On Monday 11 September 2006 17:32, you wrote:
> On 2006-09-11 16:27, Dominik Schips wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am new to AMANDA but I like it very much but I didn't get a good answer
> > from all the documentation I read already and hope to get answers from
> > the mailing list now.
> >
> > I use a Overland PowerLoader with a Ultrium LTO (400GB tape) device which
> > change the tapes automatically.
> >
> > The clients push all the backup data via rsync (or other tools) to the
> > server and I had to do a full backup every day of this directories the
> > files are stored in. No incremental backup is allowed.
> > Don't ask. I know this isn't the best to backup with AMANDA but I had to
> > do it in this way.
> > For the dumpes I use a holding disk before the dumpes are written to
> > tape.
> >
> > The problem I have is that the last dump is to big (145GB) and doesn't
> > fit on the first tape. So it is no problem. The PowerLoader take the next
> > tape and everything is fine.
> >
> > But the entire backup take about 12-14 hours for all data (see statistics
> > at the bottom). That is a little bit too much and I like to speed up the
> > configuration.
> >
> > I have 2 questions:
> >
> > 1. How can I tell AMANDA to start with the big directories first and then
> > the small directories?
> > As I have seen AMANDA allways starts with the smallest and then the next
> > biggest and so on.
>
> http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/Filling_a_tape_to_100%25

This looks great. Thank you.

> > 2. I use a holding disk for the configuration. But AMANDA always do only
> > one dump at the same time.
> > How can I tell AMANDA to dump more directories at the same time to the
> > holding disk so that the LTO device can backup the data faster and don't
> > have to wait for the dumps of the holding disk?
>
> You are looking for the "maxdumps" parameter for the dumptype.

I'll have a look at this.

And I have to say that the AMANDA mailing list ist the fastest and best I ever 
have seen. :)

> > It is a problem when the dumps are bigger then about 20GB because the LTO
> > drive had to wait for the next dump until it is written to the holding
> > disk. The result is the very high run time of AMANDA I think.
> >
> > Are the "maxdumps" and "inparallel" options at the amanda.conf the way to
> > get several dumpes written at once to the holding disk?
>
> Yes.
>
> > Remember the files to back up are on the server already.
> >
> > I dont' have access to the config files today but let me know if you need
> > them to answer my questions.
> > For your information the LTO device use hardware compression. Is it
> > better to disable hardware compression to speed up the run time?
> >
> > Here are some statistics:
> >
> > STATISTICS:
> >                           Total       Full      Daily
> >                         --------   --------   --------
> > Estimate Time (hrs:min)    0:40
> > Run Time (hrs:min)        13:08
> > Dump Time (hrs:min)        8:27       8:27       0:00
> > Output Size (meg)      374733.9   374733.9        0.0
> > Original Size (meg)    374733.9   374733.9        0.0
> > Avg Compressed Size (%)     --         --         --
> > Filesystems Dumped           12         12          0
> > Avg Dump Rate (k/s)     12613.8    12613.8        --
> >
> > Tape Time (hrs:min)        3:35       3:35       0:00
> > Tape Size (meg)        374733.9   374733.9        0.0
> > Tape Used (%)             194.1      194.1        0.0
> > Filesystems Taped            12         12          0
> > Avg Tp Write Rate (k/s) 29707.6    29707.6        --
> >
> > USAGE BY TAPE:
> >   Label                    Time      Size      %    Nb
> >   Daily027       1:59  224033.5  116.1    11
> >   Daily028       1:36  150700.4   78.1     1
> >
> >
> > Best regards
> >
> > Dominik