There has been some recent discussion of this on (and off) the list. Each different path in the disklist will create separate index entries. While generating a new backup file every night looks good on the backup side, it can be a nightmare on the restore side, depending on your data. I wouldn't want to have to pull a specific version of a file out of a deep subdirectory using a new disklist every night.
As an alternative, you might want to build a static disklist of directories such that each directory is some fraction of a tape size (33%? 50%?) and keep an eye on their respective sizes through amreport. If a directory gets too big, split it. You'll only have the potential for restore headaches every once in a while instead of every night. If that doesn't suit, there was discussion of 'chunking' on the amanda-hackers list a while back. If you want to sharpen your pencil and write some code, the 'chunking' system would break every backup into chunks, and if a chunk of a backup hits EOT, AMANDA can change tapes and keep going, with a maximum waste at the end of tape being equal to chunksize. It was a neat idea that I suspect went to the back burner because the 'use a file as a tape' thing that is being worked on now is a neater idea. > -----Original Message----- > From: David Trusty [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2002 2:20 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Guidelines/suggestions for backing up a large RAID array? > > > Hi, > > I am working with a very large RAID array which needs backing-up. > > The array has 3 partitions, each containing approximately > 150GB of files. > > I have a tape changer with 20 tapes, each holding 50GB of data. > > Since amanda currently will not back up a disk larger than a > tape, I believe I need to specify smaller peices of the partitions > in my disklist. What I am thinking about doing is writing a script > which scans the partitions down to a certain depth and generates > a disklist of peieces small enough to backup onto a single tape, > using the GNUTAR method. > > Has anyone had a similar problem, and had any other solutions? > > Also, what is the effect on amanda of changing the disklist > (perhaps every night)? The changes (when they occur) will all > be different subpaths of the same partitions. Will this get > amanda confused, or make it back up a lot of extra files, or > is the gtar indexing able to handle this situation? > > Thanks in advance!! > > David > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > MSN Photos is the easiest way to share and print your photos: > http://photos.msn.com/support/worldwide.aspx >
