amanda for DEBIAN
-----------------
-To configure your server, as root do:
+Since every Amanda installation is different, there is some work you need to
+do to configure your server. For a simple setup, as root you need to:
-1. for a simple setup edit the files (see explanations there)
- /etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf
- /etc/amanda/DailySet1/disklist
- /etc/amanda/crontab
+1. Create a directory under /etc/amanda for your backup config, we'll assume
+ a name 'DailySet1' as our example.
+
+ mkdir /etc/amanda/DailySet1
+
+ Make sure that /etc/amanda and all the files under it are owner and group
+ backup with directory permissions of 770 and file permissions of 660.
+
+2. populate this directory with config files. At a minimum, you need
+ amanda.conf and disklist.
+
+ cp /usr/share/doc/amanda-server/examples/amanda.conf \
+ /etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf*
+ cp /usr/share/doc/amanda-server/examples/disklist \
+ /etc/amanda/DailySet1/disklist
+
+ Edit these files as needed, following the instructions in each file.
+
+3. Make sure that /etc/amanda and all the files under it are owner and group
+ backup with directory permissions of 770 and file permissions of 660.
+
+ chown -R backup:backup /etc/amanda
+
+3. Prepare the "holding disk" if you plan to use one (highly recommended!) by
+ ensuring user backup can access it. See the note below indicating that it
+ may be better to use a subdirectory and not a mount point to avoid having
+ system artifacts like the lost+found directory confuse things.
-2. prepare the holding disk if you use one by
chown -R backup:backup <holding disk location>
-3. do
- crontab -u backup /etc/amanda/crontab.amanda
+4. Install a suitable crontab for user backup. If you used DailySet1 as your
+ configuration name, you can just install the provided example. If you
+ picked some other name, you will obviously need to edit a copy of the
+ example before installing it.
+ crontab -u backup /usr/share/doc/amanda-server/examples/crontab.amanda
-To use all of Amanda's features, you may find it necessary to put each client
+To use all of Amanda's features, you probably also want to put each client
machine's root user in the .rhosts or .amandahosts for ~backup on the server
machine. On Debian systems, this is usually linked to /etc/amandahosts, but
if you have clients running other operating systems you'll have to find the
right place yourself.
-
NOTE: If you want to backup your server too, you need to treat it as both a
client *and* a server, see /usr/share/doc/amanda-client/README.Debian for
more information.
-
For more complex setups, consult the manpages and the extra documents and
example files in /usr/share/doc/amanda-common, or look at www.amanda.org on
the web.
-Another Note: if you use floppy tapes you have to use the sftape
-interface for use with ftape(>=3.03).
+Another Note: if you use floppy tapes you have to use the sftape interface
+for use with ftape(>=3.03).
Jean Pierre LeJacq <jplejacq@mail.quoininc.com> reports the following about
his experience using ftape:
pre-install zftape /sbin/swapout 5
post-install zftape /bin/ftmt -f /dev/nzqft0 setblk 32768
-
To ease use with firewalls, Amanda has been built with options restricting the
use of TCP to the port range 50000-50100, and UDP to the port range 840-860.
bastille was used with the "restrict system resources" option. See bug
118616 in the Debian bug tracking system for more information.
+If you choose to use the SSH authentication method and associated transport,
+please be aware that there may be problems if /usr/lib/amanda/dumper is suid.
+You can fix this on your server with chmod u-s /usr/lib/amanda/dumper, or
+investigate dpkg-statoverride.
+
Concerns have been expressed about the reliability of 'dump' as a backup tool
on live Linux systems. Nothing can guarantee a consistent and meaningful
-backup of a live filesystem under all circumstances. The tar utility is
-'essential' in Debian and so will always be around, is not tied to any specific
-filesystem type, and there are entries in the default amanda.conf file
-defining dump types using tar.
+backup of a live filesystem under all circumstances, and the maintainer of
+these packages uses dump with good results.
+
+The tar utility is 'essential' in Debian and so will always be around, is not
+tied to any specific filesystem type, and there are entries in the default
+amanda.conf file defining dump types using tar. This may therefore be a good
+option to consider.
Note that if you are using tar with amanda, and getting errors about missing
exclude files (particularly on upgrades from older versions), then you may
priority low
}
+- - - - -
+
+If you see backups failing with an error like:
+
+ driver: FATAL flush line 1: syntax error (skipping != FLUSH)
+
+The problem may be that some versions of Amanda around 2.5.2 are not
+happy if there are unexpected contents in the holdingdisk you have
+defined on the server. This can occur, for example, if you are using
+the mount point of a separate filesystem that contains a lost+found
+directory. The quick fix is to create a subdirectory in that partition
+for Amanda to use that will have no such unexpected contents. For more
+info on this issue see:
+
+ http://forums.zmanda.com/archive/index.php/t-591.html
+
+- - - - -
+
+If you see things like this in dmesg:
+
+ INFO: task ammt:9839 blocked for more than 120 seconds.
+ "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
+
+This information from Marc Schaefer may relevant:
+
+> AFAIK it's because mtio operations are done in D state (uninterruptible
+> sleep).
+>
+> And except for mtio operations which may last more than two minutes,
+> nothing in the usual kernel operation will last that long.
+>
+> Solutions:
+> - either fix mtio to be interruptible (which may well cause problems
+> because e.g. SCSI reselection might happen later)
+> - use the proposed work-around
+> - ignore those messages in your logcheck.
+
projects / debian / amanda / blobdiff