Oerlapping backup sets

[p3t3r]

Hi,

I'm new to Amanda and a bit confused on how the scheduling works.
I want to make backups in two sets of overlapping backups (each set's full backup every month with two weeks shift between them).
Is it possible with Amanda?

[pyeatman]

If I'm not understanding what you have in mind, please say so. I believe you are saying you want to have two different configs or backup sets, each backed up on a monthly cycle, with full backups of one set this week and full backups of the other two weeks from now.

Amanda does not perform full backups on any particular day. When first configured, it must get a full backup of every entry yet, there after, it will try to spread full backups out as smoothly as possibly while observing the stipulation of performing one full backup of each entry per month. Amanda's goal is to make the daily size of your backups as consistent as possible. If you want to run a second backup set on a monthly cycle, it will do the same with it. I'm not sure if you have it in mind to have the same backup entires in each set. This may not work correctly. Each set needs to be unique, I believe.

[p3t3r]

pyeatman,

Thanks for the info, yes, that's what I was looking for.
Basically I need two sets for redundancy purposes, I'll create two unique sets.

One more question: my dumpcycle is one month, but I don't want to wait for the whole month to have first full backup, can I force amanda to do full backup on the first run and then run 'normally'?

[pyeatman]

Amanda will always get a full backup of every entry before shifting to incrementals. No need to force anything. You should see nothing but full backups on the first run.

[p3t3r]

You should see nothing but full backups on the first run.

Do you mean that amanda will do full backup on the first day?

According to the info in the Essential System Administration book the first full backup will be completed only on the last day of the dumpcycle.
Or I'm just not getting it...

[pyeatman]

Yes, Amanda will do full backups of all entries first thing.

Which Essesntial guide is this? Possibly it was trying to say that, in following months, a full backup of each entry will be performed before or on the last day of the dumpcycle.

No concern: full backups, all entries, right off.

[p3t3r]

Cool, thanks.

btw; the book: [url]http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596003432/[/url]
backup chapter avail for download at [url]http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/esa3/chapter/ch11.pdf[/url]

[pyeatman]

Great, thanks for the links. Let us know how it goes with Amanda! -Paul