Ok, because I complained to repeat the question in full, here is my short answer.
I don't know. I never use amcheckdump (I only tested it once in a small test environment). Instead of using amcheckdump, I do this: If no user asked me to restore a file for two weeks, I do a test restore of a file myself, choosing a from a DLE that is important, and/or has given trouble recently, and/or is near the end of a tape (we have multiple tape backups). If possible, I try to avoid the split_tape feature (one backup image spanning multiple tapes) of amanda as well; and until now, I could always find a way to avoid it. The split_tape feature makes a bare metal restore without a recent amanda version much more difficult. Instead I use larger tapes, and splitting up a large DLE into many smaller ones using gnutar include/exclude features. It would be good for the Amanda community to find out once and for all. Oh, you say, "it takes 5+ hours to read one image? I have no time to test that!" That's exactly one of the reasons to avoid such enormous backup images as well. My users are usually too impatient to wait 5+ hours to restore one file, which happens to be located near the end of the backup image, were Murphy usually puts those. On 2008-11-05 15:39, rory_f wrote:
the question again then i guess? hi guys. we're run amcheckdump on a backup we just did and it has given us a few outputs we're not sure about -whether it is tar being non-understanding of a backup using spanned tapes, or something else? we're a bit lost so hopefully someone can help ps. ignore the file paths below, i just changed them to cover our hostname/directories. ..20081029235711 level 0 part 4 on tape AmaTor-007 file #1 "/dev/nst0" uses deprecated device naming convention; using "tape:/dev/nst0" instead. /bin/gtar: Read 2048 bytes from - /bin/gtar: Unexpected EOF in archive /bin/gtar: Error is not recoverable: exiting now Validation process returned 2 (full status 512) using '/bin/gtar tf - > /tmp/amanda_amcheckdump && cat > /tmp/amanda_amcheckdump'. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 5 on tape AmaTor-007 file #2 Continuing with previously started validation process. Error reading 32768 bytes from /dev/nst0: Input/output error Error reading device or writing data to validation command. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 1 on tape AmaTor-007 file #3 Could not seek to file 3 of volume AmaTor-007. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 2 on tape AmaTor-007 file #4 Details of dump at file 4 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 3 on tape AmaTor-007 file #5 Details of dump at file 5 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 4 on tape AmaTor-007 file #6 Details of dump at file 6 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 5 on tape AmaTor-007 file #7 Details of dump at file 7 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 6 on tape AmaTor-007 file #8 Details of dump at file 8 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 7 on tape AmaTor-007 file #9 Details of dump at file 9 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 8 on tape AmaTor-007 file #10 Details of dump at file 10 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 9 on tape AmaTor-007 file #11 Details of dump at file 11 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 10 on tape AmaTor-007 file #12 Details of dump at file 12 of volume AmaTor-007 do not match logfile. Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 11 on tape AmaTor-008 file #1 "/dev/nst0" uses deprecated device naming convention; using "tape:/dev/nst0" instead. using '/bin/gtar tf - > /tmp/amanda_amcheckdump && cat > /tmp/amanda_amcheckdump'. /bin/gtar: This does not look like a tar archive /bin/gtar: Skipping to next header /bin/gtar: Archive contains obsolescent base-64 headers Validating image xxxx.com:/array/sata-1/.../SHOTS/something/ datestamp 20081029235711 level 0 part 12 on tape AmaTor-008 file #2 Continuing with previously started validation process. /bin/gtar: Error exit delayed from previous errors Validation process returned 2 (full status 512) Whats the easiest way to figure out what file(s) the error is refering to? And/Or is it really something to worry about. What about the last error, validation process returned 2? What does this mean? is there any way to run a check on the tape itself, and not the whole backup again, to save time? Thanks. +---------------------------------------------------------------------- |This was sent by [EMAIL PROTECTED] via Backup Central. |Forward SPAM to [EMAIL PROTECTED] +----------------------------------------------------------------------
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