Chapter 20. AMANDA Survey Results Prev Part IV. Various Information Next ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 20. AMANDA Survey Results Jon LaBadie Original text AMANDA Core Team Stefan G. Weichinger XML-conversion AMANDA Core Team Note Refer to http://www.amanda.org/docs/survey.html for the current version of this document. Note This chapter still needs much more formatting, there are many tables and lists, that need to get added. Volunteers welcome. sgw, April, 2005. Introduction AMANDA (Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver) is a backup system freely available available in source form. For more information about AMANDA visit the website http://www.amanda.org. Readers of the amanda-users mailing list (approximately 1100 subscribers) were asked in April of 2003 to describe their use of the backup system by filling out a survey questionnaire that was posted to the mailing list weekly. Seventy two (72) surveys were submitted during the month-long collection period. In several postings that follow, I will report summaries of the collected data. In some cases I've included comments (Surveyor's Notes) of my own reaction to the data. Later, I plan to recast these results in the form of questions and answers to add to the FOM (FAQ-O-Matic) at amanda.org. Should you have any thoughts on this please let me know via the list or personal email. Jon LaBadie Note [Surveyor's Note] While the number of submitted surveys neither surprised me, nor disappointed me, what did greatly disappoint me personally was this fact: Of the twenty five (25) individuals most active on the list (based on number of postings for 12 months), only seven (7) bothered to respond to the survey. Organizations What follows is a summarization of the responses describing the organizations using AMANDA. _____________________________________________________________________________ |Types_of_organizations_using_AMANDA|___|_____________________________________| |Category___________________________|Num|Type_________________________________| |University_Department______________|20_|_____________________________________| |Research_Organizations_____________|10_|medical,_scientific,_engineering,____| |___________________________________|___|oceanography,_statistical,_behavioral| |Internet_Service_Providers_________|5__|_____________________________________| |Data Processing Services |11 |software, graphics, integration, | |___________________________________|___|consulting___________________________| |Manufacturers (DP) |5 |computers, electronics, | |___________________________________|___|semiconductors_______________________| |Manufacturers_(non-DP)_____________|4__|rubber,_chemical,_turbine,_video_____| |Government_Related_________________|3__|federal,_local,_public_defender______| |Service Organizations |4 |publishing, power utility, forestry, | |___________________________________|___|money_management_____________________| |Small_Office/Home_Office___________|6__|_____________________________________| |Others |3 |natural history museum, education | |___________________________________|___|charity,_national_opera_and_ballet.__| Note [Surveyor's Note] The `Categories' were my grouping, they were not on the survey. I expected more in the SOHO category. Note [Surveyor's Note] Extent of AMANDA usage was asked on the survey. Few indicated that their entire firm based their backups on AMANDA, and then only relatively small companies (like JG Computing :). Thus the category is `University Department' not `University'. Similarly, AMANDA is used by a groups within organizations like the chemical manufacturer or computer manufacturer or federal government noted above, not the entire entity. But AMANDA may have helped produce the tires you are riding on, the workstation you are typing on, or to collect the taxes you pay :)) _________________________________________________ |Location_of_organizations_using_AMANDA___________| |1_Belgium|1_Japan_______________|2_Poland________| |1_Canada_|1_Mexico______________|2_Switzerland___| |1_Estonia|1_Norway______________|3_Sweden________| |1_Finland|1_Portugal____________|5_Germany_______| |1_France_|1_United_Arab_Emirates|5_United_Kingdom| |1_Italy__|2_The_Netherlands_____|45_United_States| Note [Surveyor's Note] The totals are greater than number of submitted surveys as some respondents described multi-national installations. Note [Surveyor's Note] Americans must be procrastinators. For a while, the number of non-US submitted surveys exceeded the ones from the US. _________________________________________ |Length_of_AMANDA_usage_at_organization|__| |0_-_1_years___________________________|25| |1_-_2_years___________________________|8_| |2_-_3_years___________________________|13| |3_-_4_years___________________________|10| |4_-_5_years___________________________|8_| |5_-_6_years___________________________|2_| |7_-_8_years___________________________|2_| |8_-_9_years___________________________|2_| |9+_years______________________________|1_| |10%_of_responders_>_5_years_use_______|__| |33%_of_responders_>_3_years_use_______|__| |50%_of_responders_>_2_years_use_______|__| |33%_of_responders_<_1_year_use________|__| Mean and Median are ~29 months (2.5 years) Note [Surveyor's Note] Some really long time users of AMANDA. It must do the job. Servers and Clients AMANDA servers _________ |Number|__| |1_____|53| |2_____|11| |3_____|5_| |5_____|1_| |6_____|1_| |7_____|1_| Table 20.1. Operating Systems Running on AMANDA Server Hosts _____________________________________ |FreeBSD:_______|Total_10,_including__| |2______________|4-STABLE_____________| |1______________|4.7__________________| |1______________|4x___________________| |HP-UX:_________|Total_2,_including___| |1______________|10.20________________| |1______________|11.00________________| |Irix:__________|Total_2,_including___| |1______________|6.5__________________| |SCO_Openserver:|Total_1,_including___| |1______________|5.0.6________________| |Solaris:_______|Total_14,_including__| |5______________|8____________________| |1______________|8_x86________________| |3______________|9____________________| |Tru64:_________|Total_4,_including___| |2______________|5.1__________________| |Linux:_________|Total_48,_including__| |13_____________|Debian_Total_________| |1______________|2.4__________________| |2______________|3.0__________________| |3______________|Woody________________| |14_____________|RedHat_Total_________| |1______________|6.2__________________| |2______________|7.1__________________| |1______________|7.2__________________| |6______________|7.3__________________| |3______________|8.0__________________| |1______________|8.0_with_RHNet_kernel| |1______________|Slackware_Total______| |1______________|7____________________| |3______________|SuSE_Total___________| |2______________|8.1__________________| AMANDA Versions Run on Server Hosts 2.4.1: Total 2, including 1 2.4.1p1 2.4.2: Total 33, including 1 2.4.2p1 28 2.4.2p2 2.4.3: Total 21, including 1 2.4.3b2 1 2.4.3b3 2 2.4.3b4 2.4.4: Total 21, including 2 2.4.4-20030415 1 2.4.4-20030426 [Surveyor's Note] The percentage of older versions surprised me. Shouldn't have as I just upgraded 2 months ago. If it works why fix it? AMANDA CLIENTS Number of AMANDA Clients client num. hosts sites 14 25 36 46 57 a6-1012 b11-2013 21-3012 31-505 61-704 Operating Systems Run on AMANDA Clients (mentions, not number of hosts) AIX, total 4, including Linux (all variants), 86 total including 1 4 Debian, 17 total 1 2.2 Darwin, total 1 1 2.4 2 3.0 FreeBSD total 17, including 1 potato 1 2.2.5 2 sarge 1 3.2 1 sid 1 3.3 1 stable 1 3.4 2 woody 2 4-STABLE Mandrake, 1 total 1 4.1 1 8 1 4.7 RedHat, 26 total 1 5.0 1 5.0 1 6.0 HP-UX, 8 total, including 2 6.2 1 10 1 6.2 Alpha 2 10.20 2 6.2 Sparc 3 11 3 7.1 2 7.2 Irix, 8 total, including 4 7.3 3 6.5 5 8.0 1 6.5 MIPS 1 9 Slackware, 3 total MacOS X, 6 total, including 2 7.0 1 10.1 PowerPC 1 8.1 1 10.2 PowerPC SuSe, 4 total 2 8.1 NetBSD, 1 total, including Yellowdog, 1 total 1 1.6 1 2.3 PowerPC OpenBSD, 1 total, including Tru64, 8 total, including 1 3.2 1 4.0 Alpha 1 5.1 Snap, 1 total Windows, 22 total, including Solaris, 39 total, including 1 95 2 2.5 2 98 2 2.6 4 NT 5 7 1 NT 4 server 11 8 7 2000 4 9 3 XP 3 8 x86 1 9 x86 SunOS, 1 total, including 1 SunOS 4.1.4 AMANDA Versions of Run on Client Hosts 2.4.1, 4 total, including 3 2.4.1p1 2.4.2, 42 total, including 1 2.4.2p1 33 2.4.2p2 2.4.3, 30 total, including 1 2.4.3b2 1 2.4.3b3 1 2.4.3b4 2.4.4, 25 total, including 2 2.4.4-20030415 1 2.4.4-20030426 1 2.4.4b1 Installation Properties Total Disk Capacity of Clients smallest: 20 GB largest: 5000 GB 13 20 to 100 GB 22 101 to 200 GB 16 201 to 500 GB 12 501 to 1000 GB 5 1001 to 2000 GB 6 2001 to 5000 GB Total Data Currently Stored on Clients Disks smallest: 3 GB largest: 4000 GB 22 3 to 50 GB 14 51 to 100 GB 15 101 to 200 GB 10 201 to 500 GB 7 501 to 1000 GB 5 1001 to 4000 GB Average Size of a Single Backup smallest: 0.3 GB largest: 700 GB 22 0.3 to 10 GB 11 11 to 20 GB 22 21 to 50 GB 13 51 to 100 GB 8 101 to 200 GB 1 350 GB 1 700 GB Backup Program Used 72 use gnutar or some tar variant including: 3 hfstar 1 nttar 1 smbtar 50 use dump or some dump variant including: 1 e2fsdump 2 ext2dump 12 ufsdump 2 vdump 1 vfsdump 2 vxdump 5 xfsdump Dumpcycle 5 0 days 3 1 days 1 2 days 6 3 days 5 5 days 34 7 days 17 8 days - 2 weeks 10 15 days - 4 weeks 5 30 days - 75 days 1 4 months 1 6 months 1 1 year 1 1000 days Frequency of Backups 6 1/week 4 2/week 4 3/week 5 4/week 36 5/week 6 6/week 31 7/week 2 1/month Type of Compression Used 1 gpg 15 none 17 hw 31 sw - server 46 sw - client Installed Hardware Brand and Model of Tape Drive Used at AMANDA Installations The number of mentions of each brand is shown followed by specific models where reported. 3 Archive, including: 2 Qualstar TLS-4200 Python 04106 Python 06408 10 Quantum, including: DLT-VS80 5 Compaq, including: DLT-4000 AIT-2 DLT-7000 DLT-90 DLT-8000 MSL5126-S2 SDLT320 10 Seagate, including: DAT 1 Dell DLT-IV 12/24G 20/40G 5 Ecrix, including: CTL-96/4586N VXA-1 DDS4 DDS3 Scorpion-24/STD124000N 5 Exabyte, including: 13 Sony, including: 8500 AIT-1 Eliant 820 AIT-2 VXA-2 AIT-3 DLT-IV 15 HP, including: DLT-9000 A4845A SDX-500C C1533A Sony SDX-700C C1557 C6280-7000 3 Sun, including: DDS-4 DDS3 DLT vs80 7000 ESL9595 Python SureStor DAT-24 SureStor DAT-8 7 Tandberg, including: Surestore Ultrium 230e DLT vs80 Ultrium 1 SDLT 220 SDLT-320 1 IBM DDS4 SLR5 SLR7 1 Mammoth 2 Wang, including: 3 None, backup to disk only DAT 3400DX 2 Overland Data, including: Loaderexpress DLT8000 Native Tape Capacity of the Above Drives 7 4 GB 8 35 GB 1 7 GB 13 40 GB 2 10 GB 8 50 GB 11 12 GB 1 60 GB 1 15 GB 1 80 GB 1 17 GB 7 100 GB 10 20 GB 1 110 GB 1 22 GB 3 160 GB 4 25 GB 1 500 GB 2 30 GB Preferred Brand of Tape 2 Compaq 1 Dell 4 Exabyte 3 Fujifilm 5 HP 1 Imation 2 Maxell 2 Quantum 11 Sony 1 Verbatim 16 No Preference Tape Format 1 4mm 1 EXA 4 8mm 3 LTO 2 AIT 1 Mammoth 1 AIT-1 4 sDLT 7 AIT-2 1 sDLT320 3 AIT-3 1 SLR 8 DDS-2 1 SLR25 12 DDS-3 1 SLR7 6 DDS-4 1 Travan-20 15 DLT 1 VXA 1 DLT-80 1 VXA V-23 7 DLT-IV 1 VXA-2 Tape Changers/Libraries Used at AMANDA Installations [Surveyor's Note] A total of 28 of 72 respondents reported having using tape changer or library. Several of those reported having more than one. Surprisingly, the 28 respondents reported 26 distinct models of changer/ library. The table below shows the models reported by 28 respondents. Where multiple reports for the same model existed, only one entry is show. Where the multiple reports showed different configurations (eg. 1 drive vs 2 drive), only the larger configuration is shown. BRAND MODEL # of # of total drives tapes capacity ADIC ?? 1 4 200 GB ADIC FastStor DLT 1 7 245 GB Compaq MSL5126 1 25 4000 GB Compaq SSL2020 2 20 1000 GB Dell Powervault 122T 1 8 320 GB Hewlett-Packard A4845A 5 588 20000 GB Hewlett-Packard C1557A 1 6 72 GB Hewlett-Packard ESL9595 2 595 70000 GB Hewlett-Packard MSL5026S2 2 26 4160 GB Hewlett-Packard SureStore 6x40 1 6 120 GB Hewlett-Packard SureStore 6x24 1 6 72 GB Overland Data LXB 4120 1 10 150 GB Overland Data Library Pro 1 19 1900 GB Overland Data LoaderXpress 1 15 525 GB Qualstar 6220 2 20 700 GB Qualstar TLS-4200 2 20 2000 GB Quantum DLT7000 2560 1 8 320 GB Segate CTL-96/4586N 1 4 14 GB Sony TSL-9000 1 8 96 GB SpectraLogic Bullfrog 10000 3 40 10000 GB SpectraLogic Treefrog 2000 1 15 750 GB StorageTek Timberwolf 9730 2 30 1000 GB Straightline Harrier/830 2 30 1500 GB Sun L20 2 20 2000 GB Sun L40 2 40 1600 GB Sun Storedge L9 1 9 360 GB Special Feature Usage What follows is a summarization of the responses describing the use of two special features of recent versions of AMANDA, the "file:driver" to use a hard disk drive as a backup device and RAIT (Redundant Array of 'Inexpensive' Tapedrives) to allow mirroring or striping of backups across multiple drives. The file:driver Do you use the ? 53 no 11 yes 5 what is the If not, do you expect to? 32 no 14 yes 8 maybe RAIT Do you use RAIT? 68 no 0 yes If not, do you expect to? 40 no 8 yes 3 maybe [Surveyor's Note] I was mildly surprised, and amused, by the 5 "what is the responses. And considering those responses, but the lack of similar responses to the RAIT question. [Surveyor's Note] No respondent uses RAIT! Disappointing. I wonder if any site is currently using this feature. Non UNIX Clients What follows is a summarization of the responses describing the various methods to backup 'non-unix' clients, mostly PC's running versions of Windows. PC's Backed Up Using SAMBA Connections to AMANDA Clients A total of 22 survey respondents (of 72) report they use amanda and samba to backup PC clients. 10 have 1 PC client 10 have 2 - 5 PC clients 1 has 15 PC clients 1 has 40 PC clients [Surveyor's Note] From these results it seems to me that amanda/samba is seldom a first choice for backing up PC's. Instead it seems to be used when a site has an existing amanda installation and would like to implement some form of PC backup. The respondents mentioned the following Operating Systems were being run on the PC clients. The number is the number of mentions, not number of PC's. 1 Windows 95 2 Windows 2000 Server 1 Windows 98 5 Windows XP 3 Windows NT 1 Windows XP Pro 2 Windows NT 4 1 Snap Server 9 Windows 2000 [Surveyor's Note] Of interest to users running Lotus Domino: One respondent reported using "The Open File Manager" from http://www.stbernard.com to create online backups of their Lotus Domino database files which then could be backed up to their amanda host using samba. PC's Backed Up Using Cygwin/AMANDA Client Software A total of 4 survey respondents (of 72) report they use a cygwin/amanda client to backup PC clients. 2 have 1 PC client 1 has 3 PC clients 1 has 15 PC clients The only PC operating systems mentioned were Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Server. PC's Backed Up by AMANDA Using Other Techniques A variety of techniques, other than samba or cygwin, were described by respondents to backup PC's 1. Two respondents installed an NFS server on Windows 2000 and then NFS mounted the PC disks on the amanda host and backed them up as local file systems. 2. Similarly, two respondents mounted PC shares of Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 on the amanda host using 'smbmount' and backed them up as local 'smbfs' file systems. 3. Several respondents reported they first backed up their PC's (Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows 2000 Server) to disk files on the PC's and then backed that file up using amanda; presumably using samba or some file transfer technique. One mentioned that the backup stream was sent directly to a Linux host and backed up there as a local file. The backup programs the respondents mentioned included: 'Windows backup program' 'BackupPC', a Linux opensource program 'Win2000 Backup Tool' 'Backup Exec' 4. One respondent noted their firewall was a PC running linux. That system was mirrored using rsync and the mirror was backed up. Other Backup Techniques Mentioned Five respondents described backing up systems using "non-traditional" methods. These methods were used to backup systems running either MacOS or Windows. They included: 1. MacOS 9, mounted (NFS?) onto a Linux host and backing up the mounts as local filesystems. 2. Backing up 37 MacOS 8 and MacOS 9 systems using the program Retrospect. The output of Retrospect was transferred to a Linux host using ftp and preserved with amanda. 3. Build a native amanda client on MacOS X and use hfstar instead of gnutar. 4. Backup 6 Windows XP hosts using a native windows amanda client. 5. Backup 12 Windows 2000 Server hosts using a native windows amanda client. This respondent also noted their intention to switch to a cygwin/amanda client in the near future. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Prev Up Next Chapter 19. AMANDA WISHLIST Home Part V. Technical Background