is excluding /usr/local/var/amanda a bad idea ?

[Guy Dallaire]

I excluded /usr/local/var/amanda from my amanda server backup because amanda was complaining a lot about strange backups (the indexes and db were updated while amanda was running tar on them, or something like that)

I'm realizing that if I lose this directory for some reason (ex: destroy the db or index directories by error) I will no longer be able to use amrecover and get a list of the backups that are on a particular tape. Or restores will be a lot more difficult, until I go through a complete dumpcycle.

Say you lose the amanda indexes and db, is there some sort of way to rebuild it from the tapes ? Or a way to know what files (and last modified date) are on which tapes ?

Thanks