Chris, For the longest time I did traditional backups (fulls and incrementals, via tar). If that model still fits your needs, you can stay with that.
Once I began backing up a small cluster of machines, Amanda's paradigm began to show its value. However, it relies upon volume management, and it requires an acceptance that "her" algorithms allow a more optimal distribution of backups based on both availability of backup media (virtual or otherwise) and the amount of individual and collective changes on the client machines - as well as certain parameters I set such as the maximum interval I am willing to accept between full backups. The benefit is that with the amount of space I've allocated to vtapes, I get the maximum amount of change data on backup. It isn't overprovisioning; it's about optimization. It's also proven itself in restores, where instead of having to restore a full directory and then every L1 and L2 delta, I can simply tell Amanda to restore file-version-as-of-specific-date. I highly suggest a read of this FAQ: http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/FAQ:How_are_backup_levels_defined_and_how_does_Amanda_use_them%3F; particularly the section about Amanda's planning strategy. If you "insist" on constraining Amanda to one-volume-per-backup, you are basically going against the strategy; without that capability, I don't think that Amanda's overhead gives you anything you can't do with tar and a cron job. On 2017-12-31 07:13 PM, Chris Miller wrote: > Hi Winston, > > Could you explain your concern about multiple volumes? > > Yes. It adds a layer between the catalog of backed-up files and the > location on disk. Without tape volumes, I could presumably find what I > need with a date and tar, with tape volumes, I have the additional > complexity of unpacking the tape volume discipline. If I could > configure tape volumes so that each volume held exactly one backup, > then I could live with that compromise. > > Is there any documentation that I haven't found, because I haven't > found much... > > Thanks for the help, > -- > Chris. > > V:916.974.0424 > F:916.974.0428
