I initially just straced the parent process (22802 amflush normal) which didn't
output anything:

Here's the ps -ef again with the trace commands for each PID involved:

ps -ef |grep amanda
amanda   22803 22802  0 14:01 ?        00:00:00 driver normal nodump
amanda   22804 22803  0 14:01 ?        00:00:00 taper normal
amanda   22805 22804  0 14:01 ?        00:00:00 taper normal
root     27581 27541  0 17:29 pts/0    00:00:00 su - amanda
amanda   27582 27581  0 17:29 pts/0    00:00:00 -bash
amanda   22802     1 98 14:01 ?        05:04:39 amflush normal
amanda   27972 27582  0 19:10 pts/0    00:00:00 ps -ef
amanda   27973 27582  0 19:10 pts/0    00:00:00 grep amanda
-bash-2.05b$ strace -p 22803
read(0, 

strace -p 22804
read(0, 

-bash-2.05b$ strace -p 22805
read(3, 

-bash-2.05b$ strace -p 22802
 
No output for this...

I'm not sure what to expect for my results to be honest. If this isn't normal
then I guess I should kill it. Then I need to know what the Root Cause is so I
can fix it.

On another matter, could of I just deleted these directories if I didn't want to
flush them or would that cause problems?

Thanks,

James

Paul Bijnens <paul.bijnens AT xplanation DOT com> wrote: 
> James Marcinek wrote:
> > 
> > I've recently deployed amanda. The client forgot tapes on several occasions
and
> > I've got 4 backups in my holding area. I initiated the amflush command and
> > followed the instructions. The job kicked off in the background and I've
been
> > using:
> > 
> > ps -ef |grep amanda
> > 
> > to see if the process is still running, which it is. When I do a top command
> > it's using lots of CPU time.
> 
> Which process is taking CPU time?  planner? driver? taper?
> 
> > 
> > It's been runninng for several hours now and my logs haven't been populating
> > since it started. Here's the last few entries:
> > 
> > START amflush date 20041207
> > START driver date 20041207
> > START taper datestamp 20041207 label Normal18 tape 0
> > 
> > I'm a bit confused because I now see a folder 20041207 in my /var/holding.
It's
> > empty, which is good if it's working properly.
> 
> For flush, that's normal.
> 
> > 
> > Why isn't anything being populated too(amflush and log file)? Is there any
way
> > to tell if it's running properly?
> 
> On linux:    strace -p The-PID
> on Solaris:  truss -p The-PID
> 
> "lsof -o the-PID" tells you which files are opened, and sometimes can
> give a hint what it is doing (e.g. which file it is reading/writing).
> 
> (hit Ctrl-C to stop it).
> 
> PS. have also a look at "autoflush on": when forgetting a tape once,
>      the next time, amanda flushes automatically.
>