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Performing Centralized Concurrent Backups with Amanda

By Amy Rich

There are a number of enterprise tape backup solutions, such as Sun StorEdge Enterprise Backup Software, VERITAS NetBackup, and LEGATO NetWorker, geared toward larger corporations. Many sites, especially smaller ones, don't wish to pay the license fees that some of these solutions command. For those smaller sites that want something free yet flexible, Amanda, The Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver, can be an excellent choice. Amanda is a collection of C programs designed to run automated centralized concurrent backups using the vendor's dump software (ufsdump in the case of the Solaris OS), GNU tar, and SAMBA.

The Amanda Philosophy

Amanda uses a client/server model in which the server, called the tape host, is attached directly to a tape drive or tape changer. Generally the tape host also has one or more large local storage areas, called holding disks, which are used to temporarily store data sets from remote machines. If desired, Amanda can be configured to only back up data sets to the local disks and not to tape. In this configuration, no tape drive is required. Amanda can also be configured to run without a holding disk, but this configuration requires that backups are run sequentially instead of in parallel. The software on the tape host, generally run from cron, initiates backups, handles writing data to tape, and keeps a centralized database of what files went on what tape. There is no GUI interface, but the command-line interface is fairly straightforward.

The client software is spawned by inetd on each machine when contacted by the tape host. The client uses tar, the vendor-supplied dump program (for example, ufsdump), or SAMBA to create a data set and pipe the raw data back across the network to standard out on the tape host. The tape host writes the data set to a file on the holding disk or straight to tape, depending on how Amanda is configured. Because only standard UNIX tools are used, data can be recovered from a backup tape even if Amanda is not installed.

Each Amanda configuration on the tape host has three important files, amanda.conf, disklist, and tapelist. The disklist lists disk devices, mount points, and directory names that need to be backed up during each Amanda run, and it also defines how each should be handled. The tapelist file contains the list of valid tapes and the dates on which they expire. The amanda.conf file contains the rest of the configuration data, including information about scheduling, tape devices, holding disks, logging, and dump types (ufsdump/tar/SAMBA, compression usage, holding disk usage, and so on).

Amanda requires that each tape in a configuration be labeled before use. This simplistic tape management system prevents tapes with valid data sets from being overwritten and also prevents Amanda from using tapes that are not intended for the current configuration. Each run of Amanda requires one or more new tapes since Amanda does not append to old tapes. Based on settings in the Amanda configuration file, tapes expire and can later be reused. Amanda can also be configured to never expire tapes, which is useful for offsite archive sets.

Amanda supports using multiple tapes in a single run, but cannot split a single data set across multiple tapes. This also means it does not support dump images larger than a single tape. If space or bandwidth is at a premium and CPU cycles are not, data sets can be compressed on either the client or the server. Amanda can also be configured to use a tape device that provides hardware compression instead.

If Amanda is configured to do a mix of full and incremental backups, the software, not the system administrator, schedules the days on which full or incremental backups occur based upon an internal algorithm. The algorithm takes into account the number of days since the last full backup, the amount of space on the tape, and the number of days until the last full backup will be overwritten. Amanda can also be configured to perform only full backups, if incrementals are not desired.

Installing Amanda

Preconfiguration

groupadd -g 5555 amanda
useradd -c amanda -d /usr/local/etc/amanda -m -g 5555 -u 5555 -G sys amanda

mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/amanda
mkdir -p /var/log/amanda/Full
chown -R amanda:amanda /var/log/amanda /usr/local/etc/amanda
touch /etc/dumpdates
chmod 664 /etc/dumpdates
chown root:sys /etc/dumpdates

In addition, I must modify /etc/services and /etc/inetd.conf on the server to include the information for the amanda daemon, taper, and index programs:

echo "amanda 10080/udp          # amanda" >> /etc/services
echo "amandaidx 10082/tcp       # amanda" >> /etc/services
echo "amidxtape 10083/tcp       # amanda" >> /etc/services

echo "amanda dgram udp wait amanda /usr/local/libexec/amandad \
 amandad # amanda" >> /etc/inetd.conf
echo "amandaidx stream tcp nowait amanda /usr/local/libexec/amindexd \
 amindexd # amanda" >> /etc/inetd.conf
echo "amidxtape stream tcp nowait amanda /usr/local/libexec/amidxtaped \
 amidxtaped # amanda" >> /etc/inetd.conf

Lastly, Amanda security requires that I have a file called .amandahosts in the user amanda's home directory. This file contains the name of the tape host for authentication purposes.

Retrieving and Compiling the Source

tar zxf amanda-2.4.4p1.tar.gz
./configure --with-user=amanda --with-group=amanda \
     --with-libraries=/usr/local/lib
make
make check
make install

This installs the following programs as well as supporting libraries, man pages, and information files. These commands have their own man page or are covered in the main amanda man page.

/usr/local/libexec/amandad              /usr/local/libexec/driver       
/usr/local/libexec/calcsize             /usr/local/libexec/dumper       
/usr/local/libexec/killpgrp             /usr/local/libexec/planner      
/usr/local/libexec/rundump              /usr/local/libexec/taper        
/usr/local/libexec/runtar               /usr/local/libexec/amcleanupdisk
/usr/local/libexec/selfcheck            /usr/local/libexec/chg-spectra  
/usr/local/libexec/sendbackup           /usr/local/libexec/chg-scsi     
/usr/local/libexec/sendsize             /usr/local/libexec/chg-manual   
/usr/local/libexec/versionsuffix        /usr/local/libexec/chg-multi    
/usr/local/libexec/patch-system         /usr/local/libexec/chg-mtx      
/usr/local/libexec/amindexd             /usr/local/libexec/chg-rth      
/usr/local/libexec/amlogroll            /usr/local/libexec/chg-chs      
/usr/local/libexec/amtrmidx             /usr/local/libexec/chg-chio     
/usr/local/libexec/amtrmlog             /usr/local/libexec/chg-zd-mtx   
/usr/local/libexec/amidxtaped   


/usr/local/sbin/ammt                    /usr/local/sbin/amcleanup       
/usr/local/sbin/amdd                    /usr/local/sbin/amdump          
/usr/local/sbin/amadmin                 /usr/local/sbin/amoverview      
/usr/local/sbin/amcheck                 /usr/local/sbin/amrmtape        
/usr/local/sbin/amflush                 /usr/local/sbin/amtoc           
/usr/local/sbin/amgetconf               /usr/local/sbin/amverify        
/usr/local/sbin/amlabel                 /usr/local/sbin/amstatus        
/usr/local/sbin/amtape                  /usr/local/sbin/amrestore       
/usr/local/sbin/amreport                /usr/local/sbin/amrecover       
/usr/local/sbin/amcheckdb               

Create a Client Package for the Solaris OS

tar zxf amanda-2.4.4p1.tar.gz
./configure --with-user=amanda --with-group=amanda \
     --with-libraries=/usr/local/lib --without-server
make
make check
make install

I use the following pkginfo, prototype, preinstall, and postremove files to create the amanda package:

amanda-client-2.4.4p1-pkginfo

BASEDIR=/usr/local
PATH=/sbin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sadm/install/bin
PKG=amandaclient
NAME=amanda-client
VERSION=2.4.4p1
ARCH=sun4u
CATEGORY=application
VENDOR=MyDomain
EMAIL=support@my.domain
CLASSES=none

amanda-client-2.4.4p1-prototype

i pkginfo=amanda-client-2.4.4p1-pkginfo
i preinstall=amanda-client-2.4.4p1-preinstall
i postremove=amanda-client-2.4.4p1-postremove
!search /usr/local
d none lib 0755 root other
f none lib/libamanda.la 0755 root other
f none lib/libamanda.a 0644 root other
f none lib/libamclient.la 0755 root other
f none lib/libamclient.a 0644 root other
f none lib/libamtape.la 0755 root other
f none lib/libamtape.a 0644 root other
d none libexec 0755 root other
f none libexec/amandad 0755 amanda amanda
f none libexec/calcsize 4750 root amanda
f none libexec/killpgrp 4750 root amanda
f none libexec/rundump 4750 root amanda
f none libexec/runtar 4750 root amanda
f none libexec/selfcheck 0755 amanda amanda
f none libexec/sendbackup 0755 amanda amanda
f none libexec/sendsize 0755 amanda amanda
f none libexec/versionsuffix 0755 amanda amanda
f none libexec/patch-system 0755 amanda amanda
f none libexec/amidxtaped 0755 amanda amanda
d none sbin 0755 root other
f none sbin/ammt 0755 amanda amanda
f none sbin/amdd 0755 amanda amanda
f none sbin/amrestore 0755 amanda amanda
f none sbin/amrecover 0750 amanda amanda
d none man 0755 root other
d none man/man8 0755 root other
f none man/man8/amanda.8 0644 amanda amanda
f none man/man8/amrecover.8 0644 amanda amanda
f none man/man8/amrestore.8 0644 amanda amanda

amanda-client-2.4.4p1-preinstall

#!/bin/sh

# make sure that TMPDIR is on the same filesystem as the password file to
# avoid fatal errors with useradd

TMPDIR=/etc
export TMPDIR

mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/amanda
echo "tapehost.my.domain" > /usr/local/etc/amanda/.amandahosts
touch /etc/dumpdates
chmod 664 /etc/dumpdates
chown root:sys /etc/dumpdates

if [ -f /etc/group ] && [ -f /etc/shadow ]; then
  /usr/sbin/groupadd -g 5555 amanda
  /usr/sbin/useradd -c amanda -d /usr/local/etc/amanda -g 5555 -u 5555 -G sys amanda
fi

if [ -f /etc/services ]; then
  cp /etc/services /etc/services.orig
fi

echo "amanda    10080/udp    # amanda" >> /etc/services
echo "amandaidx 10082/tcp    # amanda" >> /etc/services
echo "amidxtape 10083/tcp    # amanda" >> /etc/services

if [ -f /etc/inetd.conf ]; then
  cp /etc/inetd.conf /etc/inetd.conf.orig
fi

echo "amanda dgram udp wait amanda /usr/local/libexec/amandad amandad" \ 
     >> /etc/inetd.conf

amanda-client-2.4.4p1-postremove

#!/bin/sh
TMPDIR=/etc
export TMPDIR

if [ -f /etc/group ] && [ -f /etc/shadow ]; then
  /usr/sbin/usermod -G , amanda
  /usr/sbin/groupdel amanda
  /usr/sbin/userdel amanda
fi

if [ -f /etc/inetd.conf ]; then
  grep -vi amanda /etc/inetd.conf > /etc/inetd.$$
  mv /etc/inetd.$$ /etc/inetd.conf
fi

if [ -f /etc/services ]; then
  grep -vi amanda /etc/services > /etc/services.$$
  mv /etc/services.$$ /etc/services
fi

Now create the package and install it on each client:

pkgmk -b /usr/local -o -f amanda-client-2.4.4p1-prototype
cd /var/spool/pkg; pkgtrans -s `pwd` /tmp/amandaclient-2.4.4p1
pkgadd -d /tmp/amandaclient-2.4.4p1

Also make sure that the user amanda has read access on all raw disk devices that it needs to back up. Group sys read is sufficient since amanda is in group sys:

crw-r----- 1 root sys 136, 0 May 27 18:03 \
                         /devices/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/dad@0,0:a,raw
crw-r----- 1 root sys 136, 3 Aug 19 13:54 \
                         /devices/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/dad@0,0:d,raw
crw-r----- 1 root sys 136, 4 Aug 19 13:54 \
                         /devices/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/dad@0,0:e,raw
crw-r----- 1 root sys 136, 5 Aug 19 13:54 \
                         /devices/pci@1f,0/pci@1,1/ide@3/dad@0,0:f,raw

Sample Configuration

This sample configuration performs full backups of each data set every time amanda runs. Amanda runs from cron twice a week, and the dumps are expired after three weeks. There are 12 AIT2 tapes in the cycle, and each run can take up to two tapes. The tapes are housed in a Spectra Logic tape changer, controlled by the program mtx. This assumes that mtx is installed and can correctly manipulate the tape changer.

First, I make the directory for the Full configuration:

mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/amanda/Full

In that directory, I put the file amanda.conf, which contains the following:

# amanda.conf - Amanda configuration file for full dumps

org "MyDomain"          # your organization name for reports

mailto "operator@my.domain"  # space separated list of operators at your site

dumpuser "amanda" # the user to run dumps under

inparallel 15         # maximum dumpers that will run in parallel (max 63)
                 # this maximum can be increased at compile-time,
                 # modifying MAX_DUMPERS in server-src/driverio.h

dumporder "ttBTBTBTBTBTBTB" # specify the priority order of each dumper
                 #   s -> smallest size
                 #   S -> biggest size
                 #   t -> smallest time
                 #   T -> biggest time
                 #   b -> smallest bandwidth
                 #   B -> biggest bandwidth
                 # try "BTBTBTBTBTBT" if you are not holding
                 # disk constrained

netusage  10000000 Kbps # maximum net bandwidth for Amanda, in KB per sec

dumpcycle 3 weeks # the number of days in the normal dump cycle

runspercycle 8          # the number of amdump runs in dumpcycle days
                 # (4 weeks * 5 amdump runs per week -- just weekdays)

tapecycle 12 tapes # the number of tapes in rotation
                 # 4 weeks (dumpcycle) times 5 tapes per week (just
                 # the weekdays) plus a few to handle errors that
                 # need amflush and so we do not overwrite the full
                 # backups performed at the beginning of the previous
                 # cycle

bumpsize 20 Mb   # minimum savings (threshold) to bump level 1 -> 2

bumpdays 1       # minimum days at each level

bumpmult 4       # threshold = bumpsize * bumpmult^(level-1)

etimeout 600     # number of seconds per filesystem for estimates.
#etimeout -600   # total number of seconds for estimates.
# a positive number will be multiplied by the number of filesystems on
# each host; a negative number will be taken as an absolute total time-out.
# The default is 5 minutes per filesystem.

dtimeout 1800    # number of idle seconds before a dump is aborted.

ctimeout 30      # maximum number of seconds that amcheck waits
                 # for each client host

tapebufs 20
# A positive integer telling taper how many 32k buffers to allocate.
# WARNING! If this is set too high, taper will not be able to allocate
# the memory and will die.  The default is 20 (640k).


# Specify tape device and/or tape changer.  If you don't have a tape
# changer, and you don't want to use more than one tape per run of
# amdump, just comment out the definition of tpchanger.

tpchanger "chg-spectra" # the tape-changer glue script

tapedev "/dev/rmt/0cn"  # the no-rewind tape device to be used

changerfile "/usr/local/etc/amanda/changer"

changerdev "/dev/scsi/changer/c1t4d0"

runtapes 1         # number of tapes to be used in a single run of amdump

tapetype SDX2-50C  # what kind of tape it is (see tapetypes below)

labelstr "^Full-[0-9][0-9]*$" # label constraint regex: all tapes must match

# Specify holding disks.  These are used as a temporary staging area for
# dumps before they are written to tape and are recommended for most sites.
# If no holding disks are specified then all dumps will be written directly
# to tape.  If a dump is too big to fit on the holding disk then it will be
# written directly to tape.  If more than one holding disk is specified then
# they will all be used based on activity and available space.

holdingdisk hd1 {
    comment "main holding disk"
    directory "/data/amanda/Full" # where the holding disk is
    use 65 Gb         # how much space can we use on it
}


# If amanda cannot find a tape on which to store backups, it will run
# as many backups as it can to the holding disks.  In order to save
# space for unattended backups, by default, amanda will only perform
# incremental backups in this case, i.e., it will reserve 100% of the
# holding disk space for the so-called degraded mode backups.
# However, if you specify a different value for the `reserve'
# parameter, amanda will not degrade backups if they will fit in the
# non-reserved portion of the holding disk.
# reserve 30 # percent
# This means save at least 30% of the holding disk space for degraded
# mode backups.  

reserve 0

autoflush no
# if autoflush is set to yes, then amdump will schedule all dump on
# holding disks to be flush to tape during the run.

# The format for a ColumnSpec is a ',' seperated list of triples.
# Each triple consists of
#   + the name of the column (as in ColumnNameStrings)
#   + prefix before the column
#   + the width of the column, if set to -1 it will be recalculated
#     to the maximum length of a line to print.
#        
# You need only specify those columns that should be changed from
# the default. If nothing is specified in the configfile, the
# above compiled in values will be in effect, resulting in an
# output as it was all the time.
# The names of the columns are:
# HostName, Disk, Level, OrigKB, OutKB, Compress, DumpTime, DumpRate,
# TapeTime and TapeRate.
#                                                 ElB, 1999-02-24.
# columnspec "Disk=1:18,HostName=0:10,OutKB=1:7"
# (Note - the line below should be on one line)
columnspec "HostName=0:12,Disk=1:12,Level=1:1,OrigKB=1:7,OutKB=1:7,
     DumpTime=1:6,DumpRate=1:7,TapeTime=1:6,TapeRate=1:7,Compress=1:0"

# Amanda needs a few Mb of diskspace for the log and debug files,
# as well as a database.  This stuff can grow large, so the conf directory
# isn't usually appropriate.  Some sites use /usr/local/var and some /usr/adm.
# Create an amanda directory under there.  You need a separate infofile and
# logdir for each configuration, so create subdirectories for each conf and
# put the files there.  Specify the locations below.

# Note that, although the keyword below is infofile, it is only so for
# historic reasons, since now it is supposed to be a directory (unless
# you have selected some database format other than the `text' default)
infofile "/var/log/amanda/Full/curinfo" # database DIRECTORY

logdir   "/var/log/amanda/Full"         # log directory

indexdir "/var/log/amanda/Full/index" # index directory


# tapetypes
# Define the type of tape you use here, and use it in "tapetype"
# above. The tapetype tells amanda how many MB will fit on the tape,
# how big the filemarks are, and how fast the tape device is.

# A filemark is the amount of wasted space every time a tape section
# ends.  If you run `make tapetype' in tape-src, you'll get a program
# that generates tapetype entries, but it is slow as hell, use it only
# if you really must and, if you do, make sure you post the data to
# the amanda mailing list, so that others can use what you found out
# by searching the archives.

define tapetype SDX2-50C {
    comment "AIT2"
    length 50000 mbytes
    filemark 3120 kbytes
    speed 5371 kps
}


# dumptypes - define how a filesystem is backed up

define dumptype global {
    # This is quite useful for setting global parameters, so you don't have
    # to type them everywhere.  All dumptype definitions in this sample file
    # do include these definitions, either directly or indirectly.
    comment "Global definitions"
    compress NONE
    priority high
    dumpcycle 0
    holdingdisk yes
    index yes
    record yes
}

define dumptype always-full {
    global
    comment "Full dump of this filesystem always"
    index yes
    program "DUMP"
    maxdumps 2
}

define dumptype always-full-tar {
    global
    comment "Full backups using tar"
    index yes
    program "GNUTAR"
    maxdumps 4
}


# define usable network interfaces

define interface local {
    comment "a local disk"
    use 10000 kbps
}

define interface le0 {
    comment "10 Mbps ethernet"
    use 9000 kbps
}

define interface hme0 {
    comment "100 Mbps ethernet"
    use 900000 kbps
}

More information on the amanda.conf file can be found in the amanda man page and in the sample amanda.conf provided with the source code.

The following goes in /usr/local/etc/amanda/Full/disklist. The first entry shows a machine running the Solaris 8 OS, which is being backed up with ufsdump by mount point. The second entry is a machine running Solaris 9 that's being backed up by means of ufsdump by specifying the disk device. The third entry is a FreeBSD machine being backed up with dump by disk device, and with tar by directory name. The FreeBSD machine is also being used to back up some Windows 2000 shares via SAMBA. The last entry is an OS X machine using GNU tar to back up various directories.

solaris8.my.domain / always-full
solaris8.my.domain /usr  always-full
solaris8.my.domain /var always-full
solaris8.my.domain /local always-full

solaris9.my.domain c0t0d0s0 always-full
solaris9.my.domain c0t0d0s3 always-full
solaris9.my.domain c0t0d0s4 always-full
solaris9.my.domain c0t0d0s5 always-full

freebsd.my.domain ad0s1a always-full
freebsd.my.domain ad0s1e always-full
freebsd.my.domain ad0s1f always-full
freebsd.my.domain /raid always-full-tar
freebsd.my.domain //windows2000/work always-full-tar
freebsd.my.domain //windows2000/doc_share always-full-tar

osx.my.domain /Applications always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /Developer always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /Library always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /Network always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /System always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /Users always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /bin always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /dev always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /private always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /root always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /sbin always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /sw always-full-tar
osx.my.domain /usr always-full-tar

Labeling Tapes

Now that the amanda.conf and disklist files are in place, I need to use one of the amanda tools, amlabel, to put labels on the tape I want to use with the Full configuration. In amanda.conf, I specified a regular expression for the Full tape labels:

I must now match that regular expression when labeling my tapes, or amanda will not know that the tapes belong with the Full configuration. The optional slot argument is used below because mtx understands that it must pull the first tape from the first slot and label it, then return that tape and pull the tape from slot two to label it, and so on.

amlabel Full Full-01 slot 1
amlabel Full Full-02 slot 2
amlabel Full Full-03 slot 3
amlabel Full Full-04 slot 4

Running amlabel has created /usr/local/etc/amanda/Full/tapelist with the following contents:

0 Full-01 reuse
0 Full-02 reuse
0 Full-03 reuse
0 Full-04 reuse

Performing Backups

Now that my configuration is complete and I've labeled some tapes, I can actually run a backup. First I run the amcheck program as the user amanda to verify that there are no problems with the clients, the holding disk, or the tape:

amcheck Full

Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
Holding disk /data/amanda/Full: 69770037 KB disk space available, that's
plenty
amcheck-server: slot 1: date 20030813 label Full-01 (exact label match)
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape Full-01 label ok
Server check took 46.133 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 4 hosts checked in 1.108 seconds, 0 problems found

The check shows that everything is ok and ready for a dump, so I run the dump as the user amanda:

amdump Full

Once the dump finishes, a report will be emailed to operator@my.domain, as specified in the amanda.conf file of the Full configuration. This run happened to fit onto one tape since I had deleted a lot of data the day before. If it had needed two tapes, it would have instructed the changer to eject the current tape and load the next tape in the list, Full-02. Whatever file was being written to tape when Full-01 ran out of space would be restarted from the beginning on Full-02.

From: amanda 
To: operator@my.domain
Subject: MyDomain AMANDA MAIL REPORT FOR September 17, 2003
Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 02:44:59 -0400 (EDT)

These dumps were to tape Full-01.
The next tape Amanda expects to use is: Full-02.



STATISTICS:
                          Total       Full      Daily
                        --------   --------   --------
Estimate Time (hrs:min)    0:46
Run Time (hrs:min)         2:45
Dump Time (hrs:min)        9:03       9:03       0:00
Output Size (meg)       32188.0    32188.0        0.0
Original Size (meg)     32188.0    32188.0        0.0
Avg Compressed Size (%)     --         --         -- 
Filesystems Dumped           27         27          0
Avg Dump Rate (k/s)      1011.8     1011.8        -- 

Tape Time (hrs:min)        1:35       1:35       0:00
Tape Size (meg)         32189.1    32189.1        0.0
Tape Used (%)              64.5       64.5        0.0
Filesystems Taped            27         27          0
Avg Tp Write Rate (k/s)  5796.1     5796.1        -- 


NOTES:
  taper: tape Full-01 kb 32961632 fm 27 [OK]


DUMP SUMMARY:
                                     DUMPER STATS            TAPER STATS  
HOSTNAME     DISK         L ORIG-KB  OUT-KB COMP% MMM:SS    KB/s MMM:SS    KB/s
--------------------------- ------------------------------- --------------
solaris8.my. /            0  129056  129088 --    2:42   794.7   0:51  2546.8
solaris8.my. /local       0 10899104 10899136 --   95:40  1898.7  22:53  7939.4
solaris8.my. /usr         0  281248  281280 --    5:23   871.2   1:58  2376.1
solaris8.my. /var         0  336320  336352 --    5:58   939.6   2:09  2607.8
solaris9.my. c0t0d0s0     0   51424   51456 --    0:32  1590.7   0:15  3523.9
solaris9.my. c0t0d0s3     0  117440  117472 --    2:27   798.2   0:51  2317.5
solaris9.my. c0t0d0s4     0  104928  104960 --    2:03   850.8   0:27  3944.0
solaris9.my. c0t0d0s5     0   85760   85792 --    1:53   761.3   0:32  2675.2
freebsd.my.d -0/doc_share 0 2211140 2211200 --   36:56   997.7   8:27  4362.1
freebsd.my.d -ws2000/work 0 3377340 3377376 --   53:25  1053.7   9:00  6255.7
freebsd.my.d /raid        0 2860600 2860640 --   40:00  1192.1   7:56  6010.0
freebsd.my.d ad0s1a       0   79020   79072 --    0:37  2134.0   0:24  3305.3
freebsd.my.d ad0s1e       0 4192680 4192736 --   54:36  1279.8   9:35  7296.6
freebsd.my.d ad0s1f       0  185920  185952 --    3:42   837.7   1:04  2893.2
osx.my.domai -pplications 0 3383280 3383328 --   77:24   728.5   8:46  6432.3
osx.my.domai /Developer   0  508320  508352 --   18:07   467.8   1:22  6219.4
osx.my.domai /Library     0  949430  949472 --   35:42   443.3   4:59  3174.2
osx.my.domai /Network     0      10      64 --    0:01    19.8   0:03    18.5
osx.my.domai /System      0 1127890 1127936 --   28:20   663.4   2:48  6698.4
osx.my.domai /Users       0   44080   44128 --    1:10   627.4   0:25  1731.2
osx.my.domai /bin         0    3890    3936 --    0:04  1111.4   0:02  2161.7
osx.my.domai /dev         0      10      64 --    0:00    65.9   0:01    43.8
osx.my.domai /private     0  186160  186208 --    7:39   405.9   1:36  1939.6
osx.my.domai /root        0  335350  335392 --   11:37   481.5   2:12  2536.0
osx.my.domai /sbin        0    1900    1952 --    0:02  1238.4   0:09   218.7
osx.my.domai /sw          0 1169260 1169312 --   44:29   438.2   4:09  4688.7
osx.my.domai /usr         0  338920  338976 --   12:30   452.0   1:52  3013.3

(brought to you by Amanda version 2.4.4p1)

To automate backups, amanda has the following crontab. Running amcheck a couple of hours before amdump gives the operators a chance to correct any issues.

Restoring Files and Data Sets

Amanda can restore selected files or entire data sets. The program amrestore will pull an entire data set from the current tape. If desired, the output of amrestore can be piped to the restore program that corresponds to the program used to dump the data set (for example, ufsrestore for a data set created with ufsdump, or tar for a dataset created with tar). The program amrecover has a nicer interface and can determine which tape is required for a given file. It can also restore that file once the correct tape is found.

Here's an example from the amrestore man page that shows a tape device hooked up to a BSD style machine. To change this to Solaris style syntax, the tape and disk device names would change, and restore would be ufsrestore instead.

EXAMPLES
     The  following does an interactive restore of disk rz3g from
     host seine, to restore particular files.  Note  the  use  of
     the b option to restore, which causes it to read in units of
     two 512-byte blocks (1 Kbyte) at a time.  This helps keep it
     from complaining about short reads.

          % amrestore -p /dev/nrmt9 seine rz3g | restore -ivbf 2 -

     The  next example extracts all backup images for host seine.
     This is the usual way to extract all data for a host after a
     disk crash.

          % amrestore /dev/nrmt9 seine

Here's an example from the amrecover man page that restores a deleted syslog file:

EXAMPLES
     The following shows the recovery of an old syslog file.

          # cd /var/log
          # ls -l syslog.7
          syslog.7: No such file or directory
          # amrecover
          AMRECOVER Version 2.4.4p1. Contacting server on
          # tapehost.my.domain
          220 tapehost.my.domain AMANDA index server (2.4.4p1) ready.
          Setting restore date to today (1997-12-09)
          200 Working date set to 1997-12-09.
          200 Config set to DailySet1.
          200 Dump host set to this-host.some.org.
          $CWD '/var/log' is on disk '/var' mounted at '/var'.
          200 Disk set to /var.
          /var/log
          WARNING: not on root of selected filesystem, check man-page!
          amrecover> ls
          1997-12-09 daemon.log
          1997-12-09 syslog
          1997-12-08 authlog
          1997-12-08 sysidconfig.log
          1997-12-08 syslog.0
          1997-12-08 syslog.1
          1997-12-08 syslog.2
          1997-12-08 syslog.3
          1997-12-08 syslog.4
          1997-12-08 syslog.5
          1997-12-08 syslog.6
          1997-12-08 syslog.7
          amrecover> add syslog.7
          Added /log/syslog.7
          amrecover> lpwd
          /var/log
          amrecover> lcd ..
          /var
          amrecover> extract

          Extracting files using tape drive /dev/null on host
          tapehost.my.domain

          The following tapes are needed: DMP014

          Restoring files into directory /var
          Continue? [Y/n]: y

          Load tape DMP014 now
          Continue? [Y/n]: y
          set owner/mode for '.'? [yn] n
          amrecover> quit
          200 Good bye.
          # ls -l syslog.7
          total 26
          -rw-r--r--   1 root     other      12678 Oct 14 16:36 syslog.7

Resources

For further information, see the following resources:

• The Amanda home page
• Amanda mailing lists
• The Amanda FAQ
• O'Reilly's Unix Backup and Recovery by W. Curtis Preston (ISBN: 1565926420), which contains a chapter on Amanda written by John R. Jackson

Unless otherwise licensed, code in all technical manuals herein (including articles, FAQs, samples) is provided under this License.