2006/2/13, Jon LaBadie <jon AT jgcomp DOT com>:
> Thus, you are constrained by the capabilities of the
> backup program.  Few, if any, dump/restore pairs are
> designed to deal with anything except complete file systems.
> Gnutar can.  So for each DLE, you pick which you want.

So, this should be in my amanda.conf to be able to b/u directories
instead of filesystems....

define dumptype home-tar {
    global
    program "GNUTAR"
    comment "home partitions dumped with tar"
    compress none
    exclude list "/etc/amanda/exclude.gtar"
    priority medium
}


> > Question 5:
> >
> > I have also read that amanda is not able to append to a tape.  At the
> > moment the incrementals and differentials write to the same tape for
> > the same b/u job.   If I can not append to the tape do I need to
> > change them after each incremental?   I think I am not understanding
> > this correctly.
>
> The designers of amanda decided that it is too risky to add to a tape.
> One small error in positioning could wipe out all your backups on the
> tape.  You can let the backups collect on disk (in the holding disk area)
> and only "flush" them when you have sufficient to fill a tape.

Makes sense.  This morning I had an inconsistent tape.  Luckily the
BRU scan took care of it.

> This phrase:
>
> > do I need to change them after each incremental?
>
> tells me you don't yet understand the amanda scheduling.  It is
> definitely not bru.  You don't have incrementals today, fulls
> tomorrow.  Each day is a mixture of some DLEs as full, some DLEs
> as incrementals.  The aim is to have the size of each day's backup
> be approximately the same.

You are correct, I do not understand the amanda scheduling.   I would
love to find a HOWTO or tutorial that would take me through the steps
in setting it up.   I read about all the pieces, but not how to make
them work together.  The best I have read so far is in "UNIX system
administration handbook", but that is dated and still too short.

--
Enrico Indiogine
Parasol Laboratory
Texas A&M University

enricoi AT cs.tamu DOT edu
hindiogine AT gmail DOT com
979-845-3937