Greetings.

First off, I'd like to say I've been using amanda in production for over
a year on two different LTO tape juke robots, a Storagetek L40 with three
drives and an IBM with two,  Both units are using the zd-mtx glue and have
been working perfectly.  Many thanks for a fine piece of software.

My problem is with some backups on a rather large NetworkAppliance NFS
filer.  It seems that although I've set maxdumps for this config to a
value of 4, inparallel to 16, and each filer export has its own spool
number, the GNU tar estimate processes remain serialized.  The estimate
process takes a *really* long time.  In fact, I haven't been able to get
a successful estimate in under 24 hours yet.

If I replicate the behavior of gnutar during the estimate phase by hand,
I can get each estimate done in about 5-6 hours.  Is the serialized
estimates a design decision intended to keep I/O thrashing to a mininum?
These NFS appliances should have plenty of snot to pull off 4
simultaneous tar processes.

My question is, is there any way of either a) parallelizing the
estimates so they get done in a somewhat timely fashion, or b) ignoring
the estimates entirely and just get to work doing backups, making
whatever assumptions are necessary?

I've looked through the docs and FAQ, checked the IRC channel and come
up blank, so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Additional information follows below signature.  Please let me know if
more is needed.

Many Thanks.

--
Rich Henning <seclsts AT fast DOT net>

--

AMANDA Server Information
----------------------------------------------------
  linux 2.6.11.2 SMP
  Debian GNU/Linux
  Adaptec AIC79XX PCI-X 39320A Ultra320 host adapter

build: VERSION="Amanda-2.4.4p3"
       BUILT_DATE="Wed Mar 16 15:07:10 EST 2005"
       BUILT_MACH="Linux vault4 2.6.11.2uslec01 #3 SMP Tue Mar 15 11:57:36 EST 
2005 i686 unknown"
       CC="gcc"
       CONFIGURE_COMMAND="'./configure' '--prefix=/usr' '--bindir=/usr/sbin' 
'--mandir=/usr/share/man' '--libexecdir=/usr/lib/amanda' '--enable-shared' 
'--sysconfdir=/etc' '--localstatedir=/var/lib' 
'--with-gnutar-listdir=/var/lib/amanda/gnutar-lists' 
'--with-index-server=localhost' '--with-user=backup' '--with-group=backup' 
'--with-bsd-security' '--with-amandahosts' 
'--with-smbclient=/usr/bin/smbclient' '--with-tcpportrange=50000,50100' 
'--with-udpportrange=840,860'"
paths: bindir="/usr/sbin" sbindir="/usr/sbin"
       libexecdir="/usr/lib/amanda" mandir="/usr/share/man"
       AMANDA_TMPDIR="/tmp/amanda" AMANDA_DBGDIR="/tmp/amanda"
       CONFIG_DIR="/etc/amanda" DEV_PREFIX="/dev/"
       RDEV_PREFIX="/dev/" DUMP="/sbin/dump"
       RESTORE="/sbin/restore" VDUMP=UNDEF VRESTORE=UNDEF
       XFSDUMP="/sbin/xfsdump" XFSRESTORE="/sbin/xfsrestore"
       VXDUMP=UNDEF VXRESTORE=UNDEF
       SAMBA_CLIENT="/usr/bin/smbclient" GNUTAR="/bin/tar"
       COMPRESS_PATH="/bin/gzip" UNCOMPRESS_PATH="/bin/gzip"
       LPRCMD="/usr/bin/lpr" MAILER="/usr/bin/Mail"
       listed_incr_dir="/var/lib/amanda/gnutar-lists"
defs:  DEFAULT_SERVER="localhost" DEFAULT_CONFIG="DailySet1"
       DEFAULT_TAPE_SERVER="localhost"
       DEFAULT_TAPE_DEVICE="/dev/null" HAVE_MMAP HAVE_SYSVSHM
       LOCKING=POSIX_FCNTL SETPGRP_VOID DEBUG_CODE
       AMANDA_DEBUG_DAYS=4 BSD_SECURITY USE_AMANDAHOSTS
       CLIENT_LOGIN="backup" FORCE_USERID HAVE_GZIP
       COMPRESS_SUFFIX=".gz" COMPRESS_FAST_OPT="--fast"
       COMPRESS_BEST_OPT="--best" UNCOMPRESS_OPT="-dc"