On Thursday 05 September 2002 09:29, Thomas Kirk wrote:
>Hey Jim
>
>On Thu, Sep 05, 2002 at 08:01:52AM -0500, Jim Summers wrote:
>
>First of all thanks for the quick answer! :)
>
>> I think you will have to set up multiple disklist / configs to
>> try and force Amanda to do this.
>
>Hmm this seems abit complicated to me as im still trying to grasp
> the basic concepts of amanda? If you could point me towards some
> reading or howto i would be very grateful!
>
>> Amanda herself determines the level and when that level will be
>> done within the dumpcycle.  She tries to balance the amount of
>> data backed up each run so as to maximize tape usage.

Actually, its to equalize tape usage. :-)

>So what you are telling me is that i can't control wich days to do
> the full backup and which days to do incremental

Not if you let amanda do it without interference.

>> Each fs backed up MUST be able to fit on a tape.  You need to
>> specify multiple tapes / use of a tape changer would be
>> desireable.
>
>Ok let me get this straight fs here means filesystem ok?

yes, and to further define it, each "partition" is a filesystem.

> a
> filesystem is per/machine? or is it per time amanda is running?
> So when amanda is running and doing a full backup all the
> filesystems listed in disklist should be able to fit on one tape?

No, each entry's size is limited to one tape's size.  With a 
changer, amanda can use more than one tape if she needs to because 
the current one filled up.  In that event, the failed entry in the 
disklist will be restarted from scratch on the next tape.

> Im using the newest beta which will backup to our NAS box with
> 400GB available so i guess its just a question to fool amanda to
> think that im running some big DLT that can have +80GB on one
> tape or so? Is that right?

No, don't lie to amand about what the tape can hold.  In fact, turn 
off any compression the drive might have and leave it off forever, 
and run the tape-src/tapetype utility after you build it.  It takes 
a while to run, but then amanda has a very good idea of the tapes 
capacity.  Enter that output data as the tapetype spec in your 
amanda.conf if it doesn't already have one for your tape.
If amanda knows what the tape can hold, the schedule will probably 
be adjusted to prevent overflow if it can be done and stay within 
that 7 day dumpcycle.

Amanda will use your favorite compressor if you use the right 
'dumptype'.  I play mix and match here as some partitions don't 
compress well, see the report to see which ones don't.  But with it 
enabled for about half my system I put 6+ gigs of data on one DDS-2 
tape last night, and had about 1.5 gigs left on that tape.

With a changer at her disposal, amanda can and will use more than 
one tape per run if need be.  Enabling that will cause your 
magazine reload schedule to be a check it daily operation to make 
sure there is enough tapes left for tonight though.

-- 
Cheers, Gene
AMD K6-III@500mhz 320M
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