[rescue] Tape backup and amanda questions

[Tim H.]

I have just rescued a DEC TZ86 6G DLT drive and managed to get it
mounted in an external enclosure.  For the first time I actually have
something large enough to back up my home fileserver.  First of all, is
amanda a good choice for backup?  I do want the capability to do remote
backups, but I am a little concerned that it can't span disks with a
single backup set. What other options should I look at (the server is an
AlphaServer 400 4/166 running NetBSD)

If I go with amanda how big a temporary disk do I need?  I am currently
serving out of 2 9G drives.  I have an AS 800 which I would like to use
as a server, and which would be running more/larger disks, and I would
like to settle on a system which would also apply to that scenario. I
just need to get another circuit run into my computer room, I tripped
the breaker the other day when I turned on my laser printer, so I know
the AS 800 would be a problem.

And last, I have plenty of tapes but I will need to acquire a cleaning
tape at some point.  How often do these drives need cleaning, where is
the most affordable place to get a cleaning tape, and how many cycles is
a cleaning tape good for?

Tim H.