Re: is excluding /usr/local/var/amanda a bad idea ?
Gene Heskett wrote: On Friday 11 November 2005 05:07, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: He meant a script to read the complete tapes and reconstruct the database from that information. I don't know but what there may be such a utility hidden in the myriad of utils that already come with amanda. Its been a while since I perused the docs. Stephan W. could probably answer that better than I. I don't know of such a script, no. What you maybe mean is a script that I posted a while ago. This small script backs up AMANDA-metadata like indexes and configs. It writes the archives to a specified targetpath, which in turn may be set as a DLE inside your disklist. So you get yesterday's metadata on today's tape. Not yet the ideal solution, but sufficient for most installations (and better than NO metadata on tape). Maybe we can define a new wish on the AMANDA-wishlist: A new functionality, that adds a new special DLE, containing all the metadata. amdump could dump the metadata AFTER all the regular DLEs ... Ideas and thoughts welcome, as always. Stefan.
Re: is excluding /usr/local/var/amanda a bad idea ?
On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 03:53:57PM +0100, Stefan G. Weichinger enlightened us: > Maybe we can define a new wish on the AMANDA-wishlist: > > A new functionality, that adds a new special DLE, containing all the > metadata. amdump could dump the metadata AFTER all the regular DLEs ... > > Ideas and thoughts welcome, as always. > Seems logical to me. That way you know if you need to do a bare metal recovery, you just zip to the last file on the tape and get your indexes off, and can proceed from there. Matt -- Matt Hyclak Department of Mathematics Department of Social Work Ohio University (740) 593-1263
Re: is excluding /usr/local/var/amanda a bad idea ?
2005/11/14, Matt Hyclak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 03:53:57PM +0100, Stefan G. Weichinger enlightened us:> Maybe we can define a new wish on the AMANDA-wishlist:>> A new functionality, that adds a new special DLE, containing all the > metadata. amdump could dump the metadata AFTER all the regular DLEs ...>> Ideas and thoughts welcome, as always.>Seems logical to me. That way you know if you need to do a bare metal recovery, you just zip to the last file on the tape and get your indexesoff, and can proceed from there. Totally agree
Re: is excluding /usr/local/var/amanda a bad idea ?
On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 10:54:55AM -0500, Guy Dallaire wrote: > 2005/11/14, Matt Hyclak <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > > > > On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 03:53:57PM +0100, Stefan G. Weichinger enlightened > > us: > > > Maybe we can define a new wish on the AMANDA-wishlist: > > > > > > A new functionality, that adds a new special DLE, containing all the > > > metadata. amdump could dump the metadata AFTER all the regular DLEs ... > > > > > > Ideas and thoughts welcome, as always. > > > > > > > Seems logical to me. That way you know if you need to do a bare metal > > recovery, you just zip to the last file on the tape and get your indexes > > off, and can proceed from there. > > > Totally agree Might not be the last file on the tape. Suppose you collected things on the holding disk, possibly several days of dumps, before taping. If the metadata were to hold the DLE -> tape mappings, the dump of the metadata couldn't begin until after all other DLEs were taped. Does that raise any issues? -- Jon H. LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] JG Computing 4455 Province Line Road(609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
Re: Occasional backups to disk
Robert Tilden wrote: I'd like to be able to back up some of my machines to a holding disk at arbitrary times. For example, I run backups every night at 0100. Some laptop users are unable to leave their machines overnight. I'd like to be able to start a backup for their laptop(s) only, with the results going to the holding disk for that nights 'real' backup. Does anyone have some guidance for doing this? I assume that I'd need a separate configuration file... No real solution here. But maybe you can get away with this: Set the "reserve" parameter in amanda.conf to something lower than 100% (= reserve 100% of holding disk to incrementals, in case of tape problems), like "0", and then run amdump manually or from cron without a tape in the drive, and with the hosts as parameters, like: amdump daily laptop1 laptop2 laptop3 Now amanda dumps only the named hosts. Note that you can have only 1 amdump running at a time, so you cannot start amdump for laptop1, and 15 minutes later another one for laptop2, unless the first is completely done. Then set also "autoflush yes" in the amanda.conf, so that those dumps are put on the normal nightly tape too. You could even carefully set up a separate config for laptops that is run during the day. A long time ago, I had such a config, but I removed it, because laptop users complained about the load on their computer... And you'll have to live with a nightly report complaining about not being able to dump laptopX. Another possibility is to have a large disk, and let the laptop users make a backup to that disk when they feel it's time to do it, using the native Windows Backup program (XP professional has one that can backup to disk, for XP Home read http://windows.about.com/od/shortcutsquickieshowto/l/aa020203a.htm), or a xcopy-batch program, or some free software like rsync, and include that area in the amanda backup scheme. Also have a look at bacula: http://www.bacula.org/ -- Paul Bijnens, XplanationTel +32 16 397.511 Technologielaan 21 bus 2, B-3001 Leuven, BELGIUMFax +32 16 397.512 http://www.xplanation.com/ email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** * I think I've got the hang of it now: exit, ^D, ^C, ^\, ^Z, ^Q, ^^, * * F6, quit, ZZ, :q, :q!, M-Z, ^X^C, logoff, logout, close, bye, /bye, * * stop, end, F3, ~., ^]c, +++ ATH, disconnect, halt, abort, hangup, * * PF4, F20, ^X^X, :D::D, KJOB, F14-f-e, F8-e, kill -1 $$, shutdown, * * init 0, kill -9 1, Alt-F4, Ctrl-Alt-Del, AltGr-NumLock, Stop-A, ... * * ... "Are you sure?" ... YES ... Phew ... I'm out * ***
Re: is excluding /usr/local/var/amanda a bad idea ?
Jon LaBadie wrote: Might not be the last file on the tape. Suppose you collected things on the holding disk, possibly several days of dumps, before taping. If the metadata were to hold the DLE -> tape mappings, the dump of the metadata couldn't begin until after all other DLEs were taped. Does that raise any issues? The size of the metadata-DLE should be relatively predictable so this amount of space could be put into calculation from start (also the history should show what size to expect). The metadata-DLE could only be dumped AFTER the regular DLEs are dumped completely and the related indexes are written, so I assume the metadata-DLE simply gets into line as soon as its ready. To put it on the tape as the last file requires a bit more planning although it shouldn't be that much of a problem. The metadata on my testmachine is about 1.2 MB in size ok, other installations will exceed this but I think it should not be much of a problem. Stefan.
Re: is excluding /usr/local/var/amanda a bad idea ?
On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 07:22:23PM +0100, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote: > Jon LaBadie wrote: > > >Might not be the last file on the tape. Suppose you collected things > >on the holding disk, possibly several days of dumps, before taping. > > > >If the metadata were to hold the DLE -> tape mappings, the dump of > >the metadata couldn't begin until after all other DLEs were taped. > >Does that raise any issues? > > The size of the metadata-DLE should be relatively predictable so this > amount of space could be put into calculation from start (also the > history should show what size to expect). The metadata-DLE could only be > dumped AFTER the regular DLEs are dumped completely and the related > indexes are written, so I assume the metadata-DLE simply gets into line > as soon as its ready. What I was thinking was that many sites complete their dumping to holding disk well before taping is complete. For the metadata-DLE (MD-DLE?) to be complete it needs to know what tape(s) hold what DLE's. Thus dumping the MD-DLE would not only have to be last, but would have to be put on hold until all other taping was complete. It is the delay that I was concerned about. However I guess there is already precedence for such behavior by amdump. The starttime option, depending on the time argument, puts dumping on hold for a period. It resumes when triggered by the clock. Perhaps the MD-DLE could employ similar or the same code, but triggered by completion of all other activities. -- Jon H. LaBadie [EMAIL PROTECTED] JG Computing 4455 Province Line Road(609) 252-0159 Princeton, NJ 08540-4322 (609) 683-7220 (fax)
Re: is excluding /usr/local/var/amanda a bad idea ?
On Monday 14 November 2005 15:33, Jon LaBadie wrote: >On Mon, Nov 14, 2005 at 07:22:23PM +0100, Stefan G. Weichinger wrote: >> Jon LaBadie wrote: >> >Might not be the last file on the tape. Suppose you collected >> > things on the holding disk, possibly several days of dumps, before >> > taping. >> > >> >If the metadata were to hold the DLE -> tape mappings, the dump of >> >the metadata couldn't begin until after all other DLEs were taped. >> >Does that raise any issues? >> >> The size of the metadata-DLE should be relatively predictable so this >> amount of space could be put into calculation from start (also the >> history should show what size to expect). The metadata-DLE could only >> be dumped AFTER the regular DLEs are dumped completely and the >> related indexes are written, so I assume the metadata-DLE simply gets >> into line as soon as its ready. > >What I was thinking was that many sites complete their dumping to >holding disk well before taping is complete. For the metadata-DLE >(MD-DLE?) to be complete it needs to know what tape(s) hold what DLE's. >Thus dumping the MD-DLE would not only have to be last, but would have >to be put on hold until all other taping was complete. > >It is the delay that I was concerned about. However I guess there >is already precedence for such behavior by amdump. The starttime >option, depending on the time argument, puts dumping on hold for >a period. It resumes when triggered by the clock. Perhaps the >MD-DLE could employ similar or the same code, but triggered by >completion of all other activities. Which on some systems, still cannot work because those files that are open, will not be backed up at all, and on others will be only partially valid. Amigados is one case where that no backup of open files is true, and its burnt me badly several times. That of course wasn't amanda before anyone asks, it was with Diavolo Pro. If that stuff had beennin the backups, then I wouldn't have had to either re-invent a very complex wheel when the hd died, or put it on the shelf. I put it on the shelf (in the basement) rather than spend weeks fine tuning a difficult boot process to working state again. My method simply waits till amdump is done and has returned to the script that launched it, at which point the script then launches a second script that tars up all this stuff and appends it to the tape. It could be all in one script I guess, but I tend to scratch individual itches with seperate scripts. :) To me, this is the best option. And anyone who wants to weed the trash stuff out of my scripts is welcome to do so as eventually I'd like to see this added to the amanda distribution, a super-wrapper for amdump if you will. Whats missing in the overall function is a method of communicating back to amdump, how much of a space cushion is needed in order to have room on an otherwise full tape for these tarballs. What they do now is autoconfigure how it runs according to what it was called at invocation time, all the names are links to one (or more) scripts depending on what it needs to do, dump or flush. Beyond that, everything else is hard coded, but could be put into cli arguments or a .config file to make it a bit more universal. But once I had it working, I have this tendency to let something thats working alone so I don't break it again. :) I also have some scripts that make the automatic generation of a vtape setup quite easily done if anyone is interested in those. They aren't "pretty" either, but they worked for me. :) -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) 99.36% setiathome rank, not too shabby for a WV hillbilly Yahoo.com and AOL/TW attorneys please note, additions to the above message by Gene Heskett are: Copyright 2005 by Maurice Eugene Heskett, all rights reserved.
