New Amanda conf -> yes
Hardlink HD and so on -> no (quite dirty / heavy solution; in France we call 
that "using a power hammer to crush a fly")

I think about 2 solutions:
1. RAIT that would allow you to point 2 different tape devices to write onto
2. if you're using 'disk' driver, you may find some solutions concerning 
replicating filesystems (DRBD, NBD, Intermezzo...) without completely noticing 
Amanda about that stuff :)



On Mon, 9 Feb 2004 15:01:21 -0500
Eric Siegerman <erics AT telepres DOT com> wrote:

> [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