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9 amanda
\14 Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver
16 amrecover [config] [options]
17 amrestore [options] tapedevice [ hostname [diskname]]
18 amlabel config label [ slot slot ]
19 amcheck [options] config
20 amadmin config command [options]
21 amtape config command [options]
23 amrmtape [options] config label
24 amstatus config [options]
25 amoverview config [options]
26 amplot [options] amdump-files
27 amreport [config] [options]
28 amtoc [options] logfile
30 amgetconf [config] parameter
34 AMANDA is the "Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver". This manual
35 page gives an overview of the AMANDA commands and configuration files for quick
37 Here are all the AMANDA commands. Each one has its own manual page. See them
38 for all the gory details.
42 Take care of automatic AMANDA backups. This is normally executed by cron
43 on a computer called the tape server host and requests backups of file
44 systems located on backup clients. Amdump backs up all disks in the
45 disklist file (discussed below) to tape or, if there is a problem, to a
46 special holding disk. After all backups are done, amdump sends mail
47 reporting failures and successes.
50 Flush backups from the holding disk to tape. Amflush is used after amdump
51 has reported it could not write backups to tape for some reason. When
52 this happens, backups stay in the holding disk. Run amflush after the
53 tape problem is corrected to write backups from the holding disk to tape.
56 Clean up after an interrupted amdump. This command is only needed if
57 amdump was unable to complete for some reason, usually because the tape
58 server host crashed while amdump was running.
61 Provides an interactive interface to browse the AMANDA index files
62 (backup image catalogues) and select which tapes to recover files from.
63 It can also run amrestore and a restore program (e.g. tar) to actually
67 Read an AMANDA tape, searching for requested backups. Amrestore is
68 suitable for everything from interactive restores of single files to a
69 full restore of all partitions on a failed disk.
72 Write an AMANDA format label onto a tape. All AMANDA tapes must be
73 labeled with amlabel. Amdump and amflush will not write to an unlabeled
74 tape (see TAPE MANAGEMENT below).
77 Verify the correct tape is mounted and all file systems on all backup
78 client systems are ready to be backed up. Often run by cron before amdump
79 to generate a mail warning that backups might fail unless corrective
83 Take care of administrative tasks like finding out which tapes are needed
84 to restore a filesystem, forcing hosts to do full backups of selected
85 disks and looking at schedule balance information.
88 Take care of tape changer control operations like loading particular
89 tapes, ejecting tapes and scanning the tape storage slots.
92 Check AMANDA backup tapes for errors.
95 Delete a tape from the AMANDA databases.
98 Report the status of a running or completed amdump.
101 Display a chart of hosts and file systems backed up every run.
104 Generate utilization plots of AMANDA runs for performance tuning.
107 Generate an AMANDA summary E-mail report.
110 Generate table of content files for AMANDA tapes.
113 Verify every tape AMANDA knows about is consistent in the database.
116 Look up parameters in the AMANDA configuration file.
121 There are three user-editable files that control the behavior of AMANDA. The
122 first is amanda.conf, the main configuration file. It contains parameters to
123 customize AMANDA for the site. Second is the disklist file, which lists hosts
124 and disk partitions to back up. Third is the tapelist file, which lists tapes
125 that are currently active. These files are described in more detail in the
127 All files are stored in individual configuration directories under /usr/local/
128 etc/amanda/. A site will often have more than one configuration. For example,
129 it might have a normal configuration for everyday backups and an archive
130 configuration for infrequent full archival backups. The configuration files
131 would be stored under directories /usr/local/etc/amanda/normal/ and /usr/local/
132 etc/amanda/archive/, respectively. Part of the job of an AMANDA administrator
133 is to create, populate and maintain these directories.
134 All log and database files generated by AMANDA go in corresponding directories
135 somewhere. The exact location is controlled by entries in amanda.conf. A
136 typical location would be under /var/adm/amanda. For the above example, the
137 files might go in /var/adm/amanda/normal/ and /var/adm/amanda/archive/.
138 As log files are no longer needed (no longer contain relevant information),
139 AMANDA cycles them out in various ways, depending on the type of file.
140 Detailed information about amdump runs are stored in files named amdump.NN
141 where NN is a sequence number, with 1 being the most recent file. Amdump
142 rotates these files each run, keeping roughly the last tapecycle (see below)
144 The file used by amreport to generate the mail summary is named log.YYYYMMDD.NN
145 where YYYYMMDD is the datestamp of the start of the amdump run and NN is a
146 sequence number started at 0. At the end of each amdump run, log files for runs
147 whose tapes have been reused are renamed into a subdirectory of the main log
148 directory (see the logdir parameter below) named oldlog. It is up to the AMANDA
149 administrator to remove them from this directory when desired.
150 Index (backup image catalogue) files older than the full dump matching the
151 oldest backup image for a given client and disk are removed by amdump at the
154 CONFIG FILE PARAMETERS
156 There are a number of configuration parameters that control the behavior of the
157 AMANDA programs. All have default values, so you need not specify the parameter
158 in amanda.conf if the default is suitable.
159 Lines starting with # are ignored, as are blank lines. Comments may be placed
160 on a line with a directive by starting the comment with a #. The remainder of
162 Keywords are case insensitive, i.e. mailto and MailTo are treated the same.
163 Integer arguments may have one of the following (case insensitive) suffixes,
164 some of which have a multiplier effect:
168 Some number of bytes.
171 Some number of bytes per second.
173 k kb kbyte kbytes kilobyte kilobytes
174 Some number of kilobytes (bytes*1024).
177 Some number of kilobytes per second (bytes*1024).
179 m mb meg mbyte mbytes megabyte megabytes
180 Some number of megabytes (bytes*1024*1024).
183 Some number of megabytes per second (bytes*1024*1024).
185 g gb gbyte gbytes gigabyte gigabytes
186 Some number of gigabytes (bytes*1024*1024*1024).
189 Some number of tapes.
195 Some number of weeks (days*7).
199 The value inf may be used in most places where an integer is expected to
200 mean an infinite amount.
201 Boolean arguments may have any of the values y, yes, t, true or on to
202 indicate a true state, or n, no, f, false or off to indicate a false
203 state. If no argument is given, true is assumed.
208 Default: daily. A descriptive name for the configuration. This string
209 appears in the Subject line of mail reports. Each AMANDA configuration
210 should have a different string to keep mail reports distinct.
213 Default: operators. A space separated list of recipients for mail
217 Default: 10 days. The number of days in the backup cycle. Each disk will
218 get a full backup at least this often. Setting this to zero tries to do a
219 full backup each run.
223 This parameter may also be set in a specific dumptype (see below). This
224 value sets the default for all dumptypes so must appear in amanda.conf
225 before any dumptypes are defined.
228 Default: same as dumpcycle. The number of amdump runs in dumpcycle days.
229 A value of 0 means the same value as dumpcycle. A value of -1 means guess
230 the number of runs from the tapelist file, which is the number of tapes
231 used in the last dumpcycle days / runtapes.
234 Default: 15 tapes. Typically tapes are used by AMANDA in an ordered
235 rotation. The tapecycle parameter defines the size of that rotation. The
236 number of tapes in rotation must be larger than the number of tapes
237 required for a complete dump cycle (see the dumpcycle parameter).
238 This is calculated by multiplying the number of amdump runs per dump
239 cycle (runspercycle parameter) times the number of tapes used per run
240 (runtapes parameter). Typically two to four times this calculated number
241 of tapes are in rotation. While AMANDA is always willing to use a new
242 tape in its rotation, it refuses to reuse a tape until at least
243 'tapecycle -1' number of other tapes have been used.
244 It is considered good administrative practice to set the tapecycle
245 parameter slightly lower than the actual number of tapes in rotation.
246 This allows the administrator to more easily cope with damaged or
247 misplaced tapes or schedule adjustments that call for slight adjustments
248 in the rotation order.
253 Default: amanda. The login name AMANDA uses to run the backups. The
254 backup client hosts must allow access from the tape server host as this
255 user via .rhosts or .amandahosts, depending on how the AMANDA software
259 Printer to use when doing tape labels. See the lbl-templ tapetype option.
262 Default: /dev/nst0. The path name of the non-rewinding tape device. Non-
263 rewinding tape device names often have an 'n' in the name, e.g. /dev/rmt/
264 0mn, however this is operating system specific and you should consult
265 that documentation for detailed naming information.
266 If a tape changer is configured (see the tpchanger option), this option
268 If the null output driver is selected (see the OUTPUT_DRIVERS section
269 later for more information), programs such as amdump will run normally
270 but all images will be thrown away. This should only be used for
271 debugging and testing, and probably only with the record option set to
275 Default: /dev/null. The path name of the raw tape device. This is only
276 used if AMANDA is compiled for Linux machines with floppy tapes and is
277 needed for QIC volume table operations.
280 Default: none. The name of the tape changer. If a tape changer is not
281 configured, this option is not used and should be commented out of the
283 If a tape changer is configured, choose one of the changer scripts (e.g.
284 chg-scsi) and enter that here.
289 Default: /dev/null. A tape changer configuration parameter. Usage depends
290 on the particular changer defined with the tpchanger option.
293 Default: /usr/adm/amanda/log/changer-status. A tape changer configuration
294 parameter. Usage depends on the particular changer defined with the
298 Default: 1. The maximum number of tapes used in a single run. If a tape
299 changer is not configured, this option is not used and should be
300 commented out of the configuration file.
301 If a tape changer is configured, this may be set larger than one to let
302 AMANDA write to more than one tape.
303 Note that this is an upper bound on the number of tapes, and AMANDA may
305 Also note that as of this release, AMANDA does not support true tape
306 overflow. When it reaches the end of one tape, the backup image AMANDA
307 was processing starts over again on the next tape.
312 Default: runtapes*tape_length. Maximum number of bytes the planner will
315 taperalgo [first|firstfit|largest|largestfit|smallest|last]
316 Default: first. The algorithm used to choose which dump image to send to
324 The first dump image that will fit on the current tape.
327 The largest dump image.
330 The largest dump image that will fit on the current tape.
333 The smallest dump image.
340 Default: .*. The tape label constraint regular expression. All tape
341 labels generated (see amlabel(8)) and used by this configuration must
342 match the regular expression. If multiple configurations are run from the
343 same tape server host, it is helpful to set their labels to different
344 strings (for example, "DAILY[0-9][0-9]*" vs. "ARCHIVE[0-9][0-9]*") to
345 avoid overwriting each other's tapes.
348 Default: EXABYTE. The type of tape drive associated with tapedev or
349 tpchanger. This refers to one of the defined tapetypes in the config file
350 (see below), which specify various tape parameters, like the length,
351 filemark size, and speed of the tape media and device.
354 Default: 30 seconds. Maximum amount of time that amcheck will wait for
358 Default: 1800 seconds. Amount of idle time per disk on a given client
359 that a dumper running from within amdump will wait before it fails with a
363 Default: 300 seconds. Amount of time per disk on a given client that the
364 planner step of amdump will wait to get the dump size estimates. For
365 instance, with the default of 300 seconds and four disks on client A,
366 planner will wait up to 20 minutes for that machine. A negative value
367 will be interpreted as a total amount of time to wait per client instead
371 Default: 300 Kbps. The maximum network bandwidth allocated to AMANDA, in
372 Kbytes per second. See also the interface section.
375 Default: 10. The maximum number of backups that AMANDA will attempt to
376 run in parallel. AMANDA will stay within the constraints of network
377 bandwidth and holding disk space available, so it doesn't hurt to set
378 this number a bit high. Some contention can occur with larger numbers of
379 backups, but this effect is relatively small on most systems.
381 displayunit "k|m|g|t"
382 Default: "k". The unit used to print many numbers, k=kilo, m=mega,
386 Default: tttTTTTTTT. The priority order of each dumper:
392 * b: smallest bandwidth
393 * B: largest bandwidth
399 Default: 1. The maximum number of backups from a single host that AMANDA
400 will attempt to run in parallel. See also the inparallel option.
401 Note that this parameter may also be set in a specific dumptype (see
402 below). This value sets the default for all dumptypes so must appear in
403 amanda.conf before any dumptypes are defined.
408 Default: 10 Mbytes. The minimum savings required to trigger an automatic
409 bump from one incremental level to the next. If AMANDA determines that
410 the next higher backup level will be this much smaller than the current
411 level, it will do the next level. See also the bumpmult option.
414 Default: 1.5. The bump size multiplier. AMANDA multiplies bumpsize by
415 this factor for each level. This prevents active filesystems from bumping
416 too much by making it harder to bump to the next level. For example, with
417 the default bumpsize and bumpmult set to 2.0, the bump threshold will be
418 10 Mbytes for level one, 20 Mbytes for level two, 40 Mbytes for level
422 Default: 2 days. To insure redundancy in the dumps, AMANDA keeps
423 filesystems at the same incremental level for at least bumpdays days,
424 even if the other bump threshold criteria are met.
427 Default: disklist. The file name for the disklist file holding client
428 hosts, disks and other client dumping information.
431 Default: /usr/adm/amanda/curinfo. The file or directory name for the
432 historical information database. If AMANDA was configured to use DBM
433 databases, this is the base file name for them. If it was configured to
434 use text formated databases (the default), this is the base directory and
435 within here will be a directory per client, then a directory per disk,
436 then a text file of data.
439 Default: /usr/adm/amanda. The directory for the amdump and log files.
442 Default /usr/adm/amanda/index. The directory where index files (backup
443 image catalogues) are stored. Index files are only generated for
444 filesystems whose dumptype has the index option enabled.
447 Default: tapelist. The file name for the active tapelist file. AMANDA
448 maintains this file with information about the active set of tapes.
451 Default: 20. The number of buffers used by the taper process run by
452 amdump and amflush to hold data as it is read from the network or disk
453 before it is written to tape. Each buffer is a little larger than 32
454 KBytes and is held in a shared memory region.
457 Default: 100. The part of holding-disk space that should be reserved for
458 incremental backups if no tape is available, expressed as a percentage of
459 the available holding-disk space (0-100). By default, when there is no
460 tape to write to, degraded mode (incremental) backups will be performed
461 to the holding disk. If full backups should also be allowed in this case,
462 the amount of holding disk space reserved for incrementals should be
466 Default: off. Whether an amdump run will flush the dump already on
467 holding disk to tape.
469 amrecover_do_fsf bool
470 Default: off. Amrecover will call amrestore with the -f flag for faster
471 positioning of the tape.
473 amrecover_check_label bool
474 Default: off. Amrecover will call amrestore with the -l flag to check the
477 amrecover_changer string
478 Default: ''. Amrecover will use the changer if you use 'settape <string>'
479 and that string is the same as the amrecover_changer setting.
482 Defines the width of columns amreport should use. String is a comma (',')
483 separated list of triples. Each triple consists of three parts which are
484 separated by a equal sign ('=') and a colon (':') (see the example).
485 These three parts specify:
487 * the name of the column, which may be:
489 o Compress (compression ratio)
490 o Disk (client disk name)
491 o DumpRate (dump rate in KBytes/sec)
492 o DumpTime (total dump time in hours:minutes)
493 o HostName (client host name)
495 o OrigKB (original image size in KBytes)
496 o OutKB (output image size in KBytes)
497 o TapeRate (tape writing rate in KBytes/sec)
498 o TapeTime (total tape time in hours:minutes)
500 * the amount of space to display before the column (used to get
501 whitespace between columns).
502 * the width of the column itself. If set to a negative value, the width
503 will be calculated on demand to fit the largest entry in this column.
507 columnspec "Disk=1:18,HostName=0:10,OutKB=1:7"
509 The above will display the disk information in 18 characters and put one
510 space before it. The hostname column will be 10 characters wide with no
511 space to the left. The output KBytes column is seven characters wide with
517 Default: none. The name of an AMANDA configuration file to include within
518 the current file. Useful for sharing dumptypes, tapetypes and interface
519 definitions among several configurations.
524 The amanda.conf file may define one or more holding disks used as buffers to
525 hold backup images before they are written to tape. The syntax is:
528 holdingdisk-option holdingdisk-value
532 Name is a logical name for this holding disk.
533 The options and values are:
537 Default: none. A comment string describing this holding disk.
540 Default: /dumps/amanda. The path to this holding area.
543 Default: 0 Gb. Amount of space that can be used in this holding disk
544 area. If the value is zero, all available space on the file system is
545 used. If the value is negative, AMANDA will use all available space minus
549 Default: 1 Gb. Holding disk chunk size. Dumps larger than the specified
550 size will be stored in multiple holding disk files. The size of each
551 chunk will not exceed the specified value. However, even though dump
552 images are split in the holding disk, they are concatenated as they are
553 written to tape, so each dump image still corresponds to a single
554 continuous tape section.
555 If 0 is specified, AMANDA will create holding disk chunks as large as (
556 (INT_MAX/1024)-64) Kbytes.
557 Each holding disk chunk includes a 32 Kbyte header, so the minimum chunk
558 size is 64 Kbytes (but that would be really silly).
559 Operating systems that are limited to a maximum file size of 2 Gbytes
560 actually cannot handle files that large. They must be at least one byte
561 less than 2 Gbytes. Since AMANDA works with 32 Kbyte blocks, and to
562 handle the final read at the end of the chunk, the chunk size should be
563 at least 64 Kbytes (2 * 32 Kbytes) smaller than the maximum file size,
569 The amanda.conf file may define multiple sets of backup options and refer to
570 them by name from the disklist file. For instance, one set of options might be
571 defined for file systems that can benefit from high compression, another set
572 that does not compress well, another set for file systems that should always
573 get a full backup and so on.
574 A set of backup options are entered in a dumptype section, which looks like
577 define dumptype name {
578 dumptype-option dumptype-value
582 Name is the name of this set of backup options. It is referenced from the
584 Some of the options in a dumptype section are the same as those in the main
585 part of amanda.conf. The main option value is used to set the default for all
586 dumptype sections. For instance, setting dumpcycle to 50 in the main part of
587 the config file causes all following dumptype sections to start with that
588 value, but the value may be changed on a section by section basis. Changes to
589 variables in the main part of the config file must be done before (earlier in
590 the file) any dumptypes are defined.
591 The dumptype options and values are:
595 Default: bsd. Type of authorization to perform between tape server and
596 backup client hosts. May be krb4 to use Kerberos-IV authorization.
599 Default: none. A comment string describing this set of backup options.
601 comprate float [, float ]
602 Default: 0.50, 0.50. The expected full and incremental compression factor
603 for dumps. It is only used if AMANDA does not have any history
604 information on compression rates for a filesystem, so should not usually
605 need to be set. However, it may be useful for the first time a very large
606 filesystem that compresses very little is backed up.
608 compress [client|server] string
609 Default: client fast. If AMANDA does compression of the backup images, it
610 can do so either on the backup client host before it crosses the network
611 or on the tape server host as it goes from the network into the holding
612 disk or to tape. Which place to do compression (if at all) depends on how
613 well the dump image usually compresses, the speed and load on the client
614 or server, network capacity, holding disk capacity, availability of tape
615 hardware compression, etc.
616 For either type of compression, AMANDA also allows the selection of two
617 styles of compression. Best is the best compression available, often at
618 the expense of CPU overhead. Fast is often not as good a compression as
619 best, but usually less CPU overhead.
620 So the compress options line may be one of:
623 * compress [client] fast
624 * compress [client] best
625 * compress server fast
626 * compress server best
628 Note that some tape devices do compression and this option has nothing to
629 do with whether that is used. If hardware compression is used (usually
630 via a particular tape device name or mt option), AMANDA (software)
631 compression should be disabled.
634 Default: 10 days. The number of days in the backup cycle. Each disk using
635 this set of options will get a full backup at least this often. Setting
636 this to zero tries to do a full backup each run.
638 exclude [ list|file ][[optional][ append ][ string ]+]
639 Default: file. There are two exclude lists, exclude file and exclude
640 list. With exclude file , the string is a GNU-tar exclude expression.
641 With exclude list , the string is a file name on the client containing
642 GNU-tar exclude expressions.
643 All exclude expressions are concatenated in one file and passed to GNU-
644 tar as an --exclude-from argument.
645 With the append keyword, the string is appended to the current list,
646 without it, the string overwrites the list.
647 If optional is specified for exclude list, then amcheck will not complain
648 if the file doesn't exist or is not readable.
649 For exclude list, if the file name is relative, the disk name being
650 backed up is prepended. So if this is entered:
652 exclude list ".amanda.excludes"
654 the actual file used would be /var/.amanda.excludes for a backup of /var,
655 /usr/local/.amanda.excludes for a backup of /usr/local, and so on.
658 Default: yes. Whether a holding disk should be used for these backups or
659 whether they should go directly to tape. If the holding disk is a portion
660 of another file system that AMANDA is backing up, that file system should
661 refer to a dumptype with holdingdisk set to no to avoid backing up the
662 holding disk into itself.
665 Default: no. Whether disks associated with this backup type should be
666 backed up or not. This option is useful when the disklist file is shared
667 among several configurations, some of which should not back up all the
670 include [ list|file ][[optional][ append ][ string ]+]
671 Default: file ".". There are two include lists, include file and include
672 list. With include file , the string is a glob expression. With include
673 list , the string is a file name on the client containing glob
675 All include expressions are expanded by AMANDA, concatenated in one file
676 and passed to GNU-tar as a --files-from argument. They must start with
677 "./" and contain no other "/".
678 With the append keyword, the string is appended to the current list,
679 without it, the string overwrites the list.
680 If optional is specified for include list, then amcheck will not complain
681 if the file doesn't exist or is not readable.
682 For include list, If the file name is relative, the disk name being
683 backed up is prepended.
686 Default: no. Whether an index (catalogue) of the backup should be
687 generated and saved in indexdir. These catalogues are used by the
691 Default: no. Whether the backup image should be encrypted by Kerberos as
692 it is sent across the network from the backup client host to the tape
696 Default: 1. The maximum number of backups from a single host that AMANDA
697 will attempt to run in parallel. See also the main section parameter
701 Default: 10000. The maximum number of day for a promotion, set it 0 if
702 you don't want promotion, set it to 1 or 2 if your disks get
706 Default: medium. When there is no tape to write to, AMANDA will do
707 incremental backups in priority order to the holding disk. The priority
708 may be high (2). medium (1), low (0) or a number of your choice.
711 Default: DUMP. The type of backup to perform. Valid values are DUMP for
712 the native operating system backup program, and GNUTAR to use GNU-tar or
713 to do PC backups using Samba.
716 Default: yes. Whether to ask the backup program to update its database
717 (e.g. /etc/dumpdates for DUMP or /usr/local/var/amanda/gnutar-lists for
718 GNUTAR) of time stamps. This is normally enabled for daily backups and
719 turned off for periodic archival runs.
722 Default: no. If true and planner has scheduled a full backup, these disks
723 will be skipped, and full backups should be run off-line on these days.
724 It was reported that AMANDA only schedules level 1 incrementals in this
725 configuration; this is probably a bug.
728 Default: no. If true and planner has scheduled an incremental backup,
729 these disks will be skipped.
732 Default: none. Backups will not start until after this time of day. The
733 value should be hh*100+mm, e.g. 6:30PM (18:30) would be entered as 1830.
736 Default: standard. Strategy to use when planning what level of backup to
737 run next. Values are:
739 The following dumptype entries are predefined by AMANDA:
741 define dumptype no-compress {
744 define dumptype compress-fast {
747 define dumptype compress-best {
750 define dumptype srvcompress {
753 define dumptype bsd-auth {
756 define dumptype krb4-auth {
759 define dumptype no-record {
762 define dumptype no-hold {
765 define dumptype no-full {
769 In addition to options in a dumptype section, one or more other dumptype names
770 may be entered, which make this dumptype inherit options from other previously
771 defined dumptypes. For instance, two sections might be the same except for the
774 define dumptype normal {
775 comment "Normal backup, no compression, do indexing"
780 define dumptype testing {
781 comment "Test backup, no compression, do indexing, no recording"
786 AMANDA provides a dumptype named global in the sample amanda.conf file that all
787 dumptypes should reference. This provides an easy place to make changes that
788 will affect every dumptype.
792 The amanda.conf file may define multiple types of tape media and devices. The
793 information is entered in a tapetype section, which looks like this in the
796 define tapetype name {
797 tapetype-option tapetype-value
801 Name is the name of this type of tape medium/device. It is referenced from the
802 tapetype option in the main part of the config file.
803 The tapetype options and values are:
807 Default: none. A comment string describing this set of tape information.
810 Default: 1000 bytes. How large a file mark (tape mark) is, measured in
811 bytes. If the size is only known in some linear measurement (e.g.
812 inches), convert it to bytes using the device density.
815 Default: 2000 kbytes. How much data will fit on a tape.
816 Note that this value is only used by AMANDA to schedule which backups
817 will be run. Once the backups start, AMANDA will continue to write to a
818 tape until it gets an error, regardless of what value is entered for
819 length (but see the OUTPUT_DRIVERS section later for exceptions).
822 Default: 32. How much data will be written in each tape record expressed
823 in KiloBytes. The tape record size (= blocksize) can not be reduced below
824 the default 32 KBytes. The parameter blocksize can only be raised if
825 AMANDA was compiled with the configure option --with-maxtapeblocksize=N
826 set with "N" greater than 32 during configure.
829 Default: true. If true, every record, including the last one in the file,
830 will have the same length. This matches the way AMANDA wrote tapes prior
831 to the availability of this parameter. It may also be useful on devices
832 that only support a fixed blocksize.
833 Note that the last record on the tape probably includes trailing null
834 byte padding, which will be passed back to gzip, compress or the restore
835 program. Most programs just ignore this (although possibly with a
837 If this parameter is false, the last record in a file may be shorter than
838 the block size. The file will contain the same amount of data the dump
839 program generated, without trailing null byte padding. When read, the
840 same amount of data that was written will be returned.
843 Default: 200 bps. How fast the drive will accept data, in bytes per
844 second. This parameter is NOT currently used by AMANDA.
847 A PostScript template file used by amreport to generate labels. Several
848 sample files are provided with the AMANDA sources in the example
849 directory. See the amreport(8) man page for more information.
851 In addition to options, another tapetype name may be entered, which makes this
852 tapetype inherit options from another tapetype. For instance, the only
853 difference between a DLT4000 tape drive using Compact-III tapes and one using
854 Compact-IV tapes is the length of the tape. So they could be entered as:
856 define tapetype DLT4000-III {
857 comment "DLT4000 tape drives with Compact-III tapes"
858 length 12500 mbytes # 10 Gig tapes with some compression
862 define tapetype DLT4000-IV {
864 comment "DLT4000 tape drives with Compact-IV tapes"
865 length 25000 mbytes # 20 Gig tapes with some compression
871 The amanda.conf file may define multiple types of network interfaces. The
872 information is entered in an interface section, which looks like this:
874 define interface name {
875 interface-option interface-value
879 name is the name of this type of network interface. It is referenced from the
881 Note that these sections define network interface characteristics, not the
882 actual interface that will be used. Nor do they impose limits on the bandwidth
883 that will actually be taken up by AMANDA. AMANDA computes the estimated
884 bandwidth each file system backup will take based on the estimated size and
885 time, then compares that plus any other running backups with the limit as
886 another of the criteria when deciding whether to start the backup. Once a
887 backup starts, AMANDA will use as much of the network as it can leaving
888 throttling up to the operating system and network hardware.
889 The interface options and values are:
893 Default: none. A comment string describing this set of network
897 Default: 300 Kbps. The speed of the interface in Kbytes per second.
899 In addition to options, another interface name may be entered, which makes this
900 interface inherit options from another interface. At the moment, this is of
905 The disklist file determines which disks will be backed up by AMANDA. The file
906 usually contains one line per disk:
908 hostname diskname [diskdevice] dumptype [spindle [interface] ]
910 All pairs [ hostname diskname ] must be unique.
911 Lines starting with # are ignored, as are blank lines. The fields have the
916 The name of the host to be backed up. If diskdevice refers to a PC share,
917 this is the host AMANDA will run the Samba smbclient program on to back
921 The name of the disk (a label). In most case, you set your diskname to
922 the diskdevice and you don't set the diskdevice. If you want multiple
923 entries with the same diskdevice, you must set a different diskname for
924 each entry. It's the diskname that you use on the commandline for any
925 AMANDA command. Look at the example/disklist file for example.
928 Default: same as diskname. The name of the disk device to be backed up.
929 It may be a full device name, a device name without the /dev/ prefix,
930 e.g. sd0a, or a mount point such as /usr.
931 It may also refer to a PC share by starting the name with two (forward)
932 slashes, e.g. //some-pc/home. In this case, the program option in the
933 associated dumptype must be entered as GNUTAR. It is the combination of
934 the double slash disk name and program GNUTAR in the dumptype that
935 triggers the use of Samba.
938 Refers to a dumptype defined in the amanda.conf file. Dumptypes specify
939 backup related parameters, such as whether to compress the backups,
940 whether to record backup results in /etc/dumpdates, the disk's relative
944 Default: -1. A number used to balance backup load on a host. AMANDA will
945 not run multiple backups at the same time on the same spindle, unless the
946 spindle number is -1, which means there is no spindle restriction.
949 Default: local. The name of a network interface definition in the
950 amanda.conf file, used to balance network load.
952 Instead of naming a dumptype, it is possible to define one in-line, enclosing
953 dumptype options within curly braces, one per line, just like a dumptype
954 definition in amanda.conf. Since pre-existing dumptypes are valid option names,
955 this syntax may be used to customize dumptypes for particular disks.
956 A line break must follow the left curly bracket.
957 For instance, if a dumptype named normal is used for most disks, but use of the
958 holding disk needs to be disabled for the file system that holds it, this would
959 work instead of defining a new dumptype:
961 hostname diskname [ diskdevice ] {
964 } [ spindle [ interface ] ]
969 The tapelist file contains the list of tapes in active use. This file is
970 maintained entirely by AMANDA and should not be created or edited during normal
971 operation. It contains lines of the form:
975 Where YYYYMMDD is the date the tape was written, label is a label for the tape
976 as written by amlabel and flags tell AMANDA whether the tape may be reused, etc
977 (see the reuse options of amadmin).
978 Amdump and amflush will refuse to write to an unlabeled tape, or to a labeled
979 tape that is considered active. There must be more tapes in active rotation
980 (see the tapecycle option) than there are runs in the backup cycle (see the
981 dumpcycle option) to prevent overwriting a backup image that would be needed to
986 The normal value for the tapedev parameter, or for what a tape changer returns,
987 is a full path name to a non-rewinding tape device, such as /dev/nst0 or /dev/
988 rmt/0mn or /dev/nst0.1 or whatever conventions the operating system uses.
989 AMANDA provides additional application level drivers that support non-
990 traditional tape-simulations or features. To access a specific output driver,
991 set tapedev (or configure your changer to return) a string of the form driver:
992 driver-info where driver is one of the supported drivers and driver-info is
993 optional additional information needed by the driver.
994 The supported drivers are:
998 This is the default driver. The driver-info is the tape device name.
1001 tapedev /dev/rmt/0mn
1003 is really a short hand for
1005 tapedev tape:/dev/rmt/0mn
1010 This driver throws away anything written to it and returns EOF for any
1011 reads except a special case is made for reading a label, in which case a
1012 "fake" value is returned that AMANDA checks for and allows through
1013 regardless of what you have set in labelstr. The driver-info field is not
1014 used and may be left blank:
1018 The length value from the associated tapetype is used to limit the amount
1019 of data written. When the limit is reached, the driver will simulate end
1024 This driver should only be used for debugging and testing, and probably
1025 only with the record option set to no.
1028 Redundant Array of Inexpensive (?) Tapes. Reads and writes tapes mounted
1029 on multiple drives by spreading the data across N-1 drives and using the
1030 last drive for a checksum. See docs/RAIT for more information.
1031 The driver-info field describes the devices to use. Curly braces indicate
1032 multiple replacements in the string. For instance:
1034 tapedev rait:/dev/rmt/tps0d{4,5,6}n
1036 would use the following devices:
1037 /dev/rmt/tps0d4n /dev/rmt/tps0d5n /dev/rmt/tps0d6n
1042 This driver emulates a tape device with a set of files in a directory.
1043 The driver-info field must be the name of an existing directory. The
1044 driver will test for a subdirectory of that named data and return offline
1045 until it is present. When present, the driver uses two files in the data
1046 subdirectory for each tape file. One contains the actual data. The other
1047 contains record length information.
1048 The driver uses a file named status in the file device directory to hold
1049 driver status information, such as tape position. If not present, the
1050 driver will create it as though the device is rewound.
1051 The length value from the associated tapetype is used to limit the amount
1052 of data written. When the limit is reached, the driver will simulate end
1054 One way to use this driver with a real device such as a CD-writer is to
1055 create a directory for the file device and one or more other directories
1056 for the actual data. Create a symlink named data in the file directory to
1057 one of the data directories. Set the tapetype length to whatever the
1059 When AMANDA fills the file device, remove the symlink and (optionally)
1060 create a new symlink to another data area. Use a CD writer software
1061 package to burn the image from the first data area.
1062 To read the CD, mount it and create the data symlink in the file device
1068 AMANDA processes on the tape server host run as the dumpuser user listed in
1069 amanda.conf. When they connect to a backup client, they do so with an AMANDA-
1070 specific protocol. They do not, for instance, use rsh or ssh directly.
1071 On the client side, the amandad daemon validates the connection using one of
1072 several methods, depending on how it was compiled and on options it is passed:
1076 Even though AMANDA does not use rsh, it can use .rhosts-style
1077 authentication and a .rhosts file.
1080 This is essentially the same as .rhosts authentication except a different
1081 file, with almost the same format, is used. This is the default mechanism
1083 The format of the .amandahosts file is:
1084 hostname [ username ]
1085 If username is ommitted, it defaults to the user running amandad, i.e.
1086 the user listed in the inetd or xinetd configuration file.
1089 AMANDA may use the Kerberos authentication system. Further information is
1090 in the docs/KERBEROS file that comes with an AMANDA distribution.
1091 For Samba access, AMANDA needs a file on the Samba server (which may or
1092 may not also be the tape server) named /etc/amandapass with share names,
1093 (clear text) passwords and (optional) domain names, in that order, one
1094 per line, whitespace separated. By default, the user used to connect to
1095 the PC is the same for all PC's and is compiled into AMANDA. It may be
1096 changed on a host by host basis by listing it first in the password field
1097 followed by a percent sign and then the password. For instance:
1099 //some-pc/home normalpw
1100 //another-pc/disk otheruser%otherpw
1102 With clear text passwords, this file should obviously be tightly
1103 protected. It only needs to be readable by the AMANDA-user on the Samba
1105 You can find further information in the docs/SAMBA file that comes with
1106 an AMANDA distribution.
1109 HOST & DISK EXPRESSION
1111 All host and disk arguments to programs are special expressions. The command
1112 applies to all disks that match your arguments. This section describes the
1114 The matcher matches by word, each word is a glob expression, words are
1115 separated by the separator '.' for host and '/' for disk. You can anchor the
1116 expression at left with a '^'. You can anchor the expression at right with a
1117 '$'. The matcher is case insensitive for host but is case sensitive for disk. A
1118 match succeeds if all words in your expression match contiguous words in the
1121 . word separator for a host
1122 / word separator for a disk
1125 ? match exactly one character except the separator
1126 * match zero or more characters except the separator
1127 ** match zero or more characters including the separator
1131 EXPRESSION WILL MATCH WILL NOT MATCH
1138 ho*na hoina ho.aina.org
1141 ^hosta hosta foo.hosta.org
1144 /opt/ opt (disk) opt (host)
1145 .opt. opt (host) opt (disk)
1152 DATESTAMP EXPRESSION
1154 A datestamp expression is a range expression where we only match the prefix.
1155 Leading ^ is removed. Trailing $ forces an exact match.
1157 20001212-14 match all dates beginning with 20001212, 20001213 or 20001214
1158 20001212-4 same as previous
1159 20001212-24 match all dates between 20001212 and 20001224
1160 2000121 match all dates that start with 2000121 (20001210-20001219)
1161 2 match all dates that start with 2 (20000101-29991231)
1162 2000-10 match all dates between 20000101-20101231
1163 200010$ match only 200010
1168 James da Silva, <jds@amanda.org> : Original text
1169 Stefan G. Weichinger, <sgw@amanda.org>, maintainer of the AMANDA-documentation:
1170 XML-conversion,major update
1174 amadmin(8), amcheck(8), amcheckdb(8), amcleanup(8), amdd(8), amdump(8), amflush
1175 (8), amgetconf(8), amlabel(8), ammt(8), amoverview(8), amplot(8), amrecover(8),
1176 amreport(8), amrestore(8), amrmtape(8), amstatus(8), amtape(8), amtoc(8),
1177 amverify(8), amverifyrun(8)
1178 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1181 amadmin Home amcheck