Hi, it has now happened several times over the past few months that the Amanda planner failed to schedule level 0 dumps in a timely manner. I'm using the Amanda 2.4.4 package that ships with SuSE 8.2. There is no pertinent information in the Changes section of 2.4.4p1 (I looked at the sourceforge release notes).
Relevant configuration: - no changer dumpcycle 14 days # the number of days in the normal dump cycle tapecycle 6 tapes # the number of tapes in rotation bumpsize 1500 Mb # minimum savings (threshold) to bump level 1 -> 2 bumpdays 1 # minimum days at each level bumpmult 4 # threshold = bumpsize * (level-1)**bumpmult runtapes 1 # number of tapes to be used in a single run of amdump The results have been that I lost the last level 0 dump because it was overwritten with level 1 dumps. I've seen this happen in various circumstances: * Manual backups have been run outside the schedule (I rotate 6 tapes in 14 days). * Machines are unavailable for an extended amount of time. What I expect of Amanda: * NEVER overwrite a level 0 dump, not even with another level 0. If the write fails, there is no backup left over to restore from. * I'd prefer if Amanda refused to write to a tape if that would mean killing a level 0 dump. In this discussion, level 0 also applies to level 1 -> level 2 dumps, Amanda shouldn't overwrite one level 1 dump unless there is a newer one. If there is not enough space to keep an older level 0 dump as a new one is written, then abort, moaning and screaming loudly "buy more tapes" as the backup will be worthless. This means: if I have 6 tapes, Amanda will have to write level 0 every FIFTH dump (not every SIXTH) at the latest. Of course, the "planner" (scheduler) can promote to level 0 earlier if that's necessary for capacity reasons. One thing I've never understood is: WHY does Amanda need to know the dumpcycle in days? If this feature has precedence over the tapecycle, it is broken. -- Matthias Andree Encrypt your mail: my GnuPG key ID is 0x052E7D95
