find out number of tape repositionings/rewindings during backup?

[redlex]

Is there any way to find out the number of tape repositionings/rewindings that happened during a backup? (They are caused by an insufficient data supply rate to tape drive, right?)

 

It would be good to know how much this happened, as if it was happening I could revise my strategy (e.g. move to staged backup strategy.)

[redlex]

p.s. the main reason I want to avoid repositionings is to prolong tape life....

[rhwalker]

Many tape drives have diagnostic utilities to provide this information. Retrospect cannot provide this information because it has no access to it. It simply does standard read/write and positioning calls. The tape automatically does the repositioning ("backhitching"); it's not done by Retrospect.

 

See what your tape drive manufacturer offfers.

 

You are correct as to the cause.

 

Russ

[redlex]

Hi

thanks for that excellent answer!

lex