I have been reading the documentation online plus the configuration files
and searching Google for several days now. I am to the point where I
basically understand what Amanda does. A few questions still lurk, however.
I apologize if any of these questions seem obvious, but to me they are not.

To start with, I am trying to get my head around the concept of a run. Is a
run a single line in the disklist or is it the entire disklist?

The reason that I ask, is that I have to construct a backup strategy under
Linux for an office that has the following configuration:

Web, private news, mail server:
  Dual P3-1000
  Linux Soft RAID5 with 3 36GB drives plus 1 36GB drive for the OS

File and tape server:
  Dual P3-1000
  Linux Soft RAID5 with 9 36GB drives (also the tape host) plus 1 36GB drive
for the OS
  HP Surestore DDS-4 drive

Eventually also backup of various Windows hosts, the Linux firewall, and the
Linux DNS server.

To start with I just want to get the file server backup working. The problem
is understanding what to configure. I have a 280GB RAID that is currently
running at around 160GB in use. From what I understand after reading the
docs, Amanda won't split a run across tapes. So, how do I define the system
to do a full dump? The daily incremental backups apparently will each always
require a single tape (I doubt any daily will ever exceed the capacity of
even a DDS-3 tape of which I also have around 20). I am merely wrestling
with the concepts here. I assume that I would need to define a run as never
exceeding the capacity of a tape. Does that mean a separate directory and
amanda.conf for each area, or does this mean a different line in the
disklist file? If just a different line, that's fine, but does that mean
that multiple runs will be stored on one tape if they fit?

Also, I would prefer to get an email if a tape needs changing (in advance
and if in error), but am not 100% sure where that information goes (do I
change chg-manual or do I modify something else that is read by chg-manual)?

Sorry for all the questions but for someone whose previous tape backup
experiences were primarily Windows-based (although I have used Arkeia on
Linux), a lot of this is fairly impenetrable.

Thanks in advance.

Ciao, Neil