I'm in the middle of my first backup using

    estimate server

for all of my samba backups.

Most of the DLEs completed nicely, but a few are still running with
ludicrously large percent complete listed.  Upon further reading, it
isn't quite as bad as it first appears.

condor://cardinal/g$       0   724687k dumping  7863520k (1085.09%) (4:31:54)
condor://kinka/m$          2   310043k dumping  8292320k (2674.57%) (3:49:41)
condor://pigeon/e$         1     4555k dumping  7151360k (157000.22%) (0:41:47)
condor://redbird/i$        0  9600581k dumping 10174464k (105.98%) (0:52:32)
nyinyi:/nyinyi             0 21106878k flushing to tape (10:19:18)


The 157,000% complete has a very small initial estimate, so it isn't
quite as bad as it first appears.

I'm running with a patched version of amanda which probably runs
correctly, but eats up memory.  Using "estimate server" allowed me to
finish the estimate without killing any of the large smbclients which
I previously had.  I only killed one tar smbclient during my nightly
run. This is probably an improvement over losing files in the backup,
if I can force the missing DLE to be backed up through manual
intervention. 

I set runtapes to 3, while only using a single tape each day.
autoflush is set to on.  This method isn't as upset by inaccurate
estimates.  If the backup is too large, it is saved until the next
day.  If there is a big backlog, as at present, I don't write to tape
until at least one day later, which means that I have accurate
knowledge of the size of the backup before writing.

Kevin Dalley <kevin AT kelphead DOT org> writes:

> I'm just starting to use it, due to samba failures.  What happens if
> the DLE does not have a previous run?  Does it revert to the old
> standard?

-- 
Kevin Dalley
kevin AT kelphead DOT org