On Fri, 25 Jun 2004, Frederic Medery wrote:

> I want to replace NFS by OpenAFS.
> I know that inside afs cell, root is not god anymore.
>
> So can I still use amanda with afs ?


Hi Frederic,

To save re-typing, here is a copy of my answer to someone who asked
this a few weeks ago.

-Mitch

-----------------

From: Mitch Collinsworth <mitch AT ccmr.cornell DOT edu>
Date: Tue, 8 Jun 2004 16:38:38 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: amanda and OpenAFS?


On Tue, 8 Jun 2004 pll+amanda AT permabit DOT com wrote:

> Is there anyone backing up OpenAFS using amanda? Is there anything
> special that needs to be done, or is it just like backing up any
> other file system?
>
> I'd like to use gnutar if possible.


We are, and I've heard from a few other sites who also are.  Don't
have a good feel for how many yet.  OpenAFS is not just like "any
other" filesystem.  In general, root is nobody special to OpenAFS.
So your backup program needs to acquire appropriate privilege to
read files.  If you can do that (reauth is one way), you can just
use gnutar.  But then you'll back up the file contents without the
ACLs and volume structure needed to put everything back the way it
was before the Bad Thing that happened that caused your need to
perform a restore.

First stop:  read docs/HOWTO-AFS

This is just a pointer, but it tells you where to find some code we
put together a few years ago to backup OpenAFS with amanda more or
less "right".  I say "or less" because there are still some
improvements I'd like to make sometime.


One new item, for those who've heard all this before.  Just today
we created a new mailing list for amanda-afs users.  Info can be
found here:

http://lists.ccmr.cornell.edu/mailman/listinfo/amanda-afs

-Mitch