> > Correct me if I am wrong. It seems that when a DLE is set to > > incremental backup, Amanda will try to get the size using various > > How did you specify "incremental backup"? > There are several methods which have an influence: > > skip-full yes # when planner scheduled a lvl 0 skip it > strategy nofull # only level 1 during planning/estimate > strategy incronly # similar to skip-full but allows full > # dumps with "amadmin force"
Hrom my config it is nothing of the above, the dumptype just mention nothing. > > methods: > > > > - full backup size > > - same incremental level as the last one size > > - next incremental level size > > > > I see in /tmp/amanda/sendsize... the following lines: > > > > sendsize[78984]: time 27.295: getting size via gnutar for /home/fidji level > > 0 > > sendsize[78984]: time 36.611: getting size via gnutar for /home/fidji level > > 3 > > sendsize[78984]: time 38.428: getting size via gnutar for /home/fidji level > > 4 > > > > and it happens that the last incremental backup for /home/fidji was > > level 3. > > > > Then Amanda would choose what level to use (0, 3 or 4). > > I guess that from the above lines you have "skip-full" and not > "strategy incronly". Neither, I have no strategy, nor skip anything. > > Do I understand well? > > > > My problem is the following. I need to backup a Zope > > installation. Zope keeps all the data in one single BIG file (it > > quickly grows GBs). Amanda cannot do proper backup on the fly so I > > need to either: > > > > - stop zope during the backup. Easy using a gnutar wrapper, but that > > would put my web site away for some time. > > > > - use a tool provided by zope to make a safe copy of that big data > > file and backup that copy. > > > > That tool allows incremental copies. How nice, I could match the > > full copy with Amanda full backup and incremental copies with Amanda > > incremental copies... But to get the size right, I need to make the > > copy at the size estimate stage, not at the dump stage. And the size > > estimate of Amanda always proceed to do a full estimate, so I would > > end up anyway using Zope tool to do a full copy. > > > > If I do the copy at dump type only, the size estimate will be all > > wrong (eventually by a large amount). How much can that affect > > Amanda? > If I understand your problem is that doing an estimate for lvl 0, N, N+1 > takes too long, especially the lvl 0. Problem is not the time, but more of strategy: It seems that there is an estimate full run every day, even if the dump ends up being incremental. If I do my full copy just before the full estimate, I will end up doing a full copy every day, that defeates the purpose of having incremental copy. I will look at estimate server then. best regards, Olivier