Incremental backups are at the file level, like Gnutar (exactly like Gnutar, if that's the program you're using for backups.)
AFAIK, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Informix, MSSQL, et al cannot restore from a straight backup of the live database files, and this is never the recommended method of backup. You should use the utilities provided by the database vendor to dump a copy of the database to a static file on disk, then backup that file. I was assuming you were already doing that, and that this was a database that was only dumped weekly, with incremental logs appearing daily. My understanding of Oracle (search the amanda-users archives for details) is that if you're not dumping the database to a file for your backups, you essentially don't have backups. (The exception is backup programs that use the Oracle API rather than the file system.) The no-reuse option can be used for permanent offsites, but you should add new tapes to the rotation to keep the number available at the right level. (Just curious: Does "offsite permanently" mean that they're in the same bin with the 9-track tapes? Magnetic media doesn't last "permanently" anywhere, especially on the big magnet we call planet Earth. Might want to plan other storage systems if you really need "permanent". > -----Original Message----- > From: Derek Suzuki [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 5:59 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: RE: Multiple backup groups > > > Hm. Are you saying that Amanda can do a block-level incremental > backup? I had assumed that the main database files would > have to be backed > up on every run, since they get written to thousands of times a day. > If it is feasible to incorporate everything into a > daily rotation, > then I'd still have to force the archival backups (which are > meant to be > taken offsite permanently) to include a level 0 dump of every target. > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Bort, Paul [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Monday, June 09, 2003 2:36 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: Multiple backup groups > > > > > > > > > > > > > The problem with the offsite is that I want it to > > > include everything > > > from both the daily and the weekly database backups. So the > > > > Right, so if you put both disklist entries in the same AMANDA > > configuration, > > and rotate a week's worth of tapes off-site, you're covered. > > You do have at > > least two week's worth of tapes, I hope. > > > > > disklist is a > > > composite of the other two jobs. If we tried to include the > > > Oracle data > > > files under the regular daily rotation, they would get backed > > > up every day. > > > > > > > Not necessarily. When the backup starts, the planner gets > estimates on > > different levels of backup for each disk list entry, then > > picks which level > > is appropriate for each entry based on a whole raft of > > factors like which > > ones haven't had full backups the longest, how much tape > > space is available, > > and what the configuration files specify for priority. If one > > of those disk > > list entries is the main database dump, a level 0 (full) > > backup might be > > 4Gb, but if that was backed up yesterday, then today's level > > 1 (incremental) > > backup for that DLE might only be 10K. OTOH, the DLE with the > > log files > > would have changed much more since yesterday, and even a > > level 1 of that > > directory would catch the files that have changed since the > > last tape. So it > > would be okay. > > >
