On Tue, Jun 24, 2003 at 05:32:50PM +0200, Heinz-Josef Claes wrote:
> 
> There will be some time until the guys here have a testing environment
> and can test it. It's really good news that it seems to be possible
> without big problems.

If you have some time you might consider the following.

Amanda uses a non-traditional algorithm for scheduling backups.
That is a major function of amanda, doing the scheduling.
Traditional schemes call for an "all one day", "partials the others".
Local practice might also call for keeping one or more of those
"all one day" backup sets off-site.

Amanda can be coerced into this model, but it is not comfortable.
Instead, amanda spreads the level 0 backups of entities known as
"disklist entries" (DLE's) which are file systems or directory
trees of a specific client host.  So on each dump run, amanda
will do a mix of level 0's of some DLE's and incrementals of
the rest.  The amanda administrator specifies how often
the level 0's get done (the dumpcycle parameter), but not when.

A major advantage to some is a consistant day-to-day tape usage
and time to backup rather than huge requirements one day and
tiny requirements the others.

Off-site storage would then require either a separate amanda
configuration to do a complete dump of everything in one shot,
or alternatively, storing a "dumpcycle's" collection of tapes.


Another thing you might consider doing before the test environment
is fully available, is setting up an amanda configuration on one
or three linux clients that backup to disk instead of tape.  This
is possible with recent versions of amanda using what is called
the "file:driver".  The setup of amanda going to tape is 90+ pct
the same as backing up to disk.  The practice before the pressure
of the real thing could be valuable.

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