requirements is that I want to offsite archive sets of backup tapes that have at least one level 0 for every system. So I need to have enough tapes so I can have a set that is being written to, a set that is on the way to offsite storage and a set that will soon return from offsite. Since the offsite storage place only picks up twice a week and someone MUST be here to sign for them, I need to have a few extra tapes just in case the old archives don't arrive before I need them.
My plan (when I had only 11 tapes) was to have 3 sets of 3 plus 2 spares. A sequence of three tapes would be set to offsite once a week, where it would stay until the next set arrived. Then it would be returned to me and put back into rotation. The no-reuse/reuse options seem to do a wonderful job helping me manage this. But if I miss a delivery, I may end up with 6 tapes offsite and a weeks worth of backups onsite. With backups 5 days a week, that's 11 tapes with no room for error. So I got 5 more tapes. But I'd still like to see this work so I will be sure that when I have to go to 4 or 5 day cycles, I'll have a system that works. What I have found (that seems to work) is to set dumpcycle to 5 on Mondays and Tuesdays (so Amanda will look back far enough in time). Then I set it back to 3 days on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. This seems to have the exact desired affect. This morning's (Monday's) backups had level 0's for each system that had not gotten a level 0 last Thursday or Friday. Jeremy Mordkoff Tatara Systems 978-206-0808 (direct) 978-206-0888 (fax) injustice anywhere threatens justice everywhere -- Dr. Martin Luther King