-
- amanda.conf
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-
-Name
-
-amanda.conf \14 Main configuration file for Amanda, the Advanced Maryland
-Automatic Network Disk Archiver
-
-DESCRIPTION
-
-amanda.conf is the main configuration file for Amanda. This manpage lists the
-relevant sections and parameters of this file for quick reference.
-
-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:
-
-POSSIBLE SUFFIXES
-
-
-
- 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.
-
-
-PARAMETERS
-
-
-
- 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.
- bsd, bsd authorization with udp initial connection and one tcp connection
- by data stream.
- bsdtcp, bsd authorization but use only one tcp connection.
- bsdudp, like bsd, but will use only one tcp connection for all data
- stream.
- krb4 to use Kerberos-IV authorization.
- krb5 to use Kerberos-V authorization.
- rsh to use rsh authorization.
- ssh to use OpenSSH authorization.
-
- amandad_path string
- Default: $libexec/amandad. Specify the amandad path of the client, only
- use with rsh/ssh authentification.
-
- client_username string
- Default: CLIENT_LOGIN. Specify the username to connect on the client,
- only use with rsh/ssh authentification.
-
- bumpsize int
- Default: 10 Mbytes. The minimum savings required to trigger an automatic
- bump from one incremental level to the next, expressed as size. If Amanda
- 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 bumppercent is set to 0.
- See also the options bumppercent, bumpmult and bumpdays.
-
- bumppercent int
- Default: 0 percent. 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 Amanda
- determines that the next higher backup level will be this much smaller
- than the current level, it will do the next level.
- If this parameter is set to 0, the value of the parameter bumpsize is
- used to trigger bumping.
- See also the options bumpsize, bumpmult and bumpdays.
-
- 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.
-
- 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 three
- 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. Or to specify Custom to use your own
- compression method. (See dumptype custom-compress in example/amanda.conf
- for reference)
- So the compress options line may be one of:
-
- * compress none
- * compress [client] fast
- * compress [client] best
- * compress client custom
- Specify client_custom_compress "PROG"
- PROG must not contain white space and it must accept -d for uncompress.
- * compress server fast
- * compress server best
- * compress server custom
- Specify server_custom_compress "PROG"
- PROG must not contain white space and it must accept -d for uncompress.
-
- 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 of ten. Setting
- this to zero tries to do a full backup each run.
-
- encrypt [none|client|server]
- Default: none. 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.
- So the encrypt options line may be one of:
-
- * encrypt none
- * encrypt client
- Specify client_encrypt "PROG"
- PROG must not contain white space.
- Specify client_decrypt_option "decryption-parameter" Default: "-d"
- decryption-parameter must not contain white space.
- (See dumptype server-encrypt-fast in example/amanda.conf for reference)
- * encrypt server
- Specify server_encrypt "PROG"
- PROG must not contain white space.
- Specify server_decrypt_option "decryption-parameter" Default: "-d"
- decryption-parameter must not contain white space.
- (See dumptype client-encrypt-nocomp in example/amanda.conf for
- reference)
-
-
- estimate client|calcsize|server
- Default: client. Determine the way Amanda does it's estimate.
-
- * client:
- Use the same program as the dumping program, this is the most accurate
- way to do estimates, but it can take a long time.
- * calcsize:
- Use a faster program to do estimates, but the result is less accurate.
- * server:
- 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.
-
-
- 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. The path to the specified exclude list file,
- if present (see description of 'optional' below), must be readable by the
- Amanda user.
- All exclude expressions are concatenated in one file and passed to GNU-
- tar as an --exclude-from argument.
- Exclude expressions must always be specified as relative to the head
- directory of the DLE.
- 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 "/".
- Include expressions must always be specified as relative to the head
- directory of the DLE.
-
- Note
-
- For globbing to work at all, even the limited single level, the top level
- directory of the DLE must be readable by the Amanda user.
- 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:
-
-
- standard
- The standard Amanda schedule.
-
- nofull
- Never do full backups, only level 1 incrementals.
-
- noinc
- Never do incremental backups, only full dumps.
-
- skip
- Never do backups (useful when sharing the disklist file).
-
- incronly
- Only do incremental dumps. amadmin force should be used to tell
- Amanda that a full dump has been performed off-line, so that it
- resets to level 1. It is similar to skip-full, but with incronly
- full dumps may be scheduled manually. Unfortunately, it appears
- that Amanda will perform full backups with this configuration,
- which is probably a bug.
-
-
- tape_splitsize int
- Default: none. 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.
-
- split_diskbuffer string
- Default: none. 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.
-
- fallback_splitsize int
- Default: 10M. 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.
-
-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 section OUTPUT DRIVERS in the amanda(8) manpage 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.
-
-AUTHOR
-
-James da Silva, <jds@amanda.org>: Original text
-Stefan G. Weichinger, <sgw@amanda.org>, maintainer of the Amanda-documentation:
-XML-conversion, major update, splitting
-
-SEE ALSO
-
-amanda(8), amanda-client.conf(5), amcrypt(8), aespipe(1),
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