> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-amanda-users AT amanda DOT org [mailto:owner-amanda-users AT 
> amanda DOT org]
> On Behalf Of Jon LaBadie
> Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2006 10:58 AM
> To: amanda-users AT amanda DOT org
> Subject: Re: AW: Question about dumbcycle, tapecycle and runspercycle
> 
> 
> On Wed, Jul 26, 2006 at 07:35:49AM +0200, Sebastian Kösters wrote:
> > On Tue, Jul 25, 2006 at 05:46:45PM +0200, Sebastian Kösters wrote:
> > >> I forgot to say.
> > >>
> > >> I did that because my backup size is between 40 and 160 GB each tape,
> > >>every
> > >> day. So i set it to 300 to guarantee that the end of the tape is
> never
> > >> reached and that i do not get the error "tape full".
> > >>
> > >> Hope you unterstand what i mean
> > >>
> > >> >Hi,
> > >> >
> > >> >all together i have 2 TB.
> > >> >
> > >> >I use 8 configs (4 with 14 tapecycles each and 4 with 1 tapecycle
> each).
> > >> >
> > >> >In each config i told amanda to use a maximum of 300GB.
> > >> >
> >
> > >OK, I'm confused.
> > >
> > >A typical amanda installation has a single config, not 8.
> > >Maybe a second one for special purposes, like off-site archives.
> > >But seldom (?never?) 8.
> > >
> > >What do you mean by a config?
> > >
> > >
> > >A tapecycle of 1 is never a good idea.  It means as soon as you start
> > >a backup, you are destroying the only backup you have of those data.
> > >
> > >--
> > >Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
> > > JG Computing
> > > 4455 Province Line Road        (609) 252-0159
> > > Princeton, NJ  08540-4322      (609) 683-7220 (fax)
> >
> >
> >
> > With config i mean the amanda.conf files in the subdirectorys in
> /etc/amanda
> >
> > I have 8 of this sudirectorys. I did that to seperate the backups.
> >
> > 1 config is for non-critical machines (low netusage, incrementel,
> tapecycle
> > 14)
> >
> > 1 config is for our high-critical mashines (high netusage, incrementel,
> > tapecycle 14)
> >
> > 1 config is specialy for our Outlook PST files on a seperate "PST-
> Server"
> > (incrementel, about 100GB for a Level 0 Backup)
> >
> > 1 config is only for our samba Servers which have critical data saved on
> > their hddŽs so they are very critical too.
> >
> > This 4 Backups run every weekday.
> 
> You can't have a config that is incremental only.  An incremental
> backup is based on an earlier, higher level backup, going all the
> way back to level 0.  Dumpcycle is used to tell amanda how often
> it should do that level 0 and reset the base.
> 
> >
> > The other 4 configs are the "same" as above but they only do a Level 0
> > Backup of every Server only on Saturday.
> 
> Ahh, so what you want is for amanda to act like all the other
> "traditional" backup systems out there (those that do full and
> incremental on a fixed schedule).
> 
> With your plan, what happens if a client or the network is down
> just at the time you are running your level 0?  Are you willing
> to wait until the next weekend to get a full backup of those data?
> 
> I'm pretty sure you can get something like what you want with
> half the configs.  Set a long dumpcycle.  Set whatever the parameters
> are for incremental only.  Then add a new cronjob that on Saturday,
> before running amdump, you run amadmin 'force' to manually schedule
> a level 0, full dump the next time each DLE is backed up.
[McGraw, Robert P.] 

I have two amanda config directories, daily and archive. The daily I run
every day, except for the days that I run the archive, and the Archive I run
the first Saturday of the month. 

My cron calls one Perl script. My Perl script builds the Amanda sh script
that runs my backup. 

I have a Perl subroutine that can calculate, many things about a month, such
as the first or second or last Saturday of the month.

if ( first_week(6) ) {
    $dumptype = "archive";
}
else {
    $dumptype = "daily";
}

Which says if today is Saturday (6) of the first week of the month set the
dumptype to "archive" else set the dumptype to "daily". 

When the Perl script runs it produces the .sh file which has 

:
:
/bin/su - amanda -c "/local/Amanda/amanda/sbin/amdump daily"
:
:


If it was the first Saturday of the Month the "daily" would be "archive"


Robert







> 
> I sometimes wonder, if you don't want to take advantage of amanda's
> primary differentiating feature, automatic dynamic scheduling, what
> aspects of amanda caused you to choose amanda?
> >
> > I splitted it into 8 configs to seperate the disklists, netusage....
> >
> 
> When you have individual distinct requirements that is fine.
> 
> Be aware the limitations of running multiple amdumps.  If you have
> only one tape drive, multiple configs can't write to it at the same
> time and will not be able to use the same physical tape one after
> the other.  Also, there are limitations at the client end such that
> you can't have two configs connected at the same time unless you
> go through some hoops a bit off-topic here.  So if either of those
> conditions exist, single archive device or same client in multiple
> configs, you have to run the amdumps consecutively, not simultaneously.
> 
> > Which tapecycle should i set? 2 or more?
> >
> >
> 
> --
> Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
>  JG Computing
>  4455 Province Line Road        (609) 252-0159
>  Princeton, NJ  08540-4322      (609) 683-7220 (fax)

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