Thank you for your reply Paul. Listed below are the pieces of information that was missing in my AMANDA.conf file:
runspercycle 5 days
>If you want to collect the images on the holdingdisk (by not inserting
>a tape, or leaving the old tape in the drive), and then flush to
>tape in one go, you have to change the reserve from the default of 100%
>to something else. I would suggest "reserve 0".
>And you can add the "autoflush" parameter: then amanda will flush the
>holdingdisk to tape automatically when it starts the next amdump.
What I want to do is use one tape a week/dumpcycle. Yet, If I were to
use one tape per dumpcycle would AMANDA overwrite the tape from one
day to the next. (i.e., If AMANDA backed up 3 servers on Monday to one tape,
would it rewind and overwrite that tape during Tuesdays dump?)
> ...............................................If your hardware is fast enough,
> you can add "maxdumps 2" (or more). And in this case, I would
> definitely change the spindle-number to something that reflects
>reality.
What is the syntax used when adding maxdumps # to the AMANDA.conf
file? Is there a specific location where this variable is placed? Sorry, I am
familiar with spindles, could you explain please?
> I assume 'high' in the disklist means high priority. If everything
> is 'high priority', then there is no priority at all. I would give
> the userdata high priority and the system data less.
I have appended the disklist file which has been modified revealing their
directory naming conventions and purpose. I would appreciate it if you
suggest what levels you think would be best.
> I see no dumptype "holdingdisk". Does that mean that your holding
> disk is not backed up (FINE!), or that one of your entries is your
> holdingdisk, and you're making a recursive backup of that too (WRONG!).
> Just checking.
holdingdisk hd1 {
comment "main holding disk"
directory "/var/tmp"
use -117 Mb }
The /var/tmp directory is backed up by AMANDA as shown below.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ New and improved Disklist
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
V = Very Critical, N= Not So Critical
# fooserver1, or 192.168.1.2 (Backup Server). WWW Server
# as well as an application server.
fooserver1 hda3 nocomp-high -1 local <-- / | N
fooserver1 hda1 nocomp-high -1 local <-- /boot | N
fooserver1 hda7 nocomp-high -1 local <-- /home | V
fooserver1 hda8 nocomp-high -1 local <-- /opt | V
fooserver1 hda9 nocomp-high -1 local <-- /tmp | N
fooserver1 hda2 nocomp-high -1
local <-- /usr | V??
fooserver1 hda5 nocomp-high -1 local <-- /usr/local | V
fooserver1 hda6 nocomp-high -1 local <-- /var | V
# fooserver2, or 192.168.1.3 (Backup Client) Application
# server as well as a Web Server.
fooserver2 /dev/sda5 comp-high <-- / | N
fooserver2 /dev/sda1 comp-high <-- /boot | N
fooserver2 /dev/sda3
comp-high <-- /home | V
fooserver2 /dev/sda2 comp-high <-- /usr | V
fooserver2 /dev/sda6 comp-high <-- /var | V
#Windows server omitted for brevity.
