Well, we're getting there, but 2.5.1 still doesn't quite work for me, this time because of what looks like an Amanda permissions bug. The only work-around I can see is to have Amanda be super-user. Here's what happens...
Nothing gets written to the holdingdisk. Amdump complains that it's not writeable. Amstatus complains that the dumpers are all idle because there's no disk space. Well, the holdingdisk is perfectly writeable. And amdump creates a directory in it whose name is a timestamp. The permissions on that directory are 700 (drwx------), with "root" as owner and "disk" as group. The amanda user is supposed to be "amanda". Both root and amanda are in group "disk". So evidently the dumpers can't write to the spool directory (named with a timestamp) because they are not running as superuser, and it doesn't matter whether the dumpers are in group disk because there are no group permissions on that directory. To make things even more bizarre, the timestamp directory is only there for a minute or two, and then it is deleted, probably because there's nothing in it to flush. This is extremely confusing, because when the whole misadventure is over, unless you noticed the transient existence of this almost permissionless directory, Amanda leaves you with the following misinformation: * amstatus says there was no disk space. But there's plenty. * the emailed report from Amanda says, for example: bruno.coolheads.com / lev 0 FAILED [can't dump required holdingdisk] ...but there's no reason why the holdingdisk can't be written upon by both root and amanda, and any other member of group disk. ####################################################### I think the above problem is a critical problem. The following problem is not critical, but it's similar and it's quite annoying: Amcheck complains that tapelist isn't writeable. And it's true: it's not writeable, and that's because Amanda made it that way during the previous run. Then, when you change the permissions on tapelist, amcheck can see it, and that's when amcheck can start to tell you whether you've got the right tapes in the right drives. Otherwise, amcheck thinks that your tapes are very nice Amanda-labelled tapes, but it knows nothing about them. But after the next run, amcheck will be broken again for the same reason. ####################################################### Thanks, guys, for any advice or help. I'd rather not make the amanda user the super user, but what the hey, she has to SUID to root anyway... Is that the way you're supposed to run Amanda? I never have done so before. -- Steve Steven R. Newcomb, Consultant Coolheads Consulting Co-editor, Topic Maps International Standard (ISO/IEC 13250) Co-editor, draft Topic Maps -- Reference Model (ISO/IEC 13250-5) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.coolheads.com direct: +1 540 951 9773 main: +1 540 951 9774 fax: +1 540 951 9775 208 Highview Drive Blacksburg, Virginia 24060 USA (Confidential to all US government personnel to whom this private letter is not addressed and who are reading it in the absence of a specific search warrant: You are violating the law and you are co-conspiring to subvert the Constitution that you are sworn to defend. You can either refuse to commit this crime, or you can expect to suffer criminal sanctions in the future, when the current administration of the United States of America has been replaced by one that respects the rule of law. I do not envy you for having to make this difficult choice, but I urge you to make it wisely.)