Dump from cron job, need to change tape

[Chuck Swiger]

Bob Collins wrote:
> I hope I am not asking a NewB question, but I read through dump and 
> cron and see no obvious way to run a nightly dump through cron AND 
> allow user intervention to change the tape.

Unfortunately, I believe that is correct, at least for normal tape drives (ones 
without a tape-silo mechanism or robotic jukebox).

> I am running a DDS2 tape drive and trying to backup around 12GB. The 
> tape runs to the end, issues the end of tape, and then dump fails. I 
> would like to be able to change the tape and get a backup.
>
> Do I need to use some other software, or am I missing a switch or 
> something somewhere?

Run a level-0 backup by hand and swap tapes manually as needed.  Then set up an 
automated level-1 backup via cron, which will hopefully give you a week or two 
of incremental backups per tape.

Or get a larger capacity tape drive, not that such things are free.

-- 
-Chuck