reorganizing backup from old amanda version

[Kai Zimmer]

Hi list,

i've been using amanda for many years now (stuck at version 2.5.2p1-4). She has been recovering my/our files very reliably for a long time - thanks a lot for that great piece of software! But by the time files and file systems are getting bigger (14TB of data on the main backup server right now) and i can't cope with splitting up my DLEs into chunks of ~20GB anymore, which i have to do with the (ancient) version of amanda i'm still using.  I'm not exactly sure anymore, why exactly had to split up my DLEs -  probably because of timeout problems. So, i somehow have to reorganize my backup and therfore have some questions about newer versions of amanda:
- Is splitting up DLEs manually into smaller chunks still necessary with current versions of amanda?
- Is there an option for DLEs not to follow symlinks to other filesystems?
- Is there a way to save files regularly to disk and only occasionally to tape?
- Is there a way to allow DMZ backups without opening a whole range of ports?

thanks,
Kai