Backup confiuration

[replytoriya]

Hi,

I am a newbie in AMANDA stuff, I tried to backed up the data basically Thunderbird of local machine's (of engineer's in my office), I am done with the installation and configuration thing of amanda on the server.
Now I have some doubts :

1. Where does backup come on web server. what are the necessary things required for this?
2. Is it necessary to mount a media for backup? cant we just store the backup on the server let say on server's /home/backups/ directory? Currently I want to configure backup just for 1 client.


Please confirm, and let me know ASAP.

Regards,
Riya Aggarwal

[pyeatman]

Hi,

I am a newbie in AMANDA

Welcome to Amanda!

1. Where does backup come on web server. what are the necessary things required for this?

I don't understand this question. Would you please rephrase it?

2. Is it necessary to mount a media for backup? cant we just store the backup on the server let say on server's /home/backups/ directory? Currently I want to configure backup just for 1 client.

All backups for a single config are written to the same tape or disk storage as seen by the Amanda server. In the case of disk storage, the location the Amanda server writes to may be either directly-attached or remote storage. If the client being backed up is the Amanda server itself, I would write the backups to a remote location so that backups remain intact in the case of server failure.

Paul

[replytoriya]

from pnt 1. What i mean is, does the backed up data have any physical existence? , where can I see that ? I am totally confused this time and got stuck don't know what would be the next step.

and Secondly, I don't have any hard disk or external memory to use. Thats why I was thinking of using server itself to backed up the data.

So far what I have done is:

Both web server and client server is running on RHEL 5 and are 36 bit machine.

1. on web server installed "amanda-backup_server-3.3.1-1.rhel5", on client server "amanda-backup_client-3.3.1-1.rhel5".
2. changed /etc/amanda/amanda-client.conf. file on both server:
"tapedev "tape:/dev/YOUR-TAPE-DEVICE-HERE" # your tape device"
to this:
"tapedev "file://data/amanda/vtape/DailySet1" # your tape device"

3. (on web server) As amandabackup user, ran amserverconfig to create a vtape configuration:
-sh-3.2$ amserverconfig DailySet1 --template harddisk --tapedev /data/amanda/vtape/DailySet1 --mailto root@localhost --dumpcycle 1week --runspercycle 5 --tapecycle 12 --runtapes 1
4. (on client server) sudo /usr/sbin/amaddclient --config DailySet1 --client 192.168.10.163 --diskdev /home/thunderbird.tar.gz --dumptype comp-user-tar
on the above mentioned command got error "sudo: /usr/sbin/amaddclient: command not found".

Please looked into this and tell me how to proceed.

Riya Aggarwal

[pyeatman]

from pnt 1. What i mean is, does the backed up data have any physical existence? , where can I see that ? I am totally confused this time and got stuck don't know what would be the next step.

Yes, the data for each object you are backing up is saved typically as a single file either on tape or disk.

and Secondly, I don't have any hard disk or external memory to use. Thats why I was thinking of using server itself to backed up the data.

That is fine as long as the backup server has enough disk space for backups. If your backup server is installed all in the same partition, be careful not to fill up the system parition with backups. Preferably use a different partition than /.

So far what I have done is:

Both web server and client server is running on RHEL 5 and are 36 bit machine.

1. on web server installed "amanda-backup_server-3.3.1-1.rhel5", on client server "amanda-backup_client-3.3.1-1.rhel5".
2. changed /etc/amanda/amanda-client.conf. file on both server:
"tapedev "tape:/dev/YOUR-TAPE-DEVICE-HERE" # your tape device"
to this:
"tapedev "file://data/amanda/vtape/DailySet1" # your tape device"

3. (on web server) As amandabackup user, ran amserverconfig to create a vtape configuration:
-sh-3.2$ amserverconfig DailySet1 --template harddisk --tapedev /data/amanda/vtape/DailySet1 --mailto root@localhost --dumpcycle 1week --runspercycle 5 --tapecycle 12 --runtapes 1

This is good. So backup data will go into "slot" subdirectories in the /data/amanda/vtape/DailySet1 directory. Make sure this directory exists and is writeable by the amanda user. Are there directories starting with "slot" in this directory now?

4. (on client server) sudo /usr/sbin/amaddclient --config DailySet1 --client 192.168.10.163 --diskdev /home/thunderbird.tar.gz --dumptype comp-user-tar
on the above mentioned command got error "sudo: /usr/sbin/amaddclient: command not found".

This command should be run on the server to add a client for backup to config "DailySet1". The argument for --client should be the IP address of your client and the argument for --diskdev should be the directory on the client that you want to back up.

After adding, try running "amcheck DailySet1"

[replytoriya]

Thanks for your help.

Yes, the data for each object you are backing up is saved typically as a single file either on tape or disk.

That is fine as long as the backup server has enough disk space for backups. If your backup server is installed all in the same partition, be careful not to fill up the system parition with backups. Preferably use a different partition than /.

for this do I need to do some other configrations or what I have done so far is correct?

This is good. So backup data will go into "slot" subdirectories in the /data/amanda/vtape/DailySet1 directory. Make sure this directory exists and is writeable by the amanda user. Are there directories starting with "slot" in this directory now?

yes there are directories starting with "slot" in this directory now..
riya: ~ >ls -ltr /data/amanda/vtape/DailySet1
total 108
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot1
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot3
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot2
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot5
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot4
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot6
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot8
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot7
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot9
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:56 slot10
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:57 slot12
drwx------ 2 amandabackup disk 4096 Jun 19 16:57 slot11
-rw------- 1 amandabackup disk 142 Jun 20 18:23 state
lrwxrwxrwx 1 amandabackup disk 5 Jun 20 18:23 data -> slot1
riya: ~ >

This command should be run on the server to add a client for backup to config "DailySet1". The argument for --client should be the IP address of your client and the argument for --diskdev should be the directory on the client that you want to back up.

this command runs fine for me now. the output that it shows is:
riya: /root >amaddclient --config DailySet1 --client 192.168.10.163 --diskdev <location of file> --dumptype comp-user-tar
Logging to /var/log/amanda/amaddclient.20120622153239.debug
/etc/amanda/DailySet1/disklist updated
updating /var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts on localhost.localdomain
Attempting to update /var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts on 192.168.10.163
amandabackup@192.168.10.163's password:
.amandahosts 100% 111 0.1KB/s 00:00
/var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts contains localhost.localdomain amandabackup, file not updated
192.168.10.163:/var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts updated successfully
Creating amanda-client.conf for 192.168.10.163
Creating /etc/amanda/DailySet1 on 192.168.10.163
amandabackup@192.168.10.163's password:
amandabackup@192.168.10.163's password:
amanda-client.conf-192.168.10.163 100% 394 0.4KB/s 00:00
Copy /var/lib/amanda/amanda-client.conf-192.168.10.163 to 192.168.10.163 successfully
File /var/lib/amanda/example/xinetd.amandaclient contains the latest Amanda client daemon configuration.
Please merge it to /etc/xinetd.d/amandaclient.
riya: /root >

After adding, try running "amcheck DailySet1"

Also done with this. Output is:
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
found in slot 1: volume 'DailySet1-1'
slot 1: volume 'DailySet1-1'
Will write to volume 'DailySet1-1' in slot 1.
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
NOTE: host info dir /etc/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/192.168.10.163 does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run.
NOTE: index dir /etc/amanda/DailySet1/index/192.168.10.163 does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run.
Server check took 0.577 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 1 host checked in 2.593 seconds. 0 problems found.

(brought to you by Amanda 3.3.1)
riya: /root >

So am I now done with the configuration? Please let me know what else is needed. Thanks in advance.

[replytoriya]

I am able to recover the data of the folder that I have mentioned in disklist but only after I executed "amdump DailySet1" command as "amandabackup" user. Is it correct? Please confirm. Shouldn't be there's a way to execute this command by default and I don't need to execute this each time I added location in my disklist??

[pyeatman]

Also done with this. Output is:
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
found in slot 1: volume 'DailySet1-1'
slot 1: volume 'DailySet1-1'
Will write to volume 'DailySet1-1' in slot 1.
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
NOTE: host info dir /etc/amanda/DailySet1/curinfo/192.168.10.163 does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run.
NOTE: index dir /etc/amanda/DailySet1/index/192.168.10.163 does not exist
NOTE: it will be created on the next run.
Server check took 0.577 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 1 host checked in 2.593 seconds. 0 problems found.

(brought to you by Amanda 3.3.1)
riya: /root >

So am I now done with the configuration? Please let me know what else is needed. Thanks in advance.

Perfect! Well done. You are ready to back up your client.

"amdump DailySet1"

[pyeatman]

Yes, running amdump is the next step and is the command to perform anytime you want to back up the data specified in the disklist file. All prrior commands were to create setup only.

The amdump command is not automatically run for you when an item is added to the disklist. It is run when you want a backup. If that is just after adding another entry to the disklist, then it is executed. If it is daily at 2p, then you execute it from command line daily at 2p or set it up to run daily at 2p in the amandabackup user's crontab.

[replytoriya]

Thanks... I have added the "amdump" command in amandabackup user's crontab. I hope am done with my config and will verify the same by tomorrow.

Thank you so much for all your help.

[rlsmithnm]

I'm new to this forum. I have a similar configuration to the one described on this thread. Running "amcheck DailySet1" on my configuration completes successfully and when I run amdump DaliySet1, the process runs for less than a minute and returns. If I run amrecover, set the disk to the one just backed up and ls /home, I see all the user home directories as expected; however, if I cd to any of the listed users, the only file I see other than a time stamp is ".". I would expect to see hundreds of files. The entire /home space on disk is on the order of 600GB. Why are the other files and sub directories not being backed up?