On Fri, Feb 04, 2005 at 04:42:42PM -0800, Tom Simons wrote:
> I'd like daily backups, so users could restore files/directories from
> a few days past.  I'd like Amanda to use the Iomega REV cartridge as a
> single tape, maybe filling it up slowly every day & sending me an
> e-mail when it's full so I can load a new cartridge, or maybe making
> full backups weekly.  

Amanda always starts each run on a new tape.  With regular tapes, the normal
way to perform daily runs and get Amanda to consolidate multiple runs onto
a single tape is to run with no tape in the drive, spooling dumps into the
holding disk.  You'd then periodically flush these dumps onto tape.

Since the REV drive is a random-access device, you have an additional
option for consolidating multiple runs onto a single cartiridge, which
is splitting the cartridge into a library of several smaller virtual tapes.
Assuming one run doesn't fill all of those vtapes, you could then use the
same REV cartridge for multiple runs, changing out the REV cartridge after
all vtapes have been used.  This does have one major drawback - you're
reducing the size of your "tape", which means the maximum size of a single
DLE is also reduced.

> The full backup will eventually exceed 33 gb
> (although Iomega claims 90gb using their Windows compression).

Be very suspicious of manufacturer's compressed capacity claims.  In fact,
ignore them all together.  Native capacity is the number that matters.

If you're letting Amanda run her way, the full dumps of your DLEs will get
spread out through your dumpcycle, so even if the aggregate size of all
your client systems' data is larger than a single REV disk, your individual
amdump runs may still fit on one REV.  

> I'd also like to keep the previous month's (or thereabout) full backup
> cartridges off site.  This is roughly what we now have on our old
> server, with NetBackup making 7 daily incremental bkps & 5 full weekly
> bkps.

Is the Amanda installation intended to replace NetBackup?  If so, what
is NetBackup using for a tape drive?  Despite the "ooo, shiny" factor
of the REV drive, your current tape drive (particularly if it's a changer)
may still be the better solution.