Tape Backup Notifications - HowTo Author: John H. Bennett III <bennettj@thebennetthome.com> Contributor: Release supported: SME 6.0x License: GPL Last updated: Sunday, March 28, 2004 09:59 AM

Problem: You want the reminder to load a tape sent to either the admin, another user, or a group account Solution: Follow this HowTo

Note: Beginning with SME 6.0, the way the reminder message to load a tape is sent has changed. If a tape is in the tape drive and it's active, no reminder will be sent. This could be an issue, if you forget to load a new tape. You have the potential of over-writing the same tape every day and losing any type of tape rotation schedule you may be using. This howto will enable you to send a tape reminder message to any user or group, regardless if there is already an active tape in the tape drive.

STEP 1:

Configure tape backup via server manager - This is just to get the initial backup cron job created.

Note: If backups were already enabled, then you can skip this step.

STEP 2:

mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/cron.d/backup

STEP 3:

cp /etc/e-smith/templates/etc/cron.d/backup /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/cron.d/backup/10backup

STEP 4:

cd /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/etc/cron.d/backup

STEP 5:

pico -w 10backup

Put remarks (#) on the lines that output the notification

# $OUT .=
# "$reminderMin $reminderHour * * 1-5 root"
# . " /bin/mt -f $device tell > /dev/null 2>&1 ||"
# . ' echo "' . gettext("Remember to load the backup tape!") . '"'
# . "\n";

Note: If you only want to change when the notifications are sent, then you can un-remark the above line and change the notification line to suite your needs, then skip to step 11.
This is in standard cron format. (Minute, Hour, Day of Month, Month, Day of week)

"$reminderMin $reminderHour * * * root"

(i.e. - to change the notifications to be sent only (Monday – Friday), your line would look like this:
"$reminderMin $reminderHour * * 1-5 root"

STEP 6:

mkdir -p /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/var/spool/cron/username_or_groupname

STEP 7:

cp /etc/cron.d/backup /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/var/spool/cron/username_or_groupname/10backup

STEP 8:

cd /etc/e-smith/templates-custom/var/spool/cron/username_or_groupname

STEP 9:

pico –w 10backup

edit top cron job change to * * * * 1-5 - edit to your liking

remove second cron job (do_backup line)

STEP 10:

/sbin/e-smith/expand-template /var/spool/cron/username_or_groupname

STEP 11:

Configure tape backup via server manager

Note: If backups were already enabled, just click on perform so the templates will be re-created and crond will be re-started

STEP 12:

cat /var/spool/cron/username_or_groupname - to verify your settings
cat /etc/cron.d/backup - to verify your settings

Note: Now the backup job will run everyday and the backup result will be sent to admin (by default unless changed in the server-manager), and the notification to change the tape can be sent to any user(s) or group(s) that you specify.

If someone would like to turn this into a panel in Server-Manager, please be my guest. That is currently beyond my knowledge level.