For software only sites: Has anyone automated backup tape initialization?

[Rich Atkinson <richard dot atkinson at tufts dot edu>]

Greetings,

I jsut scoured the archives and clearinghouse and didn't find anything 
so I'll throw this one out there for any software only site system 
managers.  Has anyone written a shell script and placed it in their 
crontab to automate the backup tape initialization?  I'd be very 
interested in any ideas you have if not actual working scripts.  
Ideally, I'd like to come up with a script that would initiailize the 
tape with the name "Complete Backup <tomorrow's date>" and be able to 
send an e-mail alert if the initialization fails.

I'm not particularly interested in scripting solutions like Expect 
because I want something that runs on the III server, not on a separate 
computer that has to be on and not experiencing network connection problems.

Thanks and have a fun weekend!

--
Rich Atkinson
Tufts University Library Systems Manager
Phone: (617)627-5239
Fax: (617)627-3002
E-mail: richard dot atkinson at tufts dot edu