>> You also need to plan some time to really verify all this with btape. >> most likely you'll need only a single tape, which simplifies things.
> Not sure what you mean by > "you'll need only a single tape" > there? I can help with this. The btape command has tape drive testing procedures. As part of this it writes test data to a tape. This operation is data destructive, so you'll want an unused tape. The btape command isn't heavily documented in the main manual, but it is covered in the Bacula Utility Programs manual. Here is the section on btape: https://www.bacula.org/15.0.x-manuals/en/utility/Volume_Utility_Tools.html#SECTION001900000000000000000 Bacula also has other "out of band" utility programs, like bls, bscan, bextract, etc. You can read about all of them in the utility programs manual. I believe the utility programs documentation may not contain all the information one needs to use the tools. I have had mixed results in my past experiments with them. Overall, btape's test functions are the gold standard to determine if bacula can work with your tape drive (and associated driver). In terms of controlling your tape changer, you may want to check out Bill A's upgraded mtx-changer script. He also has a number of other useful bacula scripts. I can particularly recommend his bacula backup report script. https://github.com/waa/ Robert Gerber 402-237-8692 [email protected] On Thu, Oct 15, 2026, 8:30 PM Kevin Buckley (Pawsey) via Bacula-users < [email protected]> wrote: > On Thursday, October 15th, 2026 at 16:04, Arno Lehmann via Bacula-users < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > > Hello Kevin, > > > > Am 15.10.2026 um 09:25 schrieb Kevin Buckley (Pawsey) via Bacula-users: > > > I have a "Migrate to Tape" job that gets run manually, and copies > > > backups that have been made into a disk-backed store, mounted as > > > /srv/filepools, onto tapes in the IBM TS4300 autochanger. > > > > > > Someone else has been "doing things with it" since I first set > > > things up, but haven't invoked the manual job, so I've just run > > > it, and I've seen it reporting the following: > > > > > > 15-Oct 14:02 mysrvr-sd JobId 1309: Volume "000003L9" previously > written, moving to end of data. > > > 15-Oct 14:03 mysrvr-sd JobId 1309: Error: Unable to position to end of > data on Tape device "TS4300-Drive1" (/dev/IBMtape1n): ERR=tape_dev.c:366 > ioctl MTIOCGET error on "TS4300-Drive1" (/dev/IBMtape1n). ERR=Success. > > > > It seems you're using the IBM lin_tape driver on this host. > > > > You should switch back to the standard Linux kernel st one and will find > > things working. > > > Yes, I have deployed the IBM lin_tape driver. > > > > If you want to use lin_tape due to its features, ... > > To be honest, as we purchased an IBM autochanger, the thinking was that > we would need to deploy the IBM lin_tape driver. > > The suggestion, that we might not have needed it, is very interesting. > > > > You also need to plan some time to really verify all this with btape. > > most likely you'll need only a single tape, which simplifies things. > > Not sure what you mean by > > "you'll need only a single tape" > > there? > > > > If you find good settings, anything documented by IBM, or decided to > > just revert back to the st kernel module, please let us know! > > Given how long it took IBM to update the driver SRPM, so that it worked > with later Rocky Linux kernels, across the 9.7 to 9.8 update, I'm not > even sure that IBM consider Rocky Linux to be "supported". > > All I know, is that I had to keep moving newer kernels "out of the way" > so that the previous driver, which only worked with kernels up to > > 5.14.0-611.55.1.el9_7.x86_64 > > remained working, until IBM finally released lin_tape-3.0.73. > > For the benefit og anyone else who comes to read this, no; IBM don't > have an announcement email list for new versions of it: one just has > to keep "logging into the portal", so as to check for new versions. > > > I will float the idea, of dropping the IBM lin_tape driver, here, and > see what the thinking is, as we are still to finalise any longer term > backup strategy. > > > As for "getting rid" of the Tapes/Volumes currently showing as being > in that Error state, presumably they can be Purged, and returned to > the Pool ? > > Thanks for the feedback, > Kevin > > > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users >
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