fbackup(3204): volume used more than maximum

[Panuwat]

Please help,

fbackup /dev/rmt/1mn /data/proddata/jtsd01.dbf
fbackup(1004): session begins on Thu Jun 22 22:09:58 2006
fbackup(3203): volume 1 has been used 100 time(s)
fbackup(3204): volume used more than maximum, do you want to use this volume anyway?
fbackup(3004): writer aborting
fbackup(1002): Backup did not complete : Reader or Writer process exit

[MarkSyder]

It's telling you the tape is old and asking if you want to use it anyway.

If you've got any new tapes it might be a good idea to use one of them.

Mark Syder (like the drink but spelt different)

[Bill Hassell]

Tapes are mechanical devices and the surface of the magnetic media will wear out over time. The default value for maxvoluses is 100 but you can chyange this using a config file. NOTE: you shoulod never run fbackup without a config file. The defaults for fbackup are designed for tape drives that have not been manufactured for more than 10 years. The following config file is appropriate for DDS, DLT, AIT and Ultrium tape drives:

blocksperrecord 4096
records 64
checkpointfreq 4096
readerprocesses 6
maxretries 5
retrylimit 5000000
maxvoluses 200
filesperfsm 2000

In this case, the tape can be used up to 200 times. Note that while you can simply write a tar backup to the tape to reset the tape's usage count (or increase maxvoluses), it is a bad practice to use a tape until you get errors from fbackup. Many errors will occur when trying to read an old tape before fbackup reports an error.

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

You can't use cron to do a backup that spans tapes. Someone has to be told to switch tapes and cron by default has no means of prompting an operator to change tapes.

If you have a tape device changer, you can possibly program your batch job to do the tape switch when fbackup wants.

In general, I'd go with a larger tape format if possible to avoid this, or different software that could use tape changing devices by default.

SEP

[Torsten.]

There is a maximum number of use for a medium. In case of a DDS tape this value is 100. If you reach this value, you should replace the tape by a new one.