1 .\"Generated by db2man.xsl. Don't modify this, modify the source.
10 .de Sp \" Vertical space (when we can't use .PP)
16 .ie \\n(.$>=3 .ne \\$3
20 .TH "AMANDA.CONF" 5 "" "" ""
22 amanda.conf - Main configuration file for Amanda, the Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver
26 is the main configuration file for
27 \fBAmanda\fR. This manpage lists the relevant sections and parameters of this file for quick reference.
30 \fB<CONFIG_DIR>/<config>/amanda.conf\fR
34 There are a number of configuration parameters that control the behavior of the
36 programs. All have default values, so you need not specify the parameter in
38 if the default is suitable.
40 Lines starting with # are ignored, as are blank lines. Comments may be placed on a line with a directive by starting the comment with a #. The remainder of the line is ignored.
42 Keywords are case insensitive, i.e.
48 Integer arguments may have one of the following (case insensitive) suffixes, some of which have a multiplier effect:
49 .SS "POSSIBLE SUFFIXES"
55 Some number of bytes per second.
57 \fBk kb kbyte kbytes kilobyte kilobytes\fR
58 Some number of kilobytes (bytes*1024).
61 Some number of kilobytes per second (bytes*1024).
63 \fBm mb meg mbyte mbytes megabyte megabytes\fR
64 Some number of megabytes (bytes*1024*1024).
67 Some number of megabytes per second (bytes*1024*1024).
69 \fBg gb gbyte gbytes gigabyte gigabytes\fR
70 Some number of gigabytes (bytes*1024*1024*1024).
79 Some number of weeks (days*7).
82 .nr an-no-space-flag 1
88 may be used in most places where an integer is expected
89 to mean an infinite amount.
91 Boolean arguments may have any of the values
98 to indicate a true state, or
105 to indicate a false state. If no argument is given,
110 \fBorg\fR \fB string\fR
112 \fBdaily\fR. A descriptive name for the configuration. This string appears in the Subject line of mail reports. Each
114 configuration should have a different string to keep mail reports distinct.
116 \fBmailto\fR \fB string\fR
118 \fBoperators\fR. A space separated list of recipients for mail reports.
120 \fBdumpcycle\fR \fB int\fR
122 \fB10 days\fR. 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.
125 .nr an-no-space-flag 1
129 This parameter may also be set in a specific
132 This value sets the default for all
139 \fBrunspercycle\fR \fB int\fR
141 \fBsame as dumpcycle\fR. The number of amdump runs in
143 days. A value of 0 means the same value as
144 \fBdumpcycle\fR. A value of -1 means guess the number of runs from the
146 file, which is the number of tapes used in the last
151 \fBtapecycle\fR \fB int\fR
153 \fB15 tapes\fR. Typically tapes are used by
155 in an ordered rotation. The
157 parameter defines the size of that rotation. The number of tapes in rotation must be larger than the number of tapes required for a complete dump cycle (see the
161 This is calculated by multiplying the number of
163 runs per dump cycle (\fBrunspercycle\fR
164 parameter) times the number of tapes used per run (\fBruntapes\fR
165 parameter). Typically two to four times this calculated number of tapes are in rotation. While
167 is always willing to use a new tape in its rotation, it refuses to reuse a tape until at least '\fBtapecycle\fR
168 -1' number of other tapes have been used.
170 It is considered good administrative practice to set the
172 parameter slightly lower than the actual number of tapes in rotation. This allows the administrator to more easily cope with damaged or misplaced tapes or schedule adjustments that call for slight adjustments in the rotation order.
174 \fBusetimestamps\fR \fB bool\fR
176 \fBNo\fR. By default, Amanda can only track at most one run per calendar day. When this option is enabled, however, Amanda can track as many runs as you care to make.
178 \fBWARNING\fR: This option is not backward-compatible. Do not enable it if you intend to downgrade your server installation to Amanda community edition 2.5.0
180 \fBlabel_new_tapes\fR \fB string\fR
181 Default: not set. When set, this directive will cause
183 to automatically write an
185 tape label to any blank tape she encounters. This option is DANGEROUS because when set,
187 will ERASE any non-\fBAmanda\fR
188 tapes you may have, and may also ERASE any near-failing tapes. Use with caution.
190 When using this directive, specify the template for new tape labels. The template should contain some number of contiguous '%' characters, which will be replaced with a generated number. Be sure to specify enough '%' characters that you do not run out of tape labels. Example:
191 label_new_tapes "DailySet1-%%%"
193 \fBdumpuser\fR \fB string\fR
195 \fBamanda\fR. The login name
197 uses to run the backups. The backup client hosts must allow access from the tape server host as this user via
200 .amandahosts, depending on how the
205 Printer to use when doing tape labels. See the
206 \fBlbl-templ\fR\fBtapetype\fR
211 \fInull:\fR. The path name of the non-rewinding tape device. Non-rewinding tape device names often have an 'n' in the name, e.g.
212 \fI/dev/rmt/0mn\fR, however this is operating system specific and you should consult that documentation for detailed naming information.
214 If a tape changer is configured (see the
216 option), this option might not be used.
220 output driver is selected (see the section OUTPUT DRIVERS in the
222 manpage for more information), programs such as
224 will run normally but all images will be thrown away. This should only be used for debugging and testing, and probably only with the
229 \fBrawtapedev\fR string
231 \fInull:\fR. The path name of the raw tape device. This is only used if
233 is compiled for Linux machines with floppy tapes and is needed for QIC volume table operations.
235 \fBtpchanger\fR string
237 \fBnone\fR. 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.
239 If a tape changer is configured, choose one of the changer scripts (e.g.
240 \fBchg-scsi\fR) and enter that here.
242 \fBchangerdev\fR string
244 \fI/dev/null\fR. A tape changer configuration parameter. Usage depends on the particular changer defined with the
248 \fBchangerfile\fR string
250 \fI/usr/adm/amanda/log/changer-status\fR. A tape changer configuration parameter. Usage depends on the particular changer defined with the
256 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.
258 If a tape changer is configured, this may be set larger than one to let
260 write to more than one tape.
262 Note that this is an upper bound on the number of tapes, and
266 Also note that as of this release,
268 does not support true tape overflow. When it reaches the end of one tape, the backup image
270 was processing starts over again on the next tape.
272 \fBmaxdumpsize\fR int
274 \fBruntapes\fR*\fBtape_length\fR. Maximum number of bytes the planner will schedule for a run.
276 \fBtaperalgo\fR [first|firstfit|largest|largestfit|smallest|last]
278 \fBfirst\fR. The algorithm used to choose which dump image to send to the taper.
285 The first dump image that will fit on the current tape.
288 The largest dump image.
291 The largest dump image that will fit on the current tape.
294 The smallest dump image.
300 \fBlabelstr\fR \fB string\fR
302 \fB.*\fR. The tape label constraint regular expression. All tape labels generated (see
303 \fBamlabel\fR(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.
305 \fBtapetype\fR \fB string\fR
307 \fBEXABYTE\fR. The type of tape drive associated with
310 \fBtpchanger\fR. This refers to one of the defined
311 \fBtapetype\fRs in the config file (see below), which specify various tape parameters, like the
316 of the tape media and device.
320 string must be an alphabetic character
324 \fB30 seconds\fR. Maximum amount of time that
326 will wait for each client host.
330 \fB1800 seconds\fR. Amount of idle time per disk on a given client that a
334 will wait before it fails with a data timeout error.
338 \fB300 seconds\fR. Amount of time per disk on a given client that the
342 will wait to get the dump size estimates. For instance, with the default of 300 seconds and four disks on client A,
344 will wait up to 20 minutes for that machine. A negative value will be interpreted as a total amount of time to wait per client instead of per disk.
348 \fB300 Kbps\fR. The maximum network bandwidth allocated to
349 \fBAmanda\fR, in Kbytes per second. See also the
355 10. The maximum number of backups that
357 will attempt to run in parallel.
359 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.
361 \fBdisplayunit\fR "k|m|g|t"
363 "k". The unit used to print many numbers, k=kilo, m=mega, g=giga, t=tera.
365 \fBdumporder\fR string
367 \fBtttTTTTTTT\fR. The priority order of each dumper:
383 b: smallest bandwidth
391 1. The maximum number of backups from a single host that
393 will attempt to run in parallel. See also the
397 Note that this parameter may also be set in a specific
399 (see below). This value sets the default for all
400 \fBdumptype\fRs so must appear in
403 \fBdumptype\fRs are defined.
407 \fB10 Mbytes\fR. The minimum savings required to trigger an automatic bump from one incremental level to the next, expressed as size. If
409 determines that the next higher backup level will be this much smaller than the current level, it will do the next level. The value of this parameter is used only if the parameter
413 The global setting of this parameter can be overwritten inside of a dumptype-definition.
421 \fBbumppercent\fR int
423 \fB0 percent\fR. The minimum savings required to trigger an automatic bump from one incremental level to the next, expressed as percentage of the current size of the DLE (size of current level 0). If
425 determines that the next higher backup level will be this much smaller than the current level, it will do the next level.
427 If this parameter is set to 0, the value of the parameter
429 is used to trigger bumping.
431 The global setting of this parameter can be overwritten inside of a dumptype-definition.
439 \fBbumpmult\fR \fB float\fR
441 1.5. The bump size multiplier.
445 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
449 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.
451 The global setting of this parameter can be overwritten inside of a dumptype-definition.
453 \fBbumpdays\fR \fB int\fR
455 \fB2 days\fR. To insure redundancy in the dumps,
457 keeps filesystems at the same incremental level for at least
459 days, even if the other bump threshold criteria are met.
461 The global setting of this parameter can be overwritten inside of a dumptype-definition.
463 \fBdiskfile\fR \fB string\fR
465 \fBdisklist\fR. The file name for the
467 file holding client hosts, disks and other client dumping information.
469 \fBinfofile\fR \fB string\fR
471 \fI/usr/adm/amanda/curinfo\fR. The file or directory name for the historical information database. If
473 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.
475 \fBlogdir\fR \fB string\fR
477 \fI/usr/adm/amanda\fR. The directory for the
483 \fBindexdir\fR \fB string\fR
485 \fI/usr/adm/amanda/index\fR. The directory where index files (backup image catalogues) are stored. Index files are only generated for filesystems whose
491 \fBtapelist\fR \fB string\fR
493 \fBtapelist\fR. The file name for the active
497 maintains this file with information about the active set of tapes.
499 \fBtapebufs\fR \fB int\fR
501 20. The number of buffers used by the
507 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.
509 \fBreserve\fR \fB number\fR
511 100. The part of holding-disk space that should be reserved for incremental backups if no tape is available, expressed as a percentage of the available holding-disk space (0-100). 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.
513 \fBautoflush\fR \fB bool\fR
515 \fBoff\fR. Whether an amdump run will flush the dumps from holding disk to tape.
517 \fBamrecover_do_fsf\fR \fB bool\fR
519 \fBon\fR. Amrecover will call amrestore with the -f flag for faster positioning of the tape.
521 \fBamrecover_check_label\fR \fB bool\fR
523 \fBon\fR. Amrecover will call amrestore with the -l flag to check the label.
525 \fBamrecover_changer\fR \fB string\fR
526 Default: ''. Amrecover will use the changer if you use 'settape <string>' and that string is the same as the amrecover_changer setting.
528 \fBcolumnspec\fR \fB string\fR
529 Defines the width of columns
533 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:
537 the name of the column, which may be:
541 Compress (compression ratio)
544 Disk (client disk name)
547 DumpRate (dump rate in KBytes/sec)
550 DumpTime (total dump time in hours:minutes)
553 HostName (client host name)
559 OrigKB (original image size in KBytes)
562 OutKB (output image size in KBytes)
565 TapeRate (tape writing rate in KBytes/sec)
568 TapeTime (total tape time in hours:minutes)
572 the amount of space to display before the column (used to get whitespace between columns).
575 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.
581 columnspec "Disk=1:18,HostName=0:10,OutKB=1:7"
585 The above will display the disk information in 18 characters
586 and put one space before it. The hostname column will be 10 characters wide with
587 no space to the left. The output KBytes column is seven characters wide
588 with one space before it.
590 \fBincludefile\fR \fB string\fR
592 \fBnone\fR. The name of an
594 configuration file to include within the current file. Useful for sharing dumptypes, tapetypes and interface definitions among several configurations.
595 .SH "HOLDINGDISK SECTION"
599 file may define one or more holding disks used as buffers to hold backup images before they are written to tape. The syntax is:
602 holdingdisk \fBname\fR {
603 \fBholdingdisk-option\fR \fBholdingdisk-value\fR
609 is a logical name for this holding disk.
611 The options and values are:
613 \fBcomment\fR \fB string\fR
615 \fBnone\fR. A comment string describing this holding disk.
617 \fBdirectory\fR \fB disk\fR
619 \fI/dumps/amanda\fR. The path to this holding area.
625 Amount of space that can be used in this holding disk area.
626 If the value is zero, all available space on the file system is used.
627 If the value is negative, \fBAmanda\fR will use all available space minus that value.
629 \fBchunksize\fR \fB int\fR
633 Holding disk chunk size. Dumps larger than the specified size will be stored in multiple
634 holding disk files. The size of each chunk will not exceed the specified value.
635 However, even though dump images are split in the holding disk, they are concatenated as
636 they are written to tape, so each dump image still corresponds to a single continuous
639 If 0 is specified, \fBAmanda\fR will create holding disk chunks as large as
640 ((INT_MAX/1024)-64) Kbytes.
642 Each holding disk chunk includes a 32 Kbyte header, so the minimum
643 chunk size is 64 Kbytes (but that would be really silly).
645 Operating systems that are limited to a maximum file size of 2 Gbytes
646 actually cannot handle files that large.
647 They must be at least one byte less than 2 Gbytes.
648 Since \fBAmanda\fR works with 32 Kbyte blocks, and
649 to handle the final read at the end of the chunk, the chunk size
650 should be at least 64 Kbytes (2 * 32 Kbytes) smaller than the maximum
651 file size, e.g. 2047 Mbytes.
652 .SH "DUMPTYPE SECTION"
656 file may define multiple sets of backup options and refer to them by name from the
658 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.
660 A set of backup options are entered in a
662 section, which looks like this:
665 define dumptype \fBname\fR {
666 \fBdumptype-option\fR \fBdumptype-value\fR
672 is the name of this set of backup options. It is referenced from the
676 Some of the options in a
678 section are the same as those in the main part of
679 \fIamanda.conf\fR. The main option value is used to set the default for all
681 sections. For instance, setting
683 to 50 in the main part of the config file causes all following
685 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
686 \fBdumptype\fRs are defined.
688 The dumptype options and values are:
690 \fBauth\fR \fB string\fR
692 \fBbsd\fR. Type of authorization to perform between tape server and backup client hosts.
694 \fBbsd\fR, bsd authorization with udp initial connection and one tcp connection by data stream.
696 \fBbsdtcp\fR, bsd authorization but use only one tcp connection.
698 \fBbsdudp\fR, like bsd, but will use only one tcp connection for all data stream.
701 to use Kerberos-IV authorization.
704 to use Kerberos-V authorization.
707 to use rsh authorization.
710 to use OpenSSH authorization.
712 \fBamandad_path\fR \fB string\fR
714 \fB$libexec/amandad\fR. Specify the amandad path of the client, only use with rsh/ssh authentification.
716 \fBclient_username\fR \fB string\fR
718 \fBCLIENT_LOGIN\fR. Specify the username to connect on the client, only use with rsh/ssh authentification.
722 \fB10 Mbytes\fR. The minimum savings required to trigger an automatic bump from one incremental level to the next, expressed as size. If
724 determines that the next higher backup level will be this much smaller than the current level, it will do the next level. The value of this parameter is used only if the parameter
734 \fBbumppercent\fR int
736 \fB0 percent\fR. The minimum savings required to trigger an automatic bump from one incremental level to the next, expressed as percentage of the current size of the DLE (size of current level 0). If
738 determines that the next higher backup level will be this much smaller than the current level, it will do the next level.
740 If this parameter is set to 0, the value of the parameter
742 is used to trigger bumping.
750 \fBbumpmult\fR \fB float\fR
752 1.5. The bump size multiplier.
756 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
760 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.
762 \fBbumpdays\fR \fB int\fR
764 \fB2 days\fR. To insure redundancy in the dumps,
766 keeps filesystems at the same incremental level for at least
768 days, even if the other bump threshold criteria are met.
770 \fBcomment\fR \fB string\fR
772 \fBnone\fR. A comment string describing this set of backup options.
774 \fBcomprate\fR \fBfloat\fR [, \fBfloat\fR ]
777 0.50. The expected full and incremental compression factor for dumps. It is only used if
779 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.
781 \fBcompress [client|server]\fR \fB string\fR
783 \fBclient fast\fR. If
785 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.
787 For either type of compression,
789 also allows the selection of three styles of compression.
791 is the best compression available, often at the expense of CPU overhead.
793 is often not as good a compression as
794 \fBbest\fR, but usually less CPU overhead. Or to specify
796 to use your own compression method. (See dumptype custom-compress in example/amanda.conf for reference)
800 options line may be one of:
807 compress [client] fast
810 compress [client] best
813 compress client custom
815 Specify client_custom_compress "PROG"
817 PROG must not contain white space and it must accept -d for uncompress.
826 compress server custom
828 Specify server_custom_compress "PROG"
830 PROG must not contain white space and it must accept -d for uncompress.
833 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
837 (software) compression should be disabled.
839 \fBdumpcycle\fR \fB int\fR
841 \fB10 days\fR. The number of days in the backup cycle. Each disk using this set of options will get a full backup at least this of ten. Setting this to zero tries to do a full backup each run.
843 \fBencrypt [none|client|server]\fR
845 \fBnone\fR. To encrypt 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.
849 options line may be one of:
858 Specify client_encrypt "PROG"
860 PROG must not contain white space.
862 Specify client_decrypt_option "decryption-parameter" Default: "-d"
864 decryption-parameter must not contain white space.
866 (See dumptype server-encrypt-fast in example/amanda.conf for reference)
871 Specify server_encrypt "PROG"
873 PROG must not contain white space.
875 Specify server_decrypt_option "decryption-parameter" Default: "-d"
877 decryption-parameter must not contain white space.
879 (See dumptype client-encrypt-nocomp in example/amanda.conf for reference)
882 Note that current logic assumes compression then encryption during backup(thus decrypt then uncompress during restore). So specifying client-encryption AND server-compression is not supported.
884 which is a wrapper of
886 is provided as a reference symmetric encryption program.
888 \fBestimate\fR \fBclient|calcsize|server\fR
890 \fBclient\fR. Determine the way
898 Use the same program as the dumping program, this is the most accurate way to do estimates, but it can take a long time.
903 Use a faster program to do estimates, but the result is less accurate.
908 Use only statistics from the previous run to give an estimate, it takes only a few seconds but the result is not accurate if your disk usage changes from day to day.
911 \fBexclude\fR [ \fBlist|file\fR ][[optional][ \fBappend\fR ][ \fB string\fR ]+]
913 \fBfile\fR. There are two exclude lists,
923 exclude expression. With
927 is a file name on the client containing
929 exclude expressions. The path to the specified exclude list file, if present (see description of 'optional' below), must be readable by the
933 All exclude expressions are concatenated in one file and passed to
939 Exclude expressions must always be specified as relative to the head directory of the DLE.
945 is appended to the current list, without it, the
952 \fBexclude list\fR, then amcheck will not complain if the file doesn't exist or is not readable.
955 \fBexclude list\fR, if the file name is relative, the disk name being backed up is prepended. So if this is entered:
958 exclude list ".amanda.excludes"
960 the actual file used would be
961 \fI/var/.amanda.excludes\fR
964 \fI/usr/local/.amanda.excludes\fR
966 \fI/usr/local\fR, and so on.
968 \fBholdingdisk\fR [ \fBnever|auto|required]\fR ]
970 \fBauto\fR. 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
972 is backing up, that file system should refer to a dumptype with
976 to avoid backing up the holding disk into itself.
979 \fBnever\fR|no|false|off
980 Never use a holdingdisk, the dump will always go directly to tape. There will be no dump if you have a tape error.
982 \fBauto\fR|yes|true|on
983 Use the holding disk, unless there is a problem with the holding disk, the dump won't fit there or the medium doesn't require spooling (e.g., VFS device)
986 Always dump to holdingdisk, never directly to tape. There will be no dump if it doesn't fit on holdingdisk
989 \fBignore\fR \fB boolean\fR
991 \fBno\fR. Whether disks associated with this backup type should be backed up or not. This option is useful when the
993 file is shared among several configurations, some of which should not back up all the listed file systems.
995 \fBinclude\fR [ \fBlist|file\fR ][[optional][ \fBappend\fR ][ \fB string\fR ]+]
998 ".". There are two include lists,
1006 is a glob expression. With
1010 is a file name on the client containing glob expressions.
1012 All include expressions are expanded by
1013 \fBAmanda\fR, concatenated in one file and passed to
1017 argument. They must start with "./" and contain no other "/".
1019 Include expressions must always be specified as relative to the head directory of the DLE.
1022 .nr an-no-space-flag 1
1026 For globbing to work at all, even the limited single level,
1027 the top level directory of the DLE must be readable by the \fBAmanda\fR user.With the
1031 is appended to the current list, without it, the
1033 overwrites the list.
1039 then amcheck will not complain if the file doesn't exist or is not readable.
1042 \fBinclude list\fR, If the file name is relative, the disk name being backed up is prepended.
1044 \fBindex\fR \fB boolean\fR
1046 \fBno\fR. Whether an index (catalogue) of the backup should be generated and saved in
1047 \fBindexdir\fR. These catalogues are used by the
1051 \fBkencrypt\fR \fB boolean\fR
1053 \fBno\fR. 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.
1055 \fBmaxdumps\fR \fB int\fR
1057 1. The maximum number of backups from a single host that
1059 will attempt to run in parallel. See also the main section parameter
1062 \fBmaxpromoteday\fR \fB int\fR
1064 10000. The maximum number of day for a promotion, set it 0 if you don't want promotion, set it to 1 or 2 if your disks get overpromoted.
1066 \fBpriority\fR \fB string\fR
1068 \fBmedium\fR. When there is no tape to write to,
1070 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.
1072 \fBprogram\fR \fB string\fR
1074 \fBDUMP\fR. The type of backup to perform. Valid values are
1076 for the native operating system backup program, and
1080 or to do PC backups using Samba.
1082 \fBrecord\fR \fB boolean\fR
1084 \fByes\fR. Whether to ask the backup program to update its database (e.g.
1085 \fI/etc/dumpdates\fR
1087 \fI/usr/local/var/amanda/gnutar-lists\fR
1088 for GNUTAR) of time stamps. This is normally enabled for daily backups and turned off for periodic archival runs.
1090 \fBskip-full\fR \fB boolean\fR
1096 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
1098 only schedules level 1 incrementals in this configuration; this is probably a bug.
1100 \fBskip-incr\fR \fB boolean\fR
1106 has scheduled an incremental backup, these disks will be skipped.
1108 \fBstarttime\fR \fB int\fR
1110 \fBnone\fR. 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
1113 \fBstrategy\fR \fB string\fR
1115 \fBstandard\fR. Strategy to use when planning what level of backup to run next. Values are:
1124 Never do full backups, only level 1 incrementals.
1127 Never do incremental backups, only full dumps.
1130 Never do backups (useful when sharing the
1135 Only do incremental dumps.
1137 should be used to tell
1139 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
1141 will perform full backups with this configuration, which is probably a bug.
1144 \fBtape_splitsize\fR \fB int\fR
1146 \fBnone\fR. Split dump file on tape into pieces of a specified size. This allows dumps to be spread across multiple tapes, and can potentially make more efficient use of tape space. Note that if this value is too large (more than half the size of the average dump being split), substantial tape space can be wasted. If too small, large dumps will be split into innumerable tiny dumpfiles, adding to restoration complexity. A good rule of thumb, usually, is 1/10 of the size of your tape.
1148 \fBsplit_diskbuffer\fR \fB string\fR
1150 \fBnone\fR. When dumping a split dump in PORT-WRITE mode (usually meaning "no holding disk"), buffer the split chunks to a file in the directory specified by this option.
1152 \fBfallback_splitsize\fR \fB int\fR
1154 \fB10M\fR. When dumping a split dump in PORT-WRITE mode, if no split_diskbuffer is specified (or if we somehow fail to use our split_diskbuffer), we must buffer split chunks in memory. This specifies the maximum size split chunks can be in this scenario, and thus the maximum amount of memory consumed for in-memory splitting. The size of this buffer can be changed from its (very conservative) default to a value reflecting the amount of memory that each taper process on the dump server may reasonably consume.
1158 entries are predefined by
1162 define dumptype no-compress {
1165 define dumptype compress-fast {
1166 compress client fast
1168 define dumptype compress-best {
1169 compress client best
1171 define dumptype srvcompress {
1172 compress server fast
1174 define dumptype bsd-auth {
1177 define dumptype krb4-auth {
1180 define dumptype no-record {
1183 define dumptype no-hold {
1186 define dumptype no-full {
1191 In addition to options in a
1193 section, one or more other
1195 names may be entered, which make this
1197 inherit options from other previously defined
1198 \fBdumptype\fRs. For instance, two sections might be the same except for the
1203 define dumptype normal {
1204 comment "Normal backup, no compression, do indexing"
1209 define dumptype testing {
1210 comment "Test backup, no compression, do indexing, no recording"
1224 \fBdumptype\fRs should reference. This provides an easy place to make changes that will affect every
1226 .SH "TAPETYPE SECTION"
1230 file may define multiple types of tape media and devices. The information is entered in a
1232 section, which looks like this in the config file:
1235 define tapetype \fBname\fR {
1236 \fBtapetype-option\fR \fBtapetype-value\fR
1242 is the name of this type of tape medium/device. It is referenced from the
1244 option in the main part of the config file.
1246 The tapetype options and values are:
1248 \fBcomment\fR \fB string\fR
1250 \fBnone\fR. A comment string describing this set of tape information.
1252 \fBfilemark\fR \fB int\fR
1254 \fB1000 bytes\fR. 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.
1256 \fBlength\fR \fB int\fR
1258 \fB2000 kbytes\fR. How much data will fit on a tape.
1260 Note that this value is only used by
1262 to schedule which backups will be run. Once the backups start,
1264 will continue to write to a tape until it gets an error, regardless of what value is entered for
1266 (but see the section OUTPUT DRIVERS in the
1268 manpage for exceptions).
1270 \fBblocksize\fR \fB int\fR
1272 \fB32\fR. How much data will be written in each tape record expressed in KiloBytes. The tape record size (= blocksize) can not be reduced below the default 32 KBytes. The parameter blocksize can only be raised if
1274 was compiled with the configure option --with-maxtapeblocksize=N set with "N" greater than 32 during
1277 \fBfile-pad\fR \fB boolean\fR
1279 \fBtrue\fR. If true, every record, including the last one in the file, will have the same length. This matches the way
1281 wrote tapes prior to the availability of this parameter. It may also be useful on devices that only support a fixed blocksize.
1283 Note that the last record on the tape probably includes trailing null byte padding, which will be passed back to
1286 or the restore program. Most programs just ignore this (although possibly with a warning).
1288 If this parameter is false, the last record in a file may be shorter than the block size. The file will contain the same amount of data the dump program generated, without trailing null byte padding. When read, the same amount of data that was written will be returned.
1290 \fBspeed\fR \fB int\fR
1292 \fB200 bps\fR. How fast the drive will accept data, in bytes per second. This parameter is NOT currently used by
1295 \fBlbl-templ\fR \fB string\fR
1296 A PostScript template file used by
1298 to generate labels. Several sample files are provided with the
1304 man page for more information.
1306 In addition to options, another
1308 name may be entered, which makes this
1310 inherit options from another
1311 \fBtapetype\fR. 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:
1314 define tapetype DLT4000-III {
1315 comment "DLT4000 tape drives with Compact-III tapes"
1316 length 12500 mbytes # 10 Gig tapes with some compression
1317 filemark 2000 kbytes
1320 define tapetype DLT4000-IV {
1322 comment "DLT4000 tape drives with Compact-IV tapes"
1323 length 25000 mbytes # 20 Gig tapes with some compression
1326 .SH "INTERFACE SECTION"
1330 file may define multiple types of network interfaces. The information is entered in an
1332 section, which looks like this:
1335 define interface \fBname\fR {
1336 \fBinterface-option\fR \fBinterface-value\fR
1342 is the name of this type of network interface. It is referenced from the
1346 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
1349 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,
1351 will use as much of the network as it can leaving throttling up to the operating system and network hardware.
1353 The interface options and values are:
1355 \fBcomment\fR \fB string\fR
1357 \fBnone\fR. A comment string describing this set of network information.
1359 \fBuse\fR \fB int\fR
1361 \fB300 Kbps\fR. The speed of the interface in Kbytes per second.
1363 In addition to options, another
1365 name may be entered, which makes this
1367 inherit options from another
1368 \fBinterface\fR. At the moment, this is of little use.
1372 <jds@amanda.org>: Original text
1374 Stefan G. Weichinger,
1375 <sgw@amanda.org>, maintainer of the
1376 \fBAmanda\fR-documentation: XML-conversion, major update, splitting
1380 \fBamanda-client.conf\fR(5),