Status Update for July 2007

The July Monthly Status Update is available on the wiki at
  http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/Monthly_Status_Updates/July_2007
As always, feedback and comments are welcome and encouraged.

July has been a quiet month for Amanda development, with development mostly
focused on bug fixes. Developers are working hard on significant changes,
including the Device API and Application API, although neither is quite ready
for release yet. We are also beginning work on a new data-transfer architecture
which will enable lots of exciting new functionality.

Wiki Changes

* Paddy added the page, "FAQ:How do I force Amanda to do a full backup?" to
address a common question seen in the forums and on the mailing list.

* Gavin added a link for the DLE term to "Amanda#DISKLIST_FILE", including a
very brief description.

* Squadra added a new story to Amanda user surveys and success stories, replete
with a detailed performance analysis.

* Cameron Matheson added instructions for running Amanda over SSH with a
non-standard port.

Forums and Mailing Lists

The Amanda team provided support for users via the Zmanda forums and mailing
lists, as did a number of helpful newcomers, including Andrew Rakowski. Thanks
to all who helped out!

Code Changes

Among numerous small fixes and tweaks:

* Stefan G. Weichinger noticed that 'amadmin Conf balance' output was
misaligned; Dustin J. Mitchell committed a fix (r425)

* Jean-Louis Martineau improved restore's performance by removing an unecessary
fast-forward operation (r427)

* Chris Hoogendyk and Olivier Nicole suggested better documentation for the -o
configuration-override option (r429)

* Paul Bijnens and Dimitri Gorokhovik submitted patches for bugs in
chg-multi.sh (r431 and r442)

* Dustin J. Mitchell fixed problems finding 'mt' and 'mtx' in chg-zd-mtx.sh
(r438)

* Dustin J. Mitchell modified all Amanda shell scripts to function correctly if
internationalization support is not available (r444)

* Terry Burton submitted an updated DLT tape label template (r452).

Jean-Louis Martineau is working behind the scenes on the Application API, and
Ian Turner is putting the finishing touches on the Device API. Hopefully, next
month's status update will highlight the release of the Device API!

-- 
        Dustin J. Mitchell
        Storage Software Engineer, Zmanda, Inc.
        http://www.zmanda.com/