--- /dev/null
+
+ amanda
+Prev Chapter 35. The AMANDA Manual Pages. Next
+
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Name
+
+amanda \14 Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver
+
+Synopsis
+
+amdump config
+amflush [-f ] config
+amcleanup config
+amrecover [config] [options]
+amrestore [options] tapedevice [ hostname [diskname]]
+amlabel config label [ slot slot ]
+amcheck [options] config
+amadmin config command [options]
+amtape config command [options]
+amverify config
+amrmtape [options] config label
+amstatus config [options]
+amoverview config [options]
+amplot [options] amdump-files
+amreport [config] [options]
+amtoc [options] logfile
+amcheckdb config
+amgetconf [config] parameter
+
+DESCRIPTION
+
+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 backup clients. Amdump backs up all disks in the
+ disklist file (discussed below) to tape or, if there is a problem, to a
+ special holding disk. 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 /usr/local/
+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 /usr/local/etc/amanda/normal/ and /usr/local/
+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. Comments may be placed
+on a line with a directive by starting the comment with a #. The remainder of
+the line is ignored.
+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).
+
+ Note
+
+ 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: daily. 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.
+
+ dumpcycle int
+ 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
+
+ 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.
+
+ runspercycle int
+ 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.
+
+ tapecycle int
+ Default: 15 tapes. Typically tapes are used by AMANDA in an ordered
+ rotation. The tapecycle 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 dumpcycle parameter).
+ This is calculated by multiplying the number of amdump runs per dump
+ cycle (runspercycle parameter) times the number of tapes used per run
+ (runtapes parameter). Typically two to four times this calculated number
+ of tapes are in rotation. While AMANDA is always willing to use a new
+ tape in its rotation, it refuses to reuse a tape until at least
+ 'tapecycle -1' number of other tapes have been used.
+ It is considered good administrative practice to set the tapecycle
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ 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-templ tapetype option.
+
+ tapedev string
+ Default: /dev/nst0. The path name of the non-rewinding tape device. Non-
+ rewinding tape device names often have an 'n' in the name, e.g. /dev/rmt/
+ 0mn, however this is operating system specific and you should consult
+ that documentation for detailed naming information.
+ If a tape changer is configured (see the tpchanger option), this option
+ might not be used.
+ If the null output driver is selected (see the OUTPUT_DRIVERS section
+ later for more information), programs such as amdump will run normally
+ but all images will be thrown away. This should only be used for
+ debugging and testing, 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.
+
+ runtapes int
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ maxdumpsize int
+ Default: runtapes*tape_length. Maximum number of bytes the planner will
+ schedule for a run.
+
+ taperalgo [first|firstfit|largest|largestfit|smallest|last]
+ Default: first. The algorithm used to choose which dump image to send to
+ the taper.
+
+
+ first
+ First in, first out.
+
+ firstfit
+ The first dump image that will fit on the current tape.
+
+ largest
+ The largest dump image.
+
+ largestfit
+ The largest dump image that will fit on the current tape.
+
+ smallest
+ The smallest dump image.
+
+ last
+ Last in, first out.
+
+
+ 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.
+
+ ctimeout int
+ Default: 30 seconds. Maximum amount of time that amcheck will wait for
+ each client host.
+
+ dtimeout int
+ 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.
+
+ etimeout int
+ 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 to wait per client instead
+ of per disk.
+
+ netusage int
+ Default: 300 Kbps. The maximum network bandwidth allocated to AMANDA, in
+ Kbytes per second. See also the interface section.
+
+ inparallel int
+ 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.
+
+ displayunit "k|m|g|t"
+ Default: "k". The unit used to print many numbers, k=kilo, m=mega,
+ g=giga, t=tera.
+
+ dumporder string
+ Default: tttTTTTTTT. The priority order of each dumper:
+
+ * s: smallest size
+ * S: largest size
+ * t: smallest time
+ * T: largest time
+ * b: smallest bandwidth
+ * B: largest bandwidth
+
+
+
+
+ maxdumps int
+ 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.
+
+
+
+ bumpsize int
+ 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.
+
+ bumpmult float
+ 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.
+
+ bumpdays int
+ Default: 2 days. 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.
+
+ reserve number
+ Default: 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.
+
+ autoflush bool
+ Default: off. Whether an amdump run will flush the dump already on
+ holding disk to tape.
+
+ amrecover_do_fsf bool
+ Default: off. Amrecover will call amrestore with the -f flag for faster
+ positioning of the tape.
+
+ amrecover_check_label bool
+ Default: off. Amrecover will call amrestore with the -l flag to check the
+ label.
+
+ amrecover_changer string
+ Default: ''. Amrecover will use the changer if you use 'settape <string>'
+ and that string is the same as the amrecover_changer setting.
+
+ 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:
+
+ o Compress (compression ratio)
+ o Disk (client disk name)
+ o DumpRate (dump rate in KBytes/sec)
+ o DumpTime (total dump time in hours:minutes)
+ o HostName (client host name)
+ o Level (dump level)
+ o OrigKB (original image size in KBytes)
+ o OutKB (output image size in KBytes)
+ o TapeRate (tape writing rate in KBytes/sec)
+ o 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.
+
+
+
+ includefile string
+ Default: none. The name of an AMANDA configuration file to include within
+ the current file. Useful for sharing dumptypes, tapetypes and interface
+ definitions among several configurations.
+
+
+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-option holdingdisk-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.
+
+ use int
+ 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.
+
+ chunksize int
+ 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-option dumptype-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.
+
+ comprate float [, 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.
+
+ dumpcycle int
+ 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|file ][[optional][ append ][ string ]+]
+ Default: file. There are two exclude lists, exclude file and exclude
+ list. With exclude file , the string is a GNU-tar exclude expression.
+ With exclude list , the string is a file name on the client containing
+ GNU-tar exclude expressions.
+ All exclude expressions are concatenated in one file and passed to GNU-
+ tar as an --exclude-from argument.
+ With the append keyword, the string is appended to the current list,
+ without it, the string overwrites the list.
+ If optional is specified for exclude list, then amcheck will not complain
+ if the file doesn't exist or is not readable.
+ For exclude list, 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 used 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.
+
+ include [ list|file ][[optional][ append ][ string ]+]
+ Default: file ".". There are two include lists, include file and include
+ list. With include file , the string is a glob expression. With include
+ list , the string is a file name on the client containing glob
+ expressions.
+ All include expressions are expanded by AMANDA, concatenated in one file
+ and passed to GNU-tar as a --files-from argument. They must start with
+ "./" and contain no other "/".
+ With the append keyword, the string is appended to the current list,
+ without it, the string overwrites the list.
+ If optional is specified for include list, then amcheck will not complain
+ if the file doesn't exist or is not readable.
+ For include list, If the file name is relative, the disk name being
+ backed up is prepended.
+
+ 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 parameter
+ inparallel.
+
+ maxpromoteday int
+ Default: 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.
+
+ 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 PC backups using Samba.
+
+ record boolean
+ Default: yes. Whether to ask the backup program to update its database
+ (e.g. /etc/dumpdates for DUMP or /usr/local/var/amanda/gnutar-lists for
+ GNUTAR) 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:
+
+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-option tapetype-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 (but see the OUTPUT_DRIVERS section later for exceptions).
+
+ blocksize int
+ Default: 32. 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
+ AMANDA was compiled with the configure option --with-maxtapeblocksize=N
+ set with "N" greater than 32 during configure.
+
+ file-pad boolean
+ Default: true. If true, every record, including the last one in the file,
+ will have the same length. This matches the way AMANDA wrote tapes prior
+ to the availability of this parameter. It may also be useful on devices
+ that only support a fixed blocksize.
+ Note that the last record on the tape probably includes trailing null
+ byte padding, which will be passed back to gzip, compress or the restore
+ program. Most programs just ignore this (although possibly with a
+ warning).
+ 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.
+
+ speed int
+ Default: 200 bps. 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 {
+ DLT4000-III
+ comment "DLT4000 tape drives with Compact-IV tapes"
+ 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-option interface-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:
+
+ hostname diskname [diskdevice] dumptype [spindle [interface] ]
+
+All pairs [ hostname diskname ] must be unique.
+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.
+
+ diskname
+ The name of the disk (a label). In most case, you set your diskname to
+ the diskdevice and you don't set the diskdevice. If you want multiple
+ entries with the same diskdevice, you must set a different diskname for
+ each entry. It's the diskname that you use on the commandline for any
+ AMANDA command. Look at the example/disklist file for example.
+
+ diskdevice
+ Default: same as diskname. 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 diskname [ 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.
+
+OUTPUT DRIVERS
+
+The normal value for the tapedev parameter, or for what a tape changer returns,
+is a full path name to a non-rewinding tape device, such as /dev/nst0 or /dev/
+rmt/0mn or /dev/nst0.1 or whatever conventions the operating system uses.
+AMANDA provides additional application level drivers that support non-
+traditional tape-simulations or features. To access a specific output driver,
+set tapedev (or configure your changer to return) a string of the form driver:
+driver-info where driver is one of the supported drivers and driver-info is
+optional additional information needed by the driver.
+The supported drivers are:
+
+
+ tape
+ This is the default driver. The driver-info is the tape device name.
+ Entering
+
+ tapedev /dev/rmt/0mn
+
+ is really a short hand for
+
+ tapedev tape:/dev/rmt/0mn
+
+ .
+
+ null
+ This driver throws away anything written to it and returns EOF for any
+ reads except a special case is made for reading a label, in which case a
+ "fake" value is returned that AMANDA checks for and allows through
+ regardless of what you have set in labelstr. The driver-info field is not
+ used and may be left blank:
+
+ tapedev null:
+
+ The length value from the associated tapetype is used to limit the amount
+ of data written. When the limit is reached, the driver will simulate end
+ of tape.
+
+ Note
+
+ This driver should only be used for debugging and testing, and probably
+ only with the record option set to no.
+
+ rait
+ Redundant Array of Inexpensive (?) Tapes. Reads and writes tapes mounted
+ on multiple drives by spreading the data across N-1 drives and using the
+ last drive for a checksum. See docs/RAIT for more information.
+ The driver-info field describes the devices to use. Curly braces indicate
+ multiple replacements in the string. For instance:
+
+ tapedev rait:/dev/rmt/tps0d{4,5,6}n
+
+ would use the following devices:
+ /dev/rmt/tps0d4n /dev/rmt/tps0d5n /dev/rmt/tps0d6n
+
+
+
+ file
+ This driver emulates a tape device with a set of files in a directory.
+ The driver-info field must be the name of an existing directory. The
+ driver will test for a subdirectory of that named data and return offline
+ until it is present. When present, the driver uses two files in the data
+ subdirectory for each tape file. One contains the actual data. The other
+ contains record length information.
+ The driver uses a file named status in the file device directory to hold
+ driver status information, such as tape position. If not present, the
+ driver will create it as though the device is rewound.
+ The length value from the associated tapetype is used to limit the amount
+ of data written. When the limit is reached, the driver will simulate end
+ of tape.
+ One way to use this driver with a real device such as a CD-writer is to
+ create a directory for the file device and one or more other directories
+ for the actual data. Create a symlink named data in the file directory to
+ one of the data directories. Set the tapetype length to whatever the
+ medium will hold.
+ When AMANDA fills the file device, remove the symlink and (optionally)
+ create a new symlink to another data area. Use a CD writer software
+ package to burn the image from the first data area.
+ To read the CD, mount it and create the data symlink in the file device
+ directory.
+
+
+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 .rhosts file.
+
+ .amandahosts
+ This is essentially the same as .rhosts authentication except a different
+ file, with almost the same format, is used. This is the default mechanism
+ built into AMANDA.
+ The format of the .amandahosts file is:
+ hostname [ username ]
+ If username is ommitted, it defaults to the user running amandad, i.e.
+ the user listed in the inetd or xinetd configuration file.
+
+ 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:
+
+ //some-pc/home normalpw
+ //another-pc/disk otheruser%otherpw
+
+ With clear text passwords, this file should obviously be tightly
+ protected. It only needs to be readable by the AMANDA-user on the Samba
+ server.
+ You can find further information in the docs/SAMBA file that comes with
+ an AMANDA distribution.
+
+
+HOST & DISK EXPRESSION
+
+All host and disk arguments to programs are special expressions. The command
+applies to all disks that match your arguments. This section describes the
+matcher.
+The matcher matches by word, each word is a glob expression, words are
+separated by the separator '.' for host and '/' for disk. You can anchor the
+expression at left with a '^'. You can anchor the expression at right with a
+'$'. The matcher is case insensitive for host but is case sensitive for disk. A
+match succeeds if all words in your expression match contiguous words in the
+host or disk.
+
+ . word separator for a host
+ / word separator for a disk
+ ^ anchor at left
+ $ anchor at right
+ ? match exactly one character except the separator
+ * match zero or more characters except the separator
+ ** match zero or more characters including the separator
+
+Some examples:
+
+ EXPRESSION WILL MATCH WILL NOT MATCH
+ hosta hosta hostb
+ hoSTA.dOMAIna.ORG
+ foo.hosta.org
+ host host hosta
+ host? hosta host
+ hostb
+ ho*na hoina ho.aina.org
+ ho**na hoina
+ ho.aina.org
+ ^hosta hosta foo.hosta.org
+ sda* /dev/sda1
+ /dev/sda12
+ /opt/ opt (disk) opt (host)
+ .opt. opt (host) opt (disk)
+ / / any other disk
+ /usr /usr
+ /usr/opt
+ /usr$ /usr /usr/opt
+
+
+DATESTAMP EXPRESSION
+
+A datestamp expression is a range expression where we only match the prefix.
+Leading ^ is removed. Trailing $ forces an exact match.
+
+ 20001212-14 match all dates beginning with 20001212, 20001213 or 20001214
+ 20001212-4 same as previous
+ 20001212-24 match all dates between 20001212 and 20001224
+ 2000121 match all dates that start with 2000121 (20001210-20001219)
+ 2 match all dates that start with 2 (20000101-29991231)
+ 2000-10 match all dates between 20000101-20101231
+ 200010$ match only 200010
+
+
+AUTHOR
+
+James da Silva, <jds@amanda.org> : Original text
+Stefan G. Weichinger, <sgw@amanda.org>, maintainer of the AMANDA-documentation:
+XML-conversion,major update
+
+SEE ALSO
+
+amadmin(8), amcheck(8), amcheckdb(8), amcleanup(8), amdd(8), amdump(8), amflush
+(8), amgetconf(8), amlabel(8), ammt(8), amoverview(8), amplot(8), amrecover(8),
+amreport(8), amrestore(8), amrmtape(8), amstatus(8), amtape(8), amtoc(8),
+amverify(8), amverifyrun(8)
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Prev Up Next
+amadmin Home amcheck
+
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