I see this error several times:
sendsize[2308]: time 92.723: runtar: error [must be invoked by amanda]

What user is running amdump?

-J

Robert Tilden wrote:

Well, it -looked- like it was fixed. A few days ago I asked for help on an
amanda problem on one of our nodes. Backups were failing- the mail report
included the line:

node1     / lev -1 FAILED [no estimate]

And other messages in the node's log files such as "runtar: error [must be
invoked by amanda]" which I'd not seen before.

I reinstalled an amanda rpm and that night's backup ran fine, but the
following evening's failed with the same message. Yesterday I downloaded
the current amanda tarball, uninstalled the rpm, and installed 2.4.5 from
scratch. Last night's backup failed the same way. I'm beginning to suspect
that it's not an amanda problem :-)

I'm only backing up the "/" partition, and there seems to me to be too
many log files being generated for a single instance...

Anyway, if a kind person could take a look at the following from last
night, and give me any suggestions I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

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

The log directory on node1 looks like:

-rw-------    1 amanda   disk         2973 Oct 21 00:47
amandad.20051021004608000.debug
-rw-------    1 amanda   disk         2519 Oct 21 00:46
amandad.20051021004608.debug
-rw-------    1 amanda   disk          361 Oct 21 00:46
runtar.20051021004608.debug
-rw-------    1 amanda   disk          197 Oct 21 00:47
runtar.20051021004741000.debug
-rw-------    1 amanda   disk          197 Oct 21 00:47
runtar.20051021004741.debug
-rw-------    1 amanda   disk        20681 Oct 21 00:47
sendsize.20051021004608.debug
-rw-------    1 amanda   disk           13 Oct 21 00:46
sendsize._.20051021004608.exclude
-rw-------    1 amanda   disk           13 Oct 21 00:47
sendsize._.20051021004741000.exclude
-rw-------    1 amanda   disk           13 Oct 21 00:47
sendsize._.20051021004741.exclude

The sendsize.20051021004608.debug file contains (near the end)

sendsize[2308]: estimate time for / level 0: 92.592
sendsize[2308]: estimate size for / level 0: 32519530 KB
sendsize[2308]: time 92.658: waiting for /bin/gtar "/" child
sendsize[2308]: time 92.658: after /bin/gtar "/" wait
sendsize[2308]: time 92.659: getting size via gnutar for / level 1
sendsize[2308]: gnutar: error opening
/usr/local/var/amanda/gnutar-lists/node1__0: No such file or directory
sendsize[2308]: time 92.665: spawning /usr/local/libexec/runtar in pipeline
sendsize[2308]: argument list: /bin/gtar --create --file /dev/null
--directory / --one-file-system --listed-incremental /usr
/local/var/amanda/gnutar-lists/node1__1.new --sparse --ignore-failed-read
--totals --exclude-from /tmp/amanda/sendsize._.20
051021004741.exclude .
sendsize[2308]: time 92.670: runtar: error [must be invoked by amanda]
sendsize[2308]: time 92.670:
sendsize[2308]: time 92.671: .....
sendsize[2308]: estimate time for / level 1: 0.005
sendsize[2308]: no size line match in /bin/gtar output for "/"
sendsize[2308]: .....
sendsize[2308]: estimate size for / level 1: -1 KB
sendsize[2308]: time 92.671: waiting for /bin/gtar "/" child
sendsize[2308]: time 92.671: after /bin/gtar "/" wait
sendsize[2308]: time 92.671: getting size via gnutar for / level 2
sendsize[2308]: time 92.719: spawning /usr/local/libexec/runtar in pipeline
sendsize[2308]: argument list: /bin/gtar --create --file /dev/null
--directory / --one-file-system --listed-incremental /usr
/local/var/amanda/gnutar-lists/node1__2.new --sparse --ignore-failed-read
--totals --exclude-from /tmp/amanda/sendsize._.20
051021004741000.exclude .
sendsize[2308]: time 92.723: runtar: error [must be invoked by amanda]
sendsize[2308]: time 92.724:
sendsize[2308]: time 92.724: .....
sendsize[2308]: estimate time for / level 2: 0.005
sendsize[2308]: no size line match in /bin/gtar output for "/"
sendsize[2308]: .....

The amandad log file header reads:

amandad: debug 1 pid 2304 ruid 33 euid 33: start at Fri Oct 21 00:46:08 2005
amandad: version 2.4.5
amandad: build: VERSION="Amanda-2.4.5"
amandad:        BUILT_DATE="Thu Oct 20 10:50:56 CDT 2005"
amandad:        BUILT_MACH="Linux node1.phys.northwestern.edu
2.4.21-32.0.1.EL #1 Wed May 25 16:02:04 CDT 2005 i686 i686 i3
86 GNU/Linux"
amandad:        CC="gcc"
amandad:        CONFIGURE_COMMAND="'./configure' '--with-user=amanda'
'--with-group=disk'"
amandad: paths: bindir="/usr/local/bin" sbindir="/usr/local/sbin"
amandad:        libexecdir="/usr/local/libexec" mandir="/usr/local/man"
amandad:        AMANDA_TMPDIR="/tmp/amanda" AMANDA_DBGDIR="/tmp/amanda"
amandad:        CONFIG_DIR="/usr/local/etc/amanda" DEV_PREFIX="/dev/"
amandad:        RDEV_PREFIX="/dev/" DUMP="/sbin/dump"
amandad:        RESTORE="/sbin/restore" VDUMP=UNDEF VRESTORE=UNDEF
amandad:        XFSDUMP=UNDEF XFSRESTORE=UNDEF VXDUMP=UNDEF VXRESTORE=UNDEF
amandad:        SAMBA_CLIENT="/usr/bin/smbclient" GNUTAR="/bin/gtar"
amandad:        COMPRESS_PATH="/bin/gzip" UNCOMPRESS_PATH="/bin/gzip"
amandad:        LPRCMD="/usr/bin/lpr" MAILER="/usr/bin/Mail"
amandad:        listed_incr_dir="/usr/local/var/amanda/gnutar-lists"
amandad: defs:  DEFAULT_SERVER="node1.phys.northwestern.edu"
amandad:        DEFAULT_CONFIG="DailySet1"
amandad:        DEFAULT_TAPE_SERVER="node1.phys.northwestern.edu"
amandad:        DEFAULT_TAPE_DEVICE="/dev/null" HAVE_MMAP HAVE_SYSVSHM
amandad:        LOCKING=POSIX_FCNTL SETPGRP_VOID DEBUG_CODE
amandad:        AMANDA_DEBUG_DAYS=4 BSD_SECURITY USE_AMANDAHOSTS
amandad:        CLIENT_LOGIN="amanda" FORCE_USERID HAVE_GZIP
amandad:        COMPRESS_SUFFIX=".gz" COMPRESS_FAST_OPT="--fast"
amandad:        COMPRESS_BEST_OPT="--best" UNCOMPRESS_OPT="-dc"
amandad: time 0.000: got packet:
--------
Amanda 2.4 REQ HANDLE 00C-E08CAA09 SEQ 1129873581
SECURITY USER amanda
SERVICE noop
OPTIONS features=fffffeff9ffe0f;
--------