On Fri, Aug 15, 2003 at 07:37:15PM +0000, Alexander Shenkin wrote:
> Thanks a _ton_ for your response.  I didn't realize exactly what tapecycle 
> was all about.  I'll drop it to 5.

IMO, that is too small (typecycle = runspercycle), and tells amanda it
is OK to over-write a tape that is only 1 week old.  Use 10 or 15.

If you use 'tapecycle 15' and if you never forget to load a tape, you're
saying to your users: "I can get you any file from any weekday in the
last three weeks".  That's a good thing to be able to say, as opposed
to: "Last Tuesday?  Oops, I misread a tape label and amanda let
me over-write last Tuesday's tape last night".  See?

> Tuesday's holding disk data never existed -- I don't have a holding disk.  
> Since I'm just backing up the local server machine, I dump it straight to 
> the tape.  I assume that this is fine, as amanda should realize that if the 
> dump didn't occur, it needs to do an incremental or whatever based on the 
> last successful backup (monday-2 in this case), no?

Correct.

As a future enhancement, you might consider tossing a cheap disk in
your server for holdingdisk.  Even with a single DLE, it is an
extremely valuable Amanda feature; you *always* get a backup, barring
two simultaneous failures, you get backups on holidays when no one is
there to change tapes, etc.

-- 
Jay Lessert                               jay_lessert AT accelerant DOT net
Accelerant Networks Inc.                       (voice)1.503.439.3461
Beaverton OR, USA                                (fax)1.503.466.9472