[I'm CCing amanda-hackers because the answer to my question might
depend heavily on Amanda internals; but the discussion doesn't
belong there, so please reply to amanda-users.]

I want to make two identical copies of an Amanda backup.  This is
a one-off thing -- archival backups of a client that's about to
be wiped clean and repurposed.  If it were an ongoing need, I'd
ask for budget for a second tape drive and learn about rait.

I have enough holding-disk space to hold all of the client's DLEs
at once, so what I'm thinking is this:

 1. Build a new Amanda configuration that backs up only the client
    in question (reserve=0; also record=no to be on the safe side)

 2. Run the configuration with no tape in the drive, forcing all
    the (full) backups to holding disk

 3. Hard-link the holding-disk files to another directory that
    Amanda doesn't know about
 
 4. Run amflush

 5. Hard-link the holding-disk files back to the Amanda spool
    directory (it's pure paranoia that I choose not to mv them
    instead and thus dispense with step 7)

 6. Run amflush again

 7. Delete the holding-disk files from the other directory

Does this look like a reasonable approach?  My main worry is that
the curinfo database and multiple amflush's of the same data
won't get along with each other.  Is that likely to be a problem?

--

|  | /\
|-_|/  >   Eric Siegerman, Toronto, Ont.        erics AT telepres DOT com
|  |  /
It must be said that they would have sounded better if the singer
wouldn't throw his fellow band members to the ground and toss the
drum kit around during songs.
        - Patrick Lenneau