Tapecycle

The tapecycle parameter defines the number of tapes that are available to Amanda. This value is primarily used to tell Amanda when it can overwrite tapes. In order to maintain the integrity of the backups completed in a dumpcycle, Amanda will refuse to overwrite a tape inserted sooner than it should be. This refusal is accomplished through a proper value for tapecycle which depends on runspercycle and runtapes.

The ideal scenario is for the tapecycle to be at least (runspercycle + 1) * runtapes. It is possible to configure Amanda with fewer tapes than runspercycle * runtapes but this scenario will not allow Amanda to function properly and will create at least the possibility of overwriting data that is still needed for a full restore.

Please see amanda.conf(5) for information on amanda.conf parameters.