Re: Rackable IDE-RAID1 Harddisk Backup System

[Paul Bijnens]

R.M. Evers wrote:

- is amanda easy to configure to dump to harddisk instead of tapes?
Yes, using a recent version (2.4.3 at least) with the "file" driver.
See in the manpage under section "OUTPUT DRIVERS".
You could also leave the files in a large holdingdisk, as Zoltan
suggested, but then there is no easy way to remove old dumps in some
automated way, and keeping the indexes etc synchronised with what is
available to restore.  (At least I don't know any.)
With the file driver, together with a chg-multi changer, you can
emulate all your tapes online.
In amanda.conf add/change these lines:
=========
runtapes 1
tpchanger "chg-multi"   # the tape-changer glue script
#tapedev "/dev/rmt/0n" # the no-rewind tape device to be used
#tapedev "file:/space/amanda-bkup/test"
changerfile "/var/opt/amanda/etc/test/chg-multi.conf"
amrecover_check_label yes
amrecover_changer "chg-multi"
========
In the "chg-multi.conf" file:
========
multieject 0
gravity 0
needeject 0
ejectdelay 0
statefile /var/opt/amanda/archive/changer-status
firstslot 1
lastslot 4
slot 1 file:/space/amanda-bkup/test/Test-01
slot 2 file:/space/amanda-bkup/test/Test-02
slot 3 file:/space/amanda-bkup/test/Test-03
slot 4 file:/space/amanda-bkup/test/Test-04
=========
Each "slot" in the config file is a directory, which contains
a "data" subdirectory.  You have to create these manually.
You can have as many slots (directories) as you like.
The maximum size of each backup run is still limited by
what is specified in the tapetype.  You can make up a tapetype
with a suitable capacity.
You still have to "amlabel" each virtual tape, but buying more
tapes is as simple as creating a new directory, with subdir "data"
and adding a new slot in your "chg-multi" configuration.
All the tapes are constatntly online; no need to "insert the
correct tape" etc.
The filesystem where your backups are stored need to be
able to contain large files (> 4 GByte), unless you can limit
all your backup images to some safe upper bound. (Any recent
Linux will do fine.)
You still need a holdingdisk, otherwise amanda cannot run multiple dumps
in parallel.
--
Paul Bijnens, Xplanation                            Tel  +32 16 397.511
Technologielaan 21 bus 2, B-3001 Leuven, BELGIUM    Fax  +32 16 397.512
http://www.xplanation.com/          email:  [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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