Re: Potential user - more questions
On Wed, Oct 09, 2013 at 06:27:48PM -0400, Michael Stauffer wrote: > Hi again, > > I've got another batch of questions while I consider switching to Amanda: > > 1) catalog (indecies) > It seems the main catalog/database is stored in the index files. Is it > straightforward to back these up? > This doc (http://www.zmanda.com/protecting-amanda-server.html) sugests > backing up these dirs/files to be able to restore an amanda > configuration (and presumably the backup catalog): /etc/amandates, > /etc/dumpdates, /etc/amanda, /var/lib/amanda. There is no built-in way to do this in amanda. The problems are they are not complete, and changing, until the backup is done. Several members of this list have described their home-grown techniques. > > 2) Spanning and parts > Say I split my 32TB of data into DLE's of 2-3TB. > > a) If I set a 'part' size of 150GB (10% of native tape capacity is > what I saw recommended), what is the format of each part as it's > written? Is each part its own tarfile? Seems that would make it easier > to restore things manually. Traditional amanda tape files, holding the complete tar or dump archive, are a 32KB header followed by the archive. Manual restoration is done with dd to skip the header and pipe the rest to the appropriate command line to restore the data. The header contains information identifying the contents, how they were created, and when. Parts alter this scheme only slightly. Each part still has a header. The header now includes info on which sequential part it is. The part name also identifies it location in the sequence. The data is simply a chunk of the complete archive. Manual restoration again is strip the headers and pipe to the restore command. > > b) If a part spans two volumes, what's the format of that? Is it a > single tarfile that's split in two? A part will NOT span two volumes. If the end of the media is reached, the part is restarted on the next volume. > > c) What's the manual restore process for such a spanned part? cat the > two parts together and pipe to tar for extraction? > > 3) Restoring w/out Amanda > I thought data was written to tape as tar files. But this page > suggests a dumpfile is only readable by Amanda apps. Is a dumpfile > something else? > http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/Dumpfile I think the author meant there are no "standard unix/linux" commands that know the header + data layout. The dumpfiles can be handled with amanda commands or as described above, the operator can use standard commands when armed with knowledge of the layout. > > 4) holding disk and flushing > I see how flushing can be forced when the holding disk has a certain % > of tape size. > Can a flush be forced every N days? The idea here would be to get data > to tape at a min of every week or so, should successive incrementals > be small. Dumping to holding disk without taping can be done. Then have a crontable entry to flush when you want. This can done with a separate amflush command, or by varying amdump options. > > 5) alerting > Is there a provision for email and/or other alerts on job completion > or error, etc? > Most amanda admins have an amreport emailed to them at amdump or amflush completion. As the cron entry can be a shell script, you could customize greatly. Jon -- Jon H. LaBadie j...@jgcomp.com 11226 South Shore Rd. (703) 787-0688 (H) Reston, VA 20190 (609) 477-8330 (C)
Re: Potential user - more questions
Michael, > 1) catalog (indecies) > It seems the main catalog/database is stored in the index files. Is it > straightforward to back these up? > This doc (http://www.zmanda.com/protecting-amanda-server.html) sugests > backing up these dirs/files to be able to restore an amanda > configuration (and presumably the backup catalog): /etc/amandates, > /etc/dumpdates, /etc/amanda, /var/lib/amanda. Many years ago, I wrote a Perl script that will rsync that to a different machine an email me the contents of amadmin export. Knowing that the mail is automatically being replicated on a mail backup machine (and forwarded to my gmail account). I am pretty sure the information is safe. > 2) Spanning and parts > Say I split my 32TB of data into DLE's of 2-3TB. > > a) If I set a 'part' size of 150GB (10% of native tape capacity is > what I saw recommended), what is the format of each part as it's > written? Is each part its own tarfile? Seems that would make it easier > to restore things manually. Nothing is written as a tar file, but as an Amanda backup file (there is a few bytes header before the tar file). I am not sure about splited backup. > b) If a part spans two volumes, what's the format of that? Is it a > single tarfile that's split in two? > > c) What's the manual restore process for such a spanned part? cat the > two parts together and pipe to tar for extraction? > > 3) Restoring w/out Amanda > I thought data was written to tape as tar files. But this page > suggests a dumpfile is only readable by Amanda apps. Is a dumpfile > something else? > http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/Dumpfile For a single file DLE, you have to use dd to remove the few bytes header and you are left with a pure tar/dump file. > 4) holding disk and flushing > I see how flushing can be forced when the holding disk has a certain % > of tape size. > Can a flush be forced every N days? The idea here would be to get data > to tape at a min of every week or so, should successive incrementals > be small. > > 5) alerting > Is there a provision for email and/or other alerts on job completion > or error, etc? Yes, Amanda sends nice summary emails at the end of a dump. Best regards, Olivier > Thanks! > > -M
Potential user - more questions
Hi again, I've got another batch of questions while I consider switching to Amanda: 1) catalog (indecies) It seems the main catalog/database is stored in the index files. Is it straightforward to back these up? This doc (http://www.zmanda.com/protecting-amanda-server.html) sugests backing up these dirs/files to be able to restore an amanda configuration (and presumably the backup catalog): /etc/amandates, /etc/dumpdates, /etc/amanda, /var/lib/amanda. 2) Spanning and parts Say I split my 32TB of data into DLE's of 2-3TB. a) If I set a 'part' size of 150GB (10% of native tape capacity is what I saw recommended), what is the format of each part as it's written? Is each part its own tarfile? Seems that would make it easier to restore things manually. b) If a part spans two volumes, what's the format of that? Is it a single tarfile that's split in two? c) What's the manual restore process for such a spanned part? cat the two parts together and pipe to tar for extraction? 3) Restoring w/out Amanda I thought data was written to tape as tar files. But this page suggests a dumpfile is only readable by Amanda apps. Is a dumpfile something else? http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/Dumpfile 4) holding disk and flushing I see how flushing can be forced when the holding disk has a certain % of tape size. Can a flush be forced every N days? The idea here would be to get data to tape at a min of every week or so, should successive incrementals be small. 5) alerting Is there a provision for email and/or other alerts on job completion or error, etc? Thanks! -M
Re: Considering Amanda - some questions
Paul, thanks much for the replies, this is very helpful. I'll ask some more questions in another thread. BTW does this list prefer top- or bottom-posting, or no preference? -M On Fri, Oct 4, 2013 at 7:08 PM, Paul Yeatman wrote: > On Fri, 2013-10-04 at 17:23 -0400, Michael Stauffer wrote: >> Hi, >> > > Hello! > >> I'm thinking about switching to Amanda. I inherited a Bacula-based >> backup system (old version 3) and the server's drives are failing so >> I'm going to deploy a new server and am considering switching to >> Amanda at the same time. >> >> My setup: I need to backup 2 linux file servers, each hostinng a >> RAID's, sizes ~36TB and ~28TB. The raids full yet but let's assume >> we'll get close to full eventually. I have a 2-drive (LTO-5), 30-tape >> Quantum tape library. In addition, I'll probably back up the /etc dirs >> of a few servers. >> > > Your setup would be fairly straightforward in Amanda. > >> From what I've read, Amanda could be a better choice for me than >> Bacula since mine is a pretty straight-forward setup. Does that seem >> right? Bacula's been something of a beast for me, especially when I >> had a catalog meltdown and had to restore the catalog piecemeal from >> tape. >> >> I have a number of questions. I'll post some here, and then some in >> followup posts to keep it manageable. Thanks for any help! >> >> 1) I'm curious about how often amanda is updated, approximately. I see >> the current version was released June 2013. How about the previous >> release of 3.x? >> > > Recently, it has been about every 6 months. 3.3.2 was released July > 2012 with 3.3.3 release Jan 2013 followed by 3.3.4 last June/July. > >> 2) Is it clear whether it's better to use the amanda.org mailing lists >> or the forums on zmanda.com? The mailing lists seem significantly >> slower than Bacula's. Is Amanda less widely used? Or maybe that's >> because there are fewer problems with Amanda? :) >> > > Both mailing lists and forums are regularly watched so it is your pick > which you prefer working with. There is a large Amanda users base but I > cannot compare with Bacula and its mailing list. Hopefully it is just > due to less problems in Amanda :-) > >> 3) Are multi-drive tape changers directly supported? If I run amanda >> and multiple clients need backing up, amanda will use both tape drives >> simultaneously? >> > > Yes. If there are multiple objects to back up and Amanda estimates that > it will ultimately need to write all the data to more than 1 tape, it > will load up to this number of tapes into drives and begin writing data > to multiple drives simultaneously. > >> 4) Anyway to find out if my Quantum Scalar I-500 tape library is >> supported? The link on the site regarding supported tape devices is >> dead. It seems Amanda uses low-level tape commands, so it shouldn't be >> an issue? Anything to test it's compatibility? >> > > Amanda depends on the system to correctly recognize the robot and tape > devices and the UNIX mt and mtx commands to work with the tape drives > and robot respectively. If Quantum claims to support the OS you plan to > use as the backup server and this library can be operated with the mt > and mtx command, Amanda should be able to work with the library > correctly. > >> 5) Many links on the FAQ and wiki pages are dead. Is that an ongoing >> issue or just temporary? It doesn't bode too well for the >> documentation. >> > > I am seeing that several of the FAQ links do not appear to be going > where they should be. I did a quick fix on these. I am not immediately > finding such links to be incorrect on wiki in general, however. Feel > free to point out any that I am missing I will look into these. > > Paul >
Re: [Amanda-users] Amanda Backup ssh_security could not find canonical name for
We don't use wins or winbind on our network and recommend that windows users not try to use it. So, I'm not familiar with any details. However, google turns up http://www.samba.org/samba/docs/man/manpages-3/winbindd.8.html, which indicates the use of both in nsswitch.conf. We run the smbd portion of samba, but not the nmbd portion on our Sun servers. However, as we move into Ubuntu, I've let the Ubuntu packagers have a bit more say so that I can rely on aptitude upgrades and not worry any more than necessary about custom local builds or configurations. I've managed to figure out a few interesting things about upstart and apparmor so that I can, for example, run multiple instances of mysql on different ports; but, with very few exceptions, I have taken package software rather than building my own. I did build Amanda, because that is what I am used to doing, and I want the freedom of choosing the latest Amanda. But, I'm straying from the point - on Ubuntu I have nmbd running. I should look at the local config and see what I can dial back to cut/control noise on the network. On 10/8/13 6:18 PM, Jon LaBadie wrote: On Tue, Oct 08, 2013 at 03:53:18PM -0400, Chris Hoogendyk wrote: So, two machines that want to talk to one another (e.g. amanda server and amanda client) need to know how to address one another. If you don't have DNS within your private network, and you don't have fixed IPs assigned (that you know) within the DHCP server, then it seems to me you are really creating difficulties. Even on my home network, I set fixed IPs so that I can do things like ssh and rsync from one Mac to another. Without that, you're dependent on network chatter and some vendor's auto discovery mechanism. But that's not a protocol that's going to work with Amanda. You might jerry-rig a complicated method for auto-discovery and transmitting information to the Amanda server that gets put into /etc/hosts; but, then, why not just implement fixed IPs and/or DNS. It seems like the more traditional and well documented solution. I use static IP's at home also. Also my internet router is my DHCP server and I associate each static IP with its MAC address to ensure the server does not give out that IP to another host. (that also lets me use DHCP and get the same IP) Samba on the Ubuntu amanda server could act as a WINS server. But I don't see anything in docs for the name service switch (nsswitch.conf) that say it can use a WINS server. Did I miss it? Jon On 10/8/13 3:04 PM, Jon LaBadie wrote: On Tue, Oct 08, 2013 at 01:22:49PM -0400, Chris Hoogendyk wrote: Just for reference, if you are running in a private network without dns lookup, then you should put all the machines you want to backup into /etc/hosts. That's what I had to do when my Amanda server was on our private net and had no public address. Can /etc/hosts be automatically updated if clients get their IP addresses dynamically with DHCP? Jon That doesn't mean you don't have other issues that have to be dealt with. There is a general trouble shooting page for possible issues that result in "selfcheck request failed" -- http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/Selfcheck_request_failed. On 10/8/13 5:08 AM, jefflau wrote: Dear All, I was learning on Amanda backup and facing issue for below. I planning using it in the workgroup without dns server. I was Using Ubuntu 12 and installed it by using apt-get, by searching many of the issue resolved. Till this stage I do a month can't resolved it. Hope someone able help me as soon as can Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check WARNING: backup: selfcheck request failed: ssh_security could not find canonical name for 'backup': Name or service not known Client check: 1 host checked in 20.581 seconds. 1 problem found. +-- |This was sent by jef...@gmail.com via Backup Central. |Forward SPAM to ab...@backupcentral.com. +-- -- --- Chris Hoogendyk - O__ Systems Administrator c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments (*) \(*) -- 347 Morrill Science Center ~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst --- Erdös 4 End of included message <<< -- --- Chris Hoogendyk - O__ Systems Administrator c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments (*) \(*) -- 347 Morrill Science Center ~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst --- Erdös 4
Online PDF generator for LTO Ultrium barcode tape labels
Hi there, Since the beginning of 2008 many of you have been using my Free online PDF generator for LTO Ultrium barcode tape labels, which is now available from : http://www.mytapelabels.com/ Since mid-April of 2013, my generator is not Free anymore, but works based on a yearly subscription basis : you choose a subscription level based on the number of labels you need to generate per year. In exchange of your subscription, which can be cancelled at any time, you receive an API key that can be used on the website above or in the two manners described below : http://www.mytapelabels.com/ Since mid-April of 2013, my generator is not Free anymore, but works based on a yearly subscription basis : you choose a subscription level based on the number of labels you need to generate per year. In exchange of your subscription, which can be cancelled at any time, you receive an API key that can be used on the website above or in the two manners described below : Compared to the Free version, the new version comes in two additional forms, in order to please our advanced users : * A command line tool, licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License of the Free Software Foundation and written in the Python language. * An entirely documented XML-RPC API, useable from any programming language which suppports this protocol (probably most). Both of these can be downloaded from : http://api.mytapelabels.com/ Until a few days ago, only the command line tool or the XML-RPC API allowed one to generate labels which were not in an increasing sequence, or to generate diagnostic labels, or even to skip "already-peeled-off" labels when printing (to save on costly paper). I'm very pleased to announce you that the website functionnalities are now on-par with both the command line tool and the XML-RPC API : the website now allows you to upload plain text files containing one label per line, allowing you to use features that were reserved to advanced users only. Thanks for your attention. -- Jerome Alet
