Amanda is the "Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver".
This manual page gives an overview of the Amanda commands and
configuration files for quick reference.
Here are all the Amanda commands.
Each one has its own manual page.
See them for all the gory details.
amdump
Take care of automatic Amanda backups.
This is normally executed by
cron
on a computer called the
tape server host
and requests backups of file systems located on
backupclients.
Amdump
backs up all disks in the
disklist
file (discussed below) to tape or, if there is a problem, to a special
holdingdisk.
After all backups are done,
amdump
sends mail reporting failures and successes.
amflush
Flush backups from the holding disk to tape.
Amflush
is used after
amdump
has reported it could not write backups to tape for some reason.
When this happens, backups stay in the holding disk.
Run
amflush
after the tape problem is corrected
to write backups from the holding disk to tape.
amcleanup
Clean up after an interrupted
amdump.
This command is only needed if
amdump
was unable to complete for some reason, usually because the
tape server host crashed while
amdump
was running.
amrecover
Provides an interactive interface to browse the Amanda index files
(backup image catalogues)
and select which tapes to recover files from.
It can also run
amrestore
and a restore program (e.g.
tar)
to actually recover the files.
amrestore
Read an Amanda tape, searching for requested backups.
Amrestore
is suitable for everything from interactive restores of single files
to a full restore of all partitions on a failed disk.
amlabel
Write an Amanda format label onto a tape.
All Amanda tapes must be labeled with
amlabel.
Amdump
and
amflush
will not write to an unlabeled tape (see TAPE MANAGEMENT below).
amcheck
Verify the correct tape is mounted
and all file systems on all backup client systems
are ready to be backed up.
Often run by
cron
before
amdump
to generate a mail warning that backups might fail
unless corrective action is taken.
amadmin
Take care of administrative tasks like finding out which
tapes are needed to restore a filesystem,
forcing hosts to do full backups of selected disks
and looking at schedule balance information.
amtape
Take care of tape changer control operations like loading particular tapes,
ejecting tapes
and scanning the tape storage slots.
amverify
Check Amanda backup tapes for errors.
amrmtape
Delete a tape from the Amanda databases.
amstatus
Report the status of a running or completed
amdump.
amoverview
Display a chart of hosts and file systems backed up every run.
amplot
Generate utilization plots of Amanda runs for performance tuning.
amreport
Generate an Amanda summary E-mail report.
amtoc
Generate table of content files for Amanda tapes.
amcheckdb
Verify every tape Amanda knows about is consistent in the database.
amgetconf
Look up parameters in the Amanda configuration file.
CONFIGURATION
There are three user-editable files that control the behavior of Amanda.
The first is
amanda.conf,
the main configuration file.
It contains parameters to customize Amanda for the site.
Second is the
disklist
file, which lists hosts and disk partitions to back up.
Third is the
tapelist
file, which lists tapes that are currently active.
These files are described in more detail in the following sections.
All files are stored in individual configuration
directories under /etc/amanda.
A site will often have more than
one configuration.
For example, it might have a
normal
configuration for everyday backups and an
archive
configuration for infrequent full archival backups.
The configuration files would be stored under directories
/etc/amanda/normal/ and
/etc/amanda/archive/, respectively.
Part of the job of an Amanda administrator is to create,
populate and maintain these directories.
All log and database files generated by Amanda go in corresponding
directories somewhere.
The exact location is controlled by entries in
amanda.conf.
A typical location would be under /var/adm/amanda.
For the above example, the files might go in
/var/adm/amanda/normal/ and /var/adm/amanda/archive/.
As log files are no longer needed (no longer contain relevant information),
Amanda cycles them out in various ways, depending on the type of file.
Detailed information about
amdump
runs are stored in files named
amdump.NN
where
NN
is a sequence number, with 1 being the most recent file.
Amdump
rotates these files each run, keeping roughly the last
tapecycle
(see below)
worth of them.
The file used by
amreport
to generate the mail summary is named
log.YYYYMMDD.NN
where
YYYYMMDD
is the datestamp of the start of the
amdump
run and
NN
is a sequence number started at 0.
At the end of each
amdump
run,
log files for runs whose tapes have been reused are renamed
into a subdirectory of the main log directory (see the
logdir
parameter below)
named
oldlog.
It is up to the Amanda administrator to remove them from this
directory when desired.
Index (backup image catalogue) files older than the full dump
matching the oldest backup image for a given client and disk
are removed by
amdump
at the end of each run.
CONFIG FILE PARAMETERS
There are a number of configuration parameters that control the
behavior of the Amanda programs.
All have default values,
so you need not specify the parameter in
amanda.conf
if the default is suitable.
Lines starting with # are ignored, as are blank lines.
Keywords are case insensitive, i.e.
mailto
and
MailTo
are treated the same.
Integer arguments may have one of the following (case insensitive) suffixes,
some of which have a multiplier effect:
b byte bytes
Some number of bytes.
bps
Some number of bytes per second.
k kb kbyte kbytes kilobyte kilobytes
Some number of kilobytes (bytes*1024).
kps kbps
Some number of kilobytes per second (bytes*1024).
m mb meg mbyte mbytes megabyte megabytes
Some number of megabytes (bytes*1024*1024).
mps mbps
Some number of megabytes per second (bytes*1024*1024).
g gb gbyte gbytes gigabyte gigabytes
Some number of gigabytes (bytes*1024*1024*1024).
tape tapes
Some number of tapes.
day days
Some number of days.
week weeks
Some number of weeks (days*7).
The value
inf
may be used in most places where an integer is expected
to mean an infinite amount.
Boolean arguments may have any of the values
y,
yes,
t,
true
or
on
to indicate a true state, or
n,
no,
f,
false
or
off
to indicate a false state.
If no argument is given,
true
is assumed.
org"string"
Default:
DailySet1.
A descriptive name for the configuration.
This string appears in the Subject line of mail reports.
Each Amanda configuration should have a different string to keep
mail reports distinct.
mailto"string"
Default:
operators.
A space separated list of recipients for mail reports.
dumpcycleint
Default:
10 days.
The number of days in the backup cycle.
Each disk will get a full backup at least this often.
Setting this to zero tries to do a full backup each run.
Note that this parameter may also be set in a specific
dumptype
(see below).
This value sets the default for all
dumptypes
so must appear in
amanda.conf
before any
dumptypes
are defined.
runspercycleint
Default:
same as dumpcycle.
The number of amdump runs in
dumpcycle
days.
A value of 0 means the same value as
dumpcycle.
A value of -1 means guess the number of runs from the
tapelist
file,
which is the number of tapes used in the last
dumpcycle
days /
runtapes.
tapecycleint
Default:
15 tapes.
The number of tapes in the active tape cycle.
This must be at least one larger than the
number of Amanda runs done during a dump cycle
(see the
dumpcycle
parameter)
times the number of tapes used per run
(see the
runtapes
parameter).
For instance, if
dumpcycle
is set to 14 days,
one Amanda run is done every day (Sunday through Saturday),
and
runtapes
is set to one,
then
tapecycle
must be at least 15 (14 days * one run/day * one tape/run + one tape).
In practice, there should be several extra tapes
to allow for schedule adjustments or disaster recovery.
dumpuser"string"
Default:
amanda.
The login name Amanda uses to run the backups.
The backup client hosts must allow access
from the tape server host as this user via
.rhosts
or
.amandahosts,
depending on how the Amanda software was built.
printer"string"
Printer to use when doing tape labels.
See the
lbl-templtapetype
option.
tapedev"string"
Default:
/dev/null.
The path name of the tape device.
If a tape changer is configured
(see the
tpchanger
option), this option may not be used
and should be commented out of the configuration file.
If
tapedev
is set to
/dev/null,
amdump
will run normally but all images will be thrown away.
This should only be used for debugging,
and probably only with the
record
option set to
no.
rawtapedev"string"
Default:
/dev/null.
The path name of the raw tape device.
This is only used if Amanda is compiled for Linux machines with floppy tapes
and is needed for QIC volume table operations.
tpchanger"string"
Default:
none.
The name of the tape changer.
If a tape changer is not configured, this option is not used
and should be commented out of the configuration file.
If a tape changer is configured, choose one of the changer scripts
(e.g.
chg-scsi)
and enter that here.
changerdev"string"
Default:
/dev/null.
A tape changer configuration parameter.
Usage depends on the particular changer defined with the
tpchanger
option.
changerfile"string"
Default:
/usr/adm/amanda/log/changer-status.
A tape changer configuration parameter.
Usage depends on the particular changer defined with the
tpchanger
option.
runtapesint
Default:
1.
The maximum number of tapes used in a single run.
If a tape changer is not configured, this option is not used
and should be commented out of the configuration file.
If a tape changer is configured, this may be set larger than one to
let Amanda write to more than one tape.
Note that this is an upper bound on the number of tapes,
and Amanda may use less.
Also note that as of this release, Amanda does not support true tape overflow.
When it reaches the end of one tape,
the backup image Amanda was processing starts over again on the next tape.
labelstr"string"
Default:
.*.
The tape label constraint regular expression.
All tape labels
generated (see
amlabel(8))
and used by this configuration must match the regular expression.
If multiple configurations are run from the same tape server host,
it is helpful to set their labels to different strings
(for example, "DAILY[0-9][0-9]*" vs. "ARCHIVE[0-9][0-9]*")
to avoid overwriting each other's tapes.
tapetype"string"
Default:
EXABYTE.
The type of tape drive associated with
tapedev
or
tpchanger.
This refers to one of the defined
tapetypes
in the config file (see below),
which specify various tape parameters,
like the
length,
filemark
size, and
speed
of the tape media and device.
ctimeoutint
Default:
30 seconds.
Maximum amount of time that
amcheck
will wait for each client host.
dtimeoutint
Default:
1800 seconds.
Amount of idle time per disk on a given client that a
dumper
running from within
amdump
will wait before it fails with a data timeout error.
etimeoutint
Default:
300 seconds.
Amount of time per disk on a given client that the
planner
step of
amdump
will wait to get the dump size estimates.
For instance, with the default of 300 seconds and four disks on client A,
planner
will wait up to 20 minutes for that machine.
A negative value will be interpreted as a total amount of time,
instead of a per-disk value.
netusageint
Default:
300 Kbps.
The maximum network bandwidth allocated to Amanda, in Kbytes per second.
See also the
interface
section.
inparallelint
Default:
10.
The maximum number of backups that Amanda will attempt to run in parallel.
Amanda will stay within the constraints of network bandwidth and
holding disk space available, so it doesn't hurt to set
this number a bit high.
Some contention can occur with larger numbers
of backups, but this effect is relatively small on most systems.
maxdumpsint
Default:
1.
The maximum number of backups from a single host that Amanda will
attempt to run in parallel.
See also the
inparallel
option.
Note that this parameter may also be set in a specific
dumptype
(see below).
This value sets the default for all
dumptypes
so must appear in
amanda.conf
before any
dumptypes
are defined.
bumpsizeint
Default:
10 Mbytes.
The minimum savings required to trigger an automatic
bump from one incremental level to the next.
If Amanda determines that the next higher backup level
will be this much smaller than the current level,
it will do the next level.
See also the
bumpmult
option.
bumpmultfloat
Default:
1.5.
The bump size multiplier.
Amanda multiplies
bumpsize
by this factor for each level.
This prevents active filesystems from
bumping too much by making it harder to bump to the next level.
For example, with the default
bumpsize
and
bumpmult
set to 2.0, the bump threshold will be 10 Mbytes for level one, 20
Mbytes for level two, 40 Mbytes for level three, and so on.
bumpdaysint
Default:
2.
To insure redundancy in the dumps, Amanda keeps filesystems at the
same incremental level for at least
bumpdays
days, even if the other bump threshold criteria are met.
diskfile"string"
Default:
disklist.
The file name for the
disklist
file holding client hosts, disks and other client dumping information.
infofile"string"
Default:
/usr/adm/amanda/curinfo.
The file or directory name for the historical information database.
If Amanda was configured to use DBM databases, this is the base file
name for them.
If it was configured to use text formated databases (the default),
this is the base directory and within here will be a directory per
client, then a directory per disk, then a text file of data.
logdir"string"
Default:
/usr/adm/amanda.
The directory for the
amdump
and
log
files.
indexdir"string"
Default
/usr/adm/amanda/index.
The directory where index files (backup image catalogues) are stored.
Index files are
only generated for filesystems whose
dumptype
has the
index
option enabled.
tapelist"string"
Default:
tapelist.
The file name for the active
tapelist
file.
Amanda maintains this file with information about the active set of tapes.
tapebufs"int"
Default:
20.
The number of buffers used by the
taper
process run by
amdump
and
amflush
to hold data as it
is read from the network or disk before it is written to tape.
Each buffer is a little larger than 32 KBytes and is held in
a shared memory region.
reservenumber
Default:
100(percent).
The amount of holding-disk space that should not be used for full
backups if no tape is available.
By default, when there is no tape to write to,
degraded mode (incremental) backups will be performed to the holding disk.
If full backups should also be allowed in this case,
the amount of holding disk space reserved for incrementals should be lowered.
columnspec"string"
Defines the width of columns
amreport
should use.
String
is a comma (',') separated list of triples.
Each triple consists
of three parts which are separated by a equal sign ('=') and a colon
(':') (see the example).
These three parts specify:
+
the name of the column, which may be:
Compress (compression ratio)
Disk (client disk name)
DumpRate (dump rate in KBytes/sec)
DumpTime (total dump time in hours:minutes)
HostName (client host name)
Level (dump level)
OrigKB (original image size in KBytes)
OutKB (output image size in KBytes)
TapeRate (tape writing rate in KBytes/sec)
TapeTime (total tape time in hours:minutes)
+
the amount of space to display before the column (used to get whitespace
between columns).
+
the width of the column itself.
If set to a negative value,
the width will be calculated on demand to fit the largest entry in
this column.
Here is an example:
columnspec "Disk=1:18,HostName=0:10,OutKB=1:7"
The above will display the disk information in 18 characters
and put one space before it.
The hostname column will be 10 characters wide with
no space to the left.
The output KBytes column is seven characters wide
with one space before it.
HOLDINGDISK SECTION
The
amanda.conf
file may define one or more holding disks used as buffers to hold
backup images before they are written to tape.
The syntax is:
holdingdisk name {
holdingdisk-optionholdingdisk-value...
}
Name
is a logical name for this holding disk.
The options and values are:
comment"string"
Default:
none.
A comment string describing this holding disk.
directory"disk"
Default:
/dumps/amanda.
The path to this holding area.
useint
Default:
0 Gb.
Amount of space that can be used in this holding disk area.
If the value is zero, all available space on the file system is used.
If the value is negative,
Amanda will use all available space minus that value.
chunksizeint
Default:
1 Gb.
Holding disk chunk size.
Dumps larger than the specified size will be stored in multiple
holding disk files.
The size of each chunk will not exceed the
specified value.
However, even though dump images are split in the
holding disk, they are concatenated as they are written to tape, so
each dump image still corresponds to a single continuous tape section.
If 0 is specified, Amanda will create holding disk chunks as large as
((INT_MAX/1024)-64) Kbytes.
Each holding disk chunk includes a 32 Kbyte header, so the minimum
chunk size is 64 Kbytes (but that would be really silly).
Operating systems that are limited to a maximum file size of 2 Gbytes
actually cannot handle files that large.
They must be at least one byte less than 2 Gbytes.
Since Amanda works with 32 Kbyte blocks, and
to handle the final read at the end of the chunk, the chunk size
should be at least 64 Kbytes (2 * 32 Kbytes) smaller than the maximum
file size, e.g. 2047 Mbytes.
DUMPTYPE SECTION
The
amanda.conf
file may define multiple sets of backup options and
refer to them by name from the
disklist
file.
For instance, one set of options might be defined for file systems
that can benefit from high compression,
another set that does not compress well,
another set for file systems that should always get a full backup
and so on.
A set of backup options are entered in a
dumptype
section, which looks like this:
define dumptype name {
dumptype-optiondumptype-value...
}
Name
is the name of this set of backup options.
It is referenced from the
disklist
file.
Some of the options in a
dumptype
section are the same as those in the main part of
amanda.conf.
The main option value is used to set the default for all
dumptype
sections.
For instance, setting
dumpcycle
to 50 in the main part of the config file causes all following
dumptype
sections to start with that value,
but the value may be changed on a section by section basis.
Changes to variables in the main part of the config file must be
done before (earlier in the file) any
dumptypes
are defined.
The dumptype options and values are:
auth"string"
Default:
bsd.
Type of authorization to perform between tape server and backup client hosts.
May be
krb4
to use Kerberos-IV authorization.
comment"string"
Default:
none.
A comment string describing this set of backup options.
compratefloat [, float ]
Default:
0.50,
0.50.
The expected full and incremental compression factor for dumps.
It is only used if Amanda does not have any history information on
compression rates for a filesystem, so should not usually need to
be set.
However, it may be useful for the first time a
very large filesystem that compresses very little is backed up.
compress [client|server]"string"
Default:
client fast.
If Amanda does compression of the backup images,
it can do so either on the backup client host before it crosses the network
or on the tape server host as it goes from the
network into the holding disk or to tape.
Which place to do compression (if at all) depends on how well the
dump image usually compresses, the speed and load on the client or
server, network capacity, holding disk capacity,
availability of tape hardware compression, etc.
For either type of compression, Amanda also allows the selection
of two styles of compression.
Best
is the best compression available, often at the expense of CPU overhead.
Fast
is often not as good a compression as
best,
but usually less CPU overhead.
So the
compress
options line may be one of:
compress none
compress [client] fast
compress [client] best
compress server fast
compress server best
Note that some tape devices do compression and this option has nothing
to do with whether that is used.
If hardware compression is used (usually via a particular tape device name
or
mt
option),
Amanda (software) compression should be disabled.
dumpcycleint
Default:
10 days.
The number of days in the backup cycle.
Each disk using this set of options
will get a full backup at least this often.
Setting this to zero tries to do a full backup each run.
exclude [list]"string"
Default:
none.
The string is passed as a file name value to the GNU tar
--exclude
or
--exclude-from
option.
In the case of
exclude list,
the file must be available on the backup client host.
If the file name is relative,
the disk name being backed up is prepended.
So if this is entered:
exclude list ".amanda.excludes"
the actual file passed to GNU tar would be
/var/.amanda.excludes
for a backup of
/var,
/usr/local/.amanda.excludes
for a backup of
/usr/local,
and so on.
holdingdisk"boolean"
Default:
yes.
Whether a holding disk should be used for these backups or whether
they should go directly to tape.
If the holding disk is a portion of another file system that Amanda
is backing up, that file system should refer to a dumptype with
holdingdisk
set to
no
to avoid backing up the holding disk into itself.
ignore"boolean"
Default:
no.
Whether disks associated with this backup type should be backed up or not.
This option is useful when the
disklist
file is shared among several configurations,
some of which should not back up all the listed file systems.
index"boolean"
Default:
no.
Whether an index (catalogue) of the backup should be generated and
saved in
indexdir.
These catalogues are used by the
amrecover
utility.
kencrypt"boolean"
Default:
no.
Whether the backup image should be encrypted by Kerberos as it is sent
across the network from the backup client host to the tape server host.
maxdumps"int"
Default:
1.
The maximum number of backups from a single host that Amanda will
attempt to run in parallel.
See also the main section
inparallel
option.
priority"string"
Default:
medium.
When there is no tape to write to, Amanda will do incremental backups
in priority order to the holding disk.
The priority may be
high(2),
medium(1),
low(0)
or a number of your choice.
program"string"
Default:
DUMP.
The type of backup to perform.
Valid values are
DUMP
for the native operating system backup program, and
GNUTAR
to use GNU tar or to do Samba PC backups.
record"boolean"
Default:
yes.
Whether to ask the backup program to update its
database (e.g.
/etc/dumpdates)
of time stamps.
This is normally enabled for daily backups and turned off
for periodic archival runs.
skip-full"boolean"
Default:
no.
If
true
and
planner
has scheduled a full backup, these disks will be skipped, and
full backups should be run off-line on these days.
It was reported that
Amanda only schedules level 1 incrementals in this configuration; this
is probably a bug.
skip-incr"boolean"
Default:
no.
If
true
and
planner
has scheduled an incremental backup, these disks will be skipped.
starttime"int"
Default:
none.
Backups will not start until after this time of day.
The value should be hh*100+mm, e.g. 6:30PM (18:30) would be entered as
1830.
strategy"string"
Default:
standard.
Strategy to use when planning what level of backup to run next.
Values are:
standard
The standard Amanda schedule.
nofull
Never do full backups, only level 1 incrementals.
noinc
Never do incremental backups, only full dumps.
skip
Never do backups (useful when sharing the
disklist
file).
incronly
Only do incremental dumps.
`amadmin force' should be used to tell
Amanda that a full dump has been performed off-line, so that it resets
to level 1.
It is similar to skip-full, but with incronly
full dumps may be scheduled manually.
Unfortunately, it appears that Amanda
will perform full backups with this configuration, which is probably a
bug.
The following
dumptype
entries are predefined by Amanda:
define dumptype no-compress {
compress none
}
define dumptype compress-fast {
compress client fast
}
define dumptype compress-best {
compress client best
}
define dumptype srvcompress {
compress server fast
}
define dumptype bsd-auth {
auth bsd
}
define dumptype krb4-auth {
auth krb4
}
define dumptype no-record {
record no
}
define dumptype no-hold {
holdingdisk no
}
define dumptype no-full {
skip-full yes
}
In addition to options in a
dumptype
section, one or more other
dumptype
names may be entered, which make this
dumptype
inherit options from other
previously defined
dumptypes.
For instance, two sections might be the same except for the
record
option:
define dumptype normal {
comment "Normal backup, no compression, do indexing"
no-compress
index yes
maxdumps 2
}
define dumptype testing {
comment "Test backup, no compression, do indexing, no recording"
normal
record no
}
Amanda provides a
dumptype
named
global
in the sample
amanda.conf
file that all
dumptypes
should reference.
This provides an easy place to make changes that will affect
every
dumptype.
TAPETYPE SECTION
The
amanda.conf
file may define multiple types of tape media and devices.
The information is entered in a
tapetype
section, which looks like this in the config file:
define tapetype name {
tapetype-optiontapetype-value...
}
Name
is the name of this type of tape medium/device.
It is referenced from the
tapetype
option in the main part of the config file.
The tapetype options and values are:
comment"string"
Default:
none.
A comment string describing this set of tape information.
filemark"int"
Default:
1000 bytes.
How large a file mark (tape mark) is, measured in bytes.
If the size is only known in some linear measurement (e.g. inches),
convert it to bytes using the device density.
length"int"
Default:
2000 kbytes.
How much data will fit on a tape.
Note that this value is only used by Amanda to schedule which backups
will be run.
Once the backups start, Amanda will continue to write to a tape until
it gets an error, regardless of what value is entered for
length.
speed"int"
Default:
200.
How fast the drive will accept data, in bytes per second.
This parameter is not currently used by Amanda.
lbl-templ"string"
A PostScript template file used by
amreport
to generate labels.
Several sample files are provided with the Amanda sources in the
example
directory.
See the
amreport(8)
man page for more information.
In addition to options, another
tapetype
name may be entered, which makes this
tapetype
inherit options from another
tapetype.
For instance, the only difference between a DLT4000 tape drive using
Compact-III tapes and one using Compact-IV tapes is the length of
the tape.
So they could be entered as:
define tapetype DLT4000-III {
comment "DLT4000 tape drives with Compact-III tapes"
length 12500 mbytes # 10 Gig tapes with some compression
filemark 2000 kbytes
speed 1536 kps
}
define tapetype DLT4000-IV {
comment "DLT4000 tape drives with Compact-IV tapes"
DLT4000-III
length 25000 mbytes # 20 Gig tapes with some compression
}
INTERFACE SECTION
The
amanda.conf
file may define multiple types of network interfaces.
The information is entered in an
interface
section, which looks like this:
define interface name {
interface-optioninterface-value...
}
Name
is the name of this type of network interface.
It is referenced from the
disklist
file.
Note that these sections define network interface characteristics,
not the actual interface that will be used.
Nor do they impose limits on the bandwidth that will actually be
taken up by Amanda.
Amanda computes the estimated bandwidth each file system backup will take
based on the estimated size and time,
then compares that plus any other running
backups with the limit as another of the criteria when deciding whether
to start the backup.
Once a backup starts, Amanda will use as much of the network as it can
leaving throttling up to the operating system and network hardware.
The interface options and values are:
comment"string"
Default:
none.
A comment string describing this set of network information.
use"int"
Default:
300 Kbps.
The speed of the interface in Kbytes per second.
In addition to options, another
interface
name may be entered, which makes this
interface
inherit options from another
interface.
At the moment, this is of little use.
DISKLIST FILE
The
disklist
file determines which disks will be backed up by Amanda.
The file usually contains one line per disk:
Lines starting with # are ignored, as are blank lines.
The fields have the following meanings:
hostname
The name of the host to be backed up.
If
diskdevice
refers to a PC share, this is the host Amanda will
run the Samba
smbclient
program on to back up the share.
diskdevice
The name of the disk device to be backed up.
It may be a full device name,
a device name without the
/dev/
prefix, e.g.
sd0a,
or a mount point such as
/usr.
It may also refer to a PC share by starting the name with two (forward)
slashes, e.g.
//some-pc/home.
In this case, the
program
option in the associated
dumptype
must be entered as
GNUTAR.
It is the combination of the double slash disk name and
program GNUTAR
in the
dumptype
that triggers the use of Samba.
dumptype
Refers to a
dumptype
defined in the
amanda.conf
file.
Dumptypes
specify backup related parameters,
such as whether to compress the backups,
whether to record backup results in
/etc/dumpdates,
the disk's relative priority,
etc.
spindle
Default:
-1.
A number used to balance backup load on a host.
Amanda will not run multiple backups at the same time
on the same spindle, unless the spindle number is -1,
which means there is no spindle restriction.
interface
Default:
local.
The name of a network interface definition in the
amanda.conf
file, used to balance network load.
Instead of naming a
dumptype,
it is possible to define one in-line, enclosing
dumptype
options within curly braces, one per line, just like a
dumptype
definition in
amanda.conf.
Since pre-existing
dumptypes
are valid option names, this syntax may be used to customize
dumptypes
for particular disks.
A line break
must
follow the left curly bracket.
For instance, if a
dumptype
named
normal
is used for most disks, but use of the holding disk needs to be disabled
for the file system that holds it, this would work instead of defining
a new dumptype:
hostname diskdevice {
normal
holdingdisk no
} [ spindle [ interface ] ]
TAPE MANAGEMENT
The
tapelist
file contains the list of tapes in active use.
This file is maintained entirely by Amanda and should not be created
or edited during normal operation.
It contains lines of the form:
YYYYMMDD label flags
Where
YYYYMMDD
is the date the tape was written,
label
is a label for the tape as written by
amlabel
and
flags
tell Amanda whether the tape may be reused, etc (see
the
reuse
options of
amadmin).
Amdump
and
amflush
will refuse to write to an unlabeled tape,
or to a labeled tape that is considered active.
There must be more tapes in active rotation
(see the
tapecycle
option)
than there are runs in the backup cycle
(see the
dumpcycle
option)
to prevent overwriting a backup image that would be needed to
do a full recovery.
AUTHORIZATION
Amanda processes on the tape server host run as the
dumpuser
user listed in
amanda.conf.
When they connect to a backup client, they do so with an Amanda-specific
protocol.
They do not, for instance, use
rsh
or
ssh
directly.
On the client side, the
amandad
daemon validates the connection using one of several methods,
depending on how it was compiled and on options it is passed:
.rhosts
Even though Amanda does not use
rsh,
it can use
.rhosts-style
authentication and a
.rhostsfile.
.amandahosts
This is essentially the same as
.rhosts
authentication except a different file, with the same format, is used.
The is the default mechanism built into Amanda.
Kerberos
Amanda may use the Kerberos authentication system.
Further information is in the
docs/KERBEROS
file that comes with an Amanda distribution.
For Samba access,
Amanda needs a file on the Samba server (which may
or may not also be the tape server) named
/etc/amandapass
with share names, (clear text) passwords and (optional) domain names,
in that order, one per line, whitespace separated.
By default, the user used to connect to the PC is the same for all
PC's and is compiled into Amanda.
It may be changed on a host by host basis
by listing it first in the password field followed
by a percent sign and then the password.
For instance: