On 10/6/07, amanda AT unixplanet DOT biz <amanda AT unixplanet DOT biz> wrote:
> Thank you,
>
> I could open the files with dd and then pipe it to tar command.
>
> is there any way to just create the tar file, I don't want to use
> dd for restoring my backup ? is there any benefit of using dd ?

The headers store information Amanda can use for recovery.  Keep in
mind that Amanda is much more than a shell-script wrapper around
'tar'.

> how can I customize the file name, and what is the 00001 and .1 stands
> for in following names :
> 00001.hostname._tmp_backedup.1

The first is the file number on the vtape.  The .1 is the level (0 is
a full dump; 1 is an incremental based on a level-0).

Please consult the Amanda documentation at wiki.zmanda.com to learn
more about how Amanda works.  If all you want is a crontask to run
'tar' and send the results to another machine, then a simple shell
script might fit the bill.  But I think you'll find that Amanda's
features -- among them, scheduling of backup levels, fault tolerance,
and file-by-file restores -- will make it worth your while to do some
reading.

Dustin

-- 
Storage Software Engineer
http://www.zmanda.com