>>>>> On Thu, 10 Jun 2010 15:49:02 +0200, Wolfram Schlich said:
> 
> Hi!
> 
> What exactly do the different volume status values mean
> and when or what are they being used for by Bacula?
> 
> Currently, the Media.VolStatus field can have the
> following values:
> 
>       Append
>       Archive
>       Busy
>       Cleaning
>       Disabled
>       Error
>       Full
>       Purged
>       Read-Only
>       Recycle
>       Used
> 
> What are Archive, Busy, Cleaning, Disabled, Read-Only and
> Used are being used for?
> (Should I label cleaning tapes at all and set their type
> to "Cleaning"?!)

I think there is no documented list and some are never be used explicitly.

Append   - can be used for backups now
Archive  - will not be used for backups (set by bscan)
Cleaning - a cleaning tape (only in the catalog, not on the tape!)
Error    - got an error in the past and will not be used
Full     - reached its max capacity
Purged   - jobs no longer in the catalog, waiting to be recycled
Recycle  - ready to be reused
Used     - reached its max use time


> When does Bacula itself check for one of those values?

It will only write to volumes with the Append status.
It will only reuse volumes in the Recycle status.
It will only recycle volumes with the Purged status.
It will only prune & purge volumes with the Full or Used status.


> When does Bacula itself change the status of a volume to one of
> those values?

A volume is moved from Append to Full or Used when its max capacity/use time
is reached.

A volume is moved from Append to Error if some error occurs while writing to
it (or checking it before writing).

A volume is moved from Full or Used to Purged when all of its jobs have been
pruned from the catalog (typically due to the retention times when Bacula is
looking for a new volume).

A volume is moved from Purged to Recycle when it is recycled (typically when
Bacula is looking for a new volume).

A volume is moved from Recycle to Append when it is just about to be reused
during a job.


> The reason I'm asking is:
> I have a scratch pool where all newly labeled volumes go, a
> full packup pool, an incremental backup pool and an offsite pool.
> The offsite pool is used every weekend to copy all uncopied jobs
> from the full pool to tapes from the offsite pool. Then at the
> beginning of the next week, the offsite tapes shall be manually
> pulled out of the library. For that, I want Bacula to run a script
> upon completion of the copy job that sets the status of all
> volumes currently in the offsite pool to a status that makes
> Bacula not using them for offsite copies anymore, like Archive,
> Full or Read-Only, but I'm unsure which one would be the best
> status. The script will also move all those volumes to a special
> mailslot magazine of the library so they can be exported quite
> easily (the volumes originate from the scratch pool and thus are
> distributed over the whole library except the mailslot magazine).

It depends on when/if those tapes ever come back for reuse.  If they are never
reused, then Archive is the best status.  If they will be reused controlled by
their retention times, then Used in the best status because you won't have to
reset it again (Bacula will do that).  If they will be reused under the
control of some script, then Disabled might be the best status, to prevent
Bacula from choosing one before the script allows it (the script should change
the status back to Used and then run the purge command).

__Martin

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