On Thu, 7 Feb 2002 22:13, Moritz Both spake thus: > The reality check point of the poster who started this thread is very > valuable for the amanda community. It is true: amanda *is* > complicated. Given that it does not cost anything, there is no point [snip] > > [...] > > 8. Build your own. Whoever made the RPM or DEB didn't have your network > > in mind. > > Most of the knowledge put into RPM spec files by for example RedHat is > exactly what is missing for amanda newbies. No "you can call your [snip] > them and provide the fix to RedHat, but saying "do not use RPMs" is > the hard way.
Generally .deb's have worked very well for me with a range of complicated software: Postfix, Apache+PHP, even tho' later I may've gone on to compile them for various reasons. Amanda deb's caused lots of pain, and no quick ramp up to compiling. The fact that packages are ignored/not specifically documented (10 lines for debian specific stuff, the rest the standard amanda doc's) made it overly difficult for me to get Amanda going, and I had to learn by bug-tracking and painful doco scouring to fix the packaged install because the standard documentation mislead me, and the package did not document adequately. The debian package installs with user=backup, group=backup. So far so good. The doco says to put .amandahosts in $HOME. I couldn't understand why my hosts file had no effect until I clicked that the $HOME for user backup is /var/backup, and that the debian package symlinks /var/backup.amandahosts -> /etc/amandahosts. Also the user doco and the chapter on backup central says "cut and paste these lines into your /etc/inetd.conf". I couldn't see why I was getting "user amanda cannot connect as backup@hostname", where a client had a compiled version (it was a messy Mandrake box for which dependencies were broken and compiling seemed easier). Of course you have to put the user name that the inetd service will be run as in the inetd.conf line: amanda dgram udp wait backup /usr/sbin/tcpd /usr/lib/amanda/amandad If you're busy and you don't have huge amounts of experience with the inetd.conf format the significance of the word "backup" as being the user to run that amandad daemon under just doesn't jump out at you. Some interactive post install scripts for the debian packages which put sensible defaults in and explained why, would save hours of agony. -- --- Sarah Hollings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --- IT Manager Ph +61 7 3365 6080 Fax +61 7 3365 6171 Key Centre for Human Factors and Applied Cognitive Psychology The University of Queensland, Saint Lucia, QLD 4072 Australia
