On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 05:18:32PM +0100, Alan Pearson wrote:
> 
> On Thu, July 27, 2006 4:42 pm, Jon LaBadie wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 27, 2006 at 04:07:40PM +0100, Alan Pearson wrote:
...
> >>
> >>
> >> Yes I realise it wouldn't fit on the tape, but Amanda should at least
> >> have put it in the holding disk area or NOT overwritten the only full
> >> backup at all.
> >>
> >> Maybe a compromise, leave the backup in the holding disk, and backup
> >> the other stuff that will fit to tape.
> >
> > That would seem to be a hard call.  For just one example, I've got
> > a DLE that I only do weekly full dumps, no incrementals.  It contains
> > nothing but *.iso files, dvd or cd images, that I can easily recreate
> > from the original optical media.  And some of my DLEs go directly
> > to tape, bypassing the holding disk.  Should the backup of those
> > direct to tape DLEs be skipped to preserve my relatively unimportant
> > last full dump of the *.iso DLE?
> >
> 
> I'd suggest that the last full dump is NEVER overwritten, regardless.
> Amanda can't be expected to know the importance of one backup to another.

But that is exactly what your suggestion does.  In my semi-hypothetical
situation, amanda would place greater importance on the last full dump
of retreivable data compared to the first and only backup of yesterdays
purchase orders that are taped directly.

There is no recourse for yesterdays backups that never occured if needed.
There are ways to avoid the situation you encountered, sufficient tapes,
monitoring of reports, and tape spanning.


-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
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