"Charles" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Hello,
>
> We're making a weekly backup cycle with 7 tapes. We would like to make use
> of AMANDA's tape labeling function to prevent wrong backup tape inserted and
> prevent the backup overwritten at the wrong tape, but we are unable to
> insert the tape in everyday. (e.g. Saturday, Sunday or Holiday there is no
> one goto the Office to change the tape, however we want backup proceed if
> someone goto the Office in these days and he has inserted the correct tape!)
> Is it possible?
>
> i.e. Can we specify Monday should insert the tape MONDAY, Tuesday should
> insert the tape TUESDAY for AMANDA, but we don't need to insert the tape
> everyday to keep the cycle?
>
>
> Many Thanks,
> Charles
Charles,
Amanda works a little bit different. In your situation with 7 tapes
I'd set dumpcycle to 6. So you don't loose your last level 0, when
your cartride gets damages by the drive. I'd label the tapes daily01,
daily02 and so on and keep them in a FIFO stack like configuration on the
shelf: take the front cartride and after backup put it to the back of
the stack. It's fool proof.
Amanda handles tape labels as strings, so the tapelist file is the
only way amanda keeps track which tape is next. There is no magic
numbering involved and you could give out random (but unique) label
strings if you want to. In case you insert the wrong tape you are
_not_ overwriting tapes, because the tape label is checked before the
dumps. (That's what they are for).
The holding disk is the best feature of Amanda: If no/the wrong tape
is loaded, all backups stay on the holding disk and are "amflush"ed
later by hand. So on weekends I'd not bother, but ensure that the
holding "disk" (directory) is big enough for 2 tapes and flush them on
monday mornings. If there is no activity on weekends you could think
of doing no backups on weekends. If changes occur, they are backed up
on mondays. I'm pretty sure that you know what a crontab file is
for...
Apart from getting the Amanda mail reports I seldom have to invest
time into Amanda. Even I can operate it...
Johannes Niess
