Re: suggestion for a disk-to-disk backup server

> Paul Bijnens wrote:
>   
>> Instead of making it a different configuration, and running into trouble
>> on which full to base an incrmeental, why don't you run an additional
>> amdump of the normal config in the weekend, but which has options to
>> override the config:
>>
>>    amdump daily -o reserver=100,tapedev=/no/such/tape
>>
>> With the option "tapedev /no/such/tape" we force Amanda to fall back
>> to degraded mode, making backup to holdingdisk only, and with the
>> "reserve 100", we avoid wasting holdingdisk space for full backups in
>> the degraded mode.

ok, tried this over the preceding weekend.

the amanda user's crontab has these entries:

  0 15 * * 1-5 /usr/local/sbin/amcheck -m daily
  45 0 * * 2-6 /usr/local/sbin/amdump daily
  45 0 * * 0-1 /usr/local/sbin/amdump daily -o
reserve=100,tapedev=/dev/rmt/0n

however, the weekend runs looked exactly like the weekday runs. They
used an AIT tape off /dev/rmt/1n and ran fulls and incrementals
intermixed. I searched the report, the log files, the debug files, etc.
for any error messages about the command line options or any references
to /dev/rmt/0n. none. I even tried

# find /tmp/amanda -type f | xargs grep '/dev/rmt/0'

and got nothing except the alternative "weekend" configuration I had
played with the previous weekend.

I checked the documentation & man pages and the documentation of the -o
option is pretty sparse. All references say "see the configuration
override section in amanda(8)". That section is only a few lines long
and makes no reference to the syntax with a comma separating multiple
parameter=value pairs.

So, possibilities ...

1. The syntax is wrong? And I need to use "amdump daily -o reserve=100
-o tapedev=/dev/rmt/0n"? (In either case, this should be documented,
since one would typically want to override more than one parameter if
any at all.)

2. There is a bug in amanda, and it doesn't work?

3. Amanda is being too "smart" and reverting to /dev/rmt/1n when my
override to /dev/rmt/0n fails? Doesn't seem likely.

4. There are additional parameters in my configuration that end up
overriding my attempt to override tapedev?

I am using a tpchanger, but there is no reference to tapedev there. If I
search the daily configuration directory for reference to /dev/rmt, the
only reference I find is the 'tapedev "/dev/rmt/1n"' in amanda.conf.

In case it matters & got lost in the beginnings of this thread, I'm
running 2.5.1p3 on Solaris 9 on SPARC (E250).




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

Chris Hoogendyk

-
   O__  ---- Systems Administrator
  c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
 (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

<hoogendyk AT bio.umass DOT edu>

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Erdös 4