Hello list - thanks for your help in the past - I now have my amanda configuration running stably on a subset of my partitions with my 8-tape changer for a few weeks without trouble. I've tested file recovery with amrecover and all is good.
I only have one last hurdle to overcome before I can declare complete success. One of the missions of our backups is to provide an archival backup for offsite storage at least once per month. I was hoping to get some advice on this issue.
From the zmanda wiki I have gleaned that the typical way to do this is create an additional amanda configuration called "archive" that runs once per month (or whatever) and forces a level 0 on all things you want to archive.
This is fine, except that a full level 0 on all systems is going to cause some strain on the infrastructure (network and disk activity for example). I was wondering if it is possible instead to cache the latest level0's from the daily backups and have them written to tape. My holding disk is big enough to hold a copy of all level 0's, and it is not necessary for my once-a-month backup to have level 0's all from the same day. Since I am already paying the price to get a full set of level 0's once per week with my daily tape cycle, is it possible to leverage this into a easier monthly backup?
I hope this makes some sense to people and would really appreciate any advice on this issue.
Thanks in advance, Don
