In the current "SysAdmin" magazine (April, 2003, Vol. 12, No. 4,
Pgs 43-47), there is an article by Julian Briggs on using a Solaris
feature of "file system snapshots" with amanda backups.

File system snapshots are a temporary, static view of a file system. 
They allow backups to proceed on the static view while activity
continues on the normal view.  Thus messages like "file changed while
we were backing it up" are eliminated.

Mr. Briggs describes three approaches to creating the snapshots when
needed and eliminating them when finished.  The approaches include:

  - bulk creation of all snapshots before amdump and deletion after
  - using automount maps to create and mount snapshots as needed
  - surrounding ufsdump with a wrapper that creates and mounts a snapshot
    during the dump phase, but not the estimate phase
  
Advantages and disadvantages of each approach are discussed.  At his
University of Sheffield, UK, department the wrapper approach is utilized.

Most SysAdmin articles are online at www.sysadminmag.com.  However when
I checked early this morning, most articles from the current issue were
not available.  Perhaps they will be later.  Several earlier articles
featuring Amanda could be viewed online.

-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
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