Actually, the tape backups are basically for offsite backups of online disk backups. I actually have two disks that I am trying to backup in this fashion, one is the database backups that I mentioned in the previous mail and the other one is a disk containing all my "online" amanda backups done with the "file:" driver. I have a weeks worth of backups on the disk (as 7 virtual tapes) and I want only the latest tape dumped to the offsite tape nightly.
So I will really only be going to these tapes for either: a) complete disaster; b) a historic backup (>1 week); c) crash of one of my "online" backup disks. Cheers, Milos ----- Original Message ----- From: Bernhard Beck <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 3:17 pm Subject: RE: differential vs incremental backups > Of course this would all be done with scripts from cron jobs. > Agree on the > restore part. However, I would never restore critical data like > this right > into production anyway. > > Milos, if your intention is to avoid going back to tape for > restores when > under time pressure to get your database working again, maybe the > AmandaFILE: driver is something to consider. > > Bernhard > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Thomas Hu [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 12:09 PM > > To: 'Bernhard Beck'; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: differential vs incremental backups > > > > > > Dereferencing the symlinks is up to tar or gtar and I believe > can be > > specified within amanda configuration. However, extra caution > has to be > > taken in recovering as by default the link would be disconnected and > > filled in with actual data. Two issues can merge up. One is the disk > > space of filesystem where the links are. The other is you still need > > manually copy the data to where it is supposed to be. > > > > For production env, got to have a better way. Carefully > organizing the > > filesystem/directory architecture and a few cron job lines would > work.> Or simple incremental backup of the whole filesystem would > work too. > > > > Thomas > > > > > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Bernhard Beck > > Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 2:19 PM > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Subject: RE: differential vs incremental backups > > > > I'm looking at a similar problem here. One of the ideas we came > up with > > was > > to create a current directory (e.g. /dbdumps/current) which gets > backed> up > > by Amanda. Inside are symlinks to the actual dump files in the daily > > directories (/dbdumps/01, /dbdumps/02, ...). Your daily DB dump > script> updates the symlinks in current when it is done. > > > > We haven't implemented this yet, but Amanda should dereference the > > symlinks > > and back up the right data. This way you always access the same > DLE and > > get > > your normal Amanda behaviour. > > > > In your case, depending on what your dumps look like, you could > run diff > > on > > today's and yesterday's dump and only back up the result > (Amanda always > > backs up whole files). > > In our environment this doesn't really matter though, since the dump > > files > > are changing pretty dramatically at times, so an incremental > would look > > like > > a level 0 anyway most of the time. > > > > Personally, I'd feel safer with just backing up the whole dump > every day > > and > > leave the job to Amanda. > > > > Your milage may vary of course. > > > > Bernhard > > > > > -----Original Message----- > > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Sent: Tuesday, March 18, 2003 9:14 AM > > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > Subject: differential vs incremental backups > > > > > > > > > Hi, > > > I have a disk that is a cache for database backups > > > and is a set of 30 directories with database exports > > > of the last 30 days. I want to use Amanda to backup > > > ONLY the latest written directory every night, > > > without ever doing a full backup of the whole disk > > > (it is too big > > > to fit on one tape! :( ) > > > > > > In other words, is there a way to tell Amanda to > > > always back-up only the changes from the last run > > > regardless of dump levels. Equivalently, is there a way > > > to fool Amanda into thinking that a full backup was > > > done every night, after the level 1 completes > > > successfully. > > > > > > Any other ideas would be appreciated! > > > > > > Cheers, > > > Milos > > > > > > > > > > > > > > >
