> Amanda will run without a holding disk, it will write each 
> dump directly to tape.  Obviously this will make it very slow 
> as the dumps have to be done serially, and the drive will 
> continually have to stop and reposition itself when the 
> network stream can't keep up with the drive write speed.
>    Not recommended at all, but technically it still 'works'.

hee - to me that is breaking it...I have a very limited backup window...