Lukas Kubin wrote:

Hi, I'm running Amanda on Linux server, using the file driver. Mostly I'm
backing up remote Windows machines and Novell Netware's exported CIFS
shares.

I have few questions:

1. How does Amanda find which files changed since last full dump?

For unix filesystems by lookiung the mtime and ctime of a file.
For smbclient by looking at the "archive" bit.  (This also means
that smbclient currently cannot do more than level 0 and level 1
backups).


> Does it use some checksums?

No.

How does it find when doing Linux filesystem
tar backup and how when using smbclient?

It's allways linux unix backups unless the program is GNUTAR
and the diskname is in the form "//netbiosname/share"  (begins with
a double slash).

 2. What is a better way of backing up Windows machines:
- to mount the Windows share locally and back up the mountpoint, or

No, you'll have trouble for the "is this file changed" part, because
the ctime (last inode change time) cannot be mapped to a windows value,
and thus is fill with random data (e.g. the time the filesystem was
mounted, or always "now").  But it does work for full dumps.

- to use the smbclient support of Amanda?

Yes.

I opted for a third way:
- move the data to a linux server and use samba to share to the
PC's.

3. What is the estimate size reported by amstatus? Is it the total
diskspace occupied on the backup client or is it just the difference
(increment) to be backed up at the current dumplevel?

Amanda works in two stages.  First amanda makes an estimate of
the amount of data to backup.  The results of this estimate are
then used to plan which DLE's to backup, and which dumplevel for
each. Then amanda starts doing the backups.
The estimated size in amstatus are the values from the first phase.


--
Paul Bijnens, Xplanation                            Tel  +32 16 397.511
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