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Labeling streamer tapes can be quite a challenge. Unreadable Post-It notes or handwritten labels on the sticker of a tape are unpractical and unsatisfying. Here we present you with a solution for SEP sesam that's laid out for small and medium sized businesses. Usually in KMU environments a streamer tape is inserted daily on which the backup is stored. The tape is then taken out and archived after the Newday event. A small label printer is needed.

Most companies have thermotransfer printers that can create labels or similar things. A popular printer is the Intermec EasyCoder C4, Homepage: http://www.intermec.com/products/prtrpc4/index.aspx . It uses 50 * 26 mm labels. SEP sesam can e configured to automatically print a label with the backup day, date, backup state and tape name at the Newday. Failed backups are highlighted with an inverted label. The Linux shell script wh_print was created specifically to control the C4 printer. This script is called up by sm_notify at the Newday (ALL_JOBS_DONE). The script wh_print evaluates the given parameter and the daily protocol, creates a print file in /tmp and sends this print file to the printer with netcat.

Templates for sm_notiry and wh_print are available at http://download.sep.de/utils/Label-templates/

1 Installation
2 Hints
3 Test
- 3.1 Test wh_print with all possible states
- 3.2 Test sm_notify with all possible states
4 Adjusting to other printers or label formats
5 Problems
6 License

Installation

1. Copy the script wh_print into <SESAM ROOT>/opt/sesam/bin/sesam.

2. Make wh_print executable with chmod 755 wh_print.

3. Edit sm_notify and enter the following code after the term send_mail():

4. Further down under case $1 in field enter the following line under ALL_JOBS_DONE:

print_label "$2";. A template of sm_notify is included in the ZIP archive.

5. Edit the wh_print script and enter the printer's IP address (PRINTER=).

Hints

The sesam Newday should occur between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., i.e. in the morning, and the tape is ejected at the Newday (in sm_notify under ALL_JOBS_DONE with unload_tape 2;). This script prints a label specifically for the tape that's ejected at the Newday. This was tested with SEP sesam 3.4.1.41, Linux under Open SusE 10.2, Intermec EasyCoder C4 203DPI, 50 * 26 mm labels.

Test

To test this you can either execute the wh_print script with a parameter or sm_notify with two parameters. Both options are shown here. Please note that a successful backup has to be created beforehand. Otherwise the daily protocol would be empty and no tape name could be printed onto the label.

Test wh_print with all possible states

wh_print 31 backups completed with 2 broken, 2 failed, 6 with warnings and 21 successful.

test wh_print with OK message:

wh_print All 2 backups completed successfully.

Test sm_notify with all possible states

sm_notify ALL_JOBS_DONE 31 backups completed with 2 broken, 2 failed, 6 with warnings and 21 successful.

test sm_notify with OK message:

sm_notify ALL_JOBS_DONE All 2 backups completed successfully.

A label must be printed for every case. If the tape name is missing then no successful backup was done beforehand.

Adjusting to other printers or label formats

Since this is a shell script adjusting it to other label formats is easy. Adjustment to other printers that print character oriented should also be simple. Controlling printers that need a graphics data stream with a shell script is very difficult.