Re: Howto: amanda sata backup server
2008-07-31 17:11:31
Marc,
Thanks for your feedback!
Main question: What is an example of a "good" default configuration
for a "hard drive" amanda backup server?
There's no general configuration for all kind of networks/server. But
a good start is
http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/How_To:Set_Up_Virtual_Tapes
Thanks for that link, I had read a similar document but the introduction
there is key... basically keep each of the three following separate
physically: (/,/data); (/holdingdisk); (/backup);
4. Would this lay-out be OK for a server that would back-up clients
to /backup, and also back its own root partition to /backup?
Otherwise, what is a good default layout, or what are you using that
works well for you?
/dev/md10 / (2x 1TB raid 1)
/dev/md20 /backup (4x 1TB raid 5)
/dev/md30 /holdingdisk (1x 500GB holding disk)
Why shouldn't it be OK? I mean, you are using softraid, so I guess you
don't have a big server/network.
The problem I am having is that currently all partitions except
/holdingdisk are on the same raid5 (/backup, /, and /data). When doing
backups of /data and / to /backup the server is very slow and
bottle-necked. I think by switching the the above scheme will fix the
problem.
I would recommend having hardware raid. Get a 3Ware 9550SXU-8LP Sata
Controller (here it costs 285,- Euro without tax), at least 4 Sata
Disks, create a Raid5+Hotspare and put /backup and /holdingdisk on it.
It's a cheap solution with redundancy and hardware raid.
5. When amanda finishes writing to the holding disk, does it stop all
reads from all clients (including possibly itself), until it is
finished writing to /backup, before resuming reading/writing to
/holdingdisk?
You can configure amanda to run multiple backups in parallel (check
out the inparallel parameter) and how many dumper processes max. run
at the same time on each server (maxdumps parameter). Amanda read the
data from the clients to the holdingdisk and from there at the same
time writes data to the final (v)tape. Depending on the dumporder
parameter, amanda decides which DLE is the next. So maybe sometimes a
server is idle for some time, if all dumpers are busy at the moment.
Ah didn't realize that AMANDA would read from clients, write to the
holding disk, and simultaneously write to the tape (disks) all at the
same time!
I think that de-coupling /backup and (/,/data), and also keeping
/holdingdisk still separate will solve the bottle-neck problems we were
experiencing.
--
Snorre Stamnes
Assistant System Architect
SRCIT@Stevens
srcit AT stevens DOT edu
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