Okay, so if I go with the 4-Client-4-FileSys and 1-Host-4-TapeDrive situation. Can Amanda backup the 4 filesystems to the 4 tape-drives simultaneously from one config file? From what I've configured so far (with the chg-multi.conf), it can only treat drives as a disk-changer writing to them serially (even though they are 4 separate drives that could be written to simultaniously).
"Brandon D. Valentine" wrote: > > On Tue, 29 Jan 2002, Aaron Rainwater - TXDC SysAdmin wrote: > > >Has anyone out there configured Amanda to make backups > >to multiple hosts and tape-drives simultaneously without > >having to create copious amounts of config files. > > > >The full realization of this concept would be to be able > >to backup data from, say, 4 filesystems on 4 machines > >to 4 tape-drives on 4 machines, simultaneously. > > Well, here's a theory. I have no idea if this would work, so YMMV. > > Setup Amanda in the usual fashion, i.e. choose a machine to run the > Amanda server and install the client on all 4 machines. Configure the > Amanda server with 4 seperate configs, one for each machine you want to > backup. In each config find a way to make amanda use the remote tape > drives via rmt (I don't know if this is possible, I'm sure one of the > Amanda hackers could answer it). That might work. > > I however strongly question your motivations for wanting to setup > something like this. I assume you want to do it because you already own > 4 tape drives and want to make use of all of them? Here's a better > suggestion: > > Find an obsolete machine you can devote to running Amanda and move all 4 > tape drives into it. I have seen a 486 DX/2 66 w/ an Adaptec 1542 ISA > SCSI card in it do DAE across 6 SCSI CDROM drives and not saturate the > bus. You'll have no problem using an old 486 or Pentium class machine > with any supported SCSI or IDE (depending on what kind of drives you > have) controller card. 4 tape drives definitely won't stream fast > enough to saturate the bus. I'd use something like NetBSD to keep the > machine lean. Obviously the slower your tape server the more inclined > you should be to use client compression, but the devil's in the details. > You might even be able to write a changer script that would allow you to > treat all 4 drives like a 4-tape changer and use just one amanda config. > You'd be able to go a whole week without going into your closet to > change a tape. I actually have considered doing this at the house with > a stack of old Travan drives I have, for my personal backups. Load them > up at the beginning of the week and forget about them. > > -- > Brandon D. Valentine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Computer Geek, Center for Structural Biology > > "This isn't rocket science -- but it _is_ computer science." > - Terry Lambert on [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- Aaron Rainwater TXDC System Administrator Fantastico ;>
