RE: replacing full tapes?
Michael, I think you will want 'dumpcycle 1 week' instead of 2 weeks. This means that every 1 week, you will have a level 0 backup of every partition, which is what I think you mean by 'a 2 week latency of backups.' With 8 tapes, you will be creating the current week's backups, and have the previous week's backups to use if something goes wrong this week. For comparison, I'm using an Exabyte changer that holds 10 tapes at a time. I have three magazines for it, so my amanda.conf is set up like this: dumpcycle 1 week runspercycle 5 tapecycle 30 tapes This way every magazine has two complete backup sets on it (in case of tape failure.) > -Original Message- > From: Michael Perry [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 12:20 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: replacing full tapes? > > > Quoting Bort, Paul on Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 10:49:31AM -0500: > > You probably don't want to overwrite BUP2. IIRC, "active > tape" means that > > the most recent combination of a specific disk and level > exists on that > > tape. The amoverview command can show what levels were > backed up on which > > days, for starters. > > > > You might also want to look at your tapecycle, dumpcycle, > and runspercycle > > parameters. I usually try to keep dumpcycle at half (or > less) of tapecycle, > > so that I always have a complete set of tapes to restore > from, and the set > > I'm currently overwriting. > > > > > Hi- > > Thanks for the pointer. I had neglected to take into account a few > factors about using the settings like dumpcycle, tapecycle, > runspercycle. My basic need I think is to backup 5 systems 3 > times per > week and have a 2 week latency of backups. This is not a huge network > :) but I really enjoy the way amanda does the scheduling, > planning, etc. > Best I have ever found in some years of Linux work. What I am > considering is how to build the correct settings for this and not > have to buy a lot of very expensive ecrix tapes (almost $100 > per tape). > I have sufficient tapes to handle up to a 14 tape tapecycle > but some of > them are rather old I think and many are new so I am unsure about the > relative health of the tapes. > > If I set the following variables, does this look close to my > goal? BTW, > the goal is to backup systems 3 times per week (Mon, Wed, > Fri) and have > two weeks of backups: > > dumpcycle 2 weeks > tapecycle 8 tapes > runspercycle 3 > > I am assuming with this setup that amanda will backup 3 times per week > according to my crontab and check 3 times per week a bit > earlier for the > right tape. If I want 2 weeks of backups this would equal 6 tapes and > then I would toss in a few extra to take care of any issues like > failures, etc. > > I am backing up 5 systems here at home including a bsd firewall box > which is exceedingly important to my sanity. Perhaps the > other question > is how other smaller LAN users schedule weekly backups or two week > backups when doing dumps not every day but perhaps every other day and > excluding weekends. > > Thanks for the answers to the questions everyone has sent. I should > have provided all the information on my goals and approaches using > amanda first time around. > > -- > Michael Perry | "Do or do not; there is no try" Master Yoda > [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.lnxpowered.org >
Re: replacing full tapes?
On Wed, 2001-12-12 at 18:20, Michael Perry wrote: > I have sufficient tapes to handle up to a 14 tape tapecycle but some of > them are rather old I think and many are new so I am unsure about the > relative health of the tapes. > If you run amverify you should have a fair chance of discovering bad tapes. If you run an amverify *before* backup you will also discover tapes that have degraded while they've been stored. Amverify just checks if the tapes can be read and the data is valid. Regards, Ole Kaas
Re: replacing full tapes?
Quoting Bort, Paul on Wed, Dec 12, 2001 at 10:49:31AM -0500: > You probably don't want to overwrite BUP2. IIRC, "active tape" means that > the most recent combination of a specific disk and level exists on that > tape. The amoverview command can show what levels were backed up on which > days, for starters. > > You might also want to look at your tapecycle, dumpcycle, and runspercycle > parameters. I usually try to keep dumpcycle at half (or less) of tapecycle, > so that I always have a complete set of tapes to restore from, and the set > I'm currently overwriting. > > Hi- Thanks for the pointer. I had neglected to take into account a few factors about using the settings like dumpcycle, tapecycle, runspercycle. My basic need I think is to backup 5 systems 3 times per week and have a 2 week latency of backups. This is not a huge network :) but I really enjoy the way amanda does the scheduling, planning, etc. Best I have ever found in some years of Linux work. What I am considering is how to build the correct settings for this and not have to buy a lot of very expensive ecrix tapes (almost $100 per tape). I have sufficient tapes to handle up to a 14 tape tapecycle but some of them are rather old I think and many are new so I am unsure about the relative health of the tapes. If I set the following variables, does this look close to my goal? BTW, the goal is to backup systems 3 times per week (Mon, Wed, Fri) and have two weeks of backups: dumpcycle 2 weeks tapecycle 8 tapes runspercycle 3 I am assuming with this setup that amanda will backup 3 times per week according to my crontab and check 3 times per week a bit earlier for the right tape. If I want 2 weeks of backups this would equal 6 tapes and then I would toss in a few extra to take care of any issues like failures, etc. I am backing up 5 systems here at home including a bsd firewall box which is exceedingly important to my sanity. Perhaps the other question is how other smaller LAN users schedule weekly backups or two week backups when doing dumps not every day but perhaps every other day and excluding weekends. Thanks for the answers to the questions everyone has sent. I should have provided all the information on my goals and approaches using amanda first time around. -- Michael Perry | "Do or do not; there is no try" Master Yoda [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.lnxpowered.org
RE: replacing full tapes?
You probably don't want to overwrite BUP2. IIRC, "active tape" means that the most recent combination of a specific disk and level exists on that tape. The amoverview command can show what levels were backed up on which days, for starters. You might also want to look at your tapecycle, dumpcycle, and runspercycle parameters. I usually try to keep dumpcycle at half (or less) of tapecycle, so that I always have a complete set of tapes to restore from, and the set I'm currently overwriting. > -Original Message- > From: Michael Perry [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 3:26 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: replacing full tapes? > > > I have been busily backing up my home network which is about > 5 linux/bsd > systems onto an ecrix vxa tape drive. I finally got these errors this > evening on a bup tape: > > *** A TAPE ERROR OCCURRED: [cannot overwrite active tape BUP2]. > Some dumps may have been left in the holding disk. > Run amflush to flush them to tape. > The next tape Amanda expects to use is: BUP3. > > FAILURE AND STRANGE DUMP SUMMARY: > wwwhda2 lev 0 FAILED [disk hda2 offline on www?] > wwwhda1 lev 0 FAILED [disk hda1 offline on www?] > mperry hda2 lev 2 FAILED [no more holding disk space] > > I understand the issue with "www". I did not install dump on this > system before running the backup. How do I correct the tape > error above? > As far as holding disk space goes, I have a whole bunch left > and amcheck > reports that I have over 35g of space left which is plenty. > > I now have cycled to bup3 which is next in line for backup. > I corrected > the issue with 'www" and the lack of dump on that system. I > don't quite > understand how to deal with the tape error about overwriting > active tape > bup2 above. > > Thanks. > > > -- > Michael Perry | "Do or do not; there is no try" Master Yoda > [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.lnxpowered.org >
replacing full tapes?
I have been busily backing up my home network which is about 5 linux/bsd systems onto an ecrix vxa tape drive. I finally got these errors this evening on a bup tape: *** A TAPE ERROR OCCURRED: [cannot overwrite active tape BUP2]. Some dumps may have been left in the holding disk. Run amflush to flush them to tape. The next tape Amanda expects to use is: BUP3. FAILURE AND STRANGE DUMP SUMMARY: wwwhda2 lev 0 FAILED [disk hda2 offline on www?] wwwhda1 lev 0 FAILED [disk hda1 offline on www?] mperry hda2 lev 2 FAILED [no more holding disk space] I understand the issue with "www". I did not install dump on this system before running the backup. How do I correct the tape error above? As far as holding disk space goes, I have a whole bunch left and amcheck reports that I have over 35g of space left which is plenty. I now have cycled to bup3 which is next in line for backup. I corrected the issue with 'www" and the lack of dump on that system. I don't quite understand how to deal with the tape error about overwriting active tape bup2 above. Thanks. -- Michael Perry | "Do or do not; there is no try" Master Yoda [EMAIL PROTECTED] | http://www.lnxpowered.org
