On Sunday, August 21, 2011 06:30:06 AM Thomas Marko did opine: > Hi, > > I have a question regarding dump levels in Amanda. I do backup several > DLEs with an Amanda server 3.2.1 on a dedicated machine (Ubuntu Natty). > On another machine (Ubuntu Lucid, Amanda 2.6.1) there is a DLE which > approx. 175GB data. The first time backup was a level 0 backup with > approx. 175 GB (surprise :-). Then Amanda made level 1 backup and > dumped just changes (some megs, which is fine, my bumpsize is 1MB). > After that, Amanda made a level 1 with 175 GB (WTF?). > > Is this as designed? Could one explain to me how Amanda works? I really > read many things about Amanda on Zmanda website and several boards and > I also follow this maillinglist for a while, but wether I missed this > information or I could not find it. I know that Amanda decides by > herself when she makes level 0 within the dumpcycle and she always > ensures that at minimum one is available. But why are level >0 dumps > sometimes the same size as a level 0? > > In my understanding Amanda should backup first a level 0 with 175GB and > then bump to level 1, as soon as the saved disk-space is more than 1 MB > (bumpsize). This will dump just a few MBs as the changes on this DLE > are really small and very rare. After that I would expect that Amanda > will make level 1 with very small amount of data, as there again are > practically no changes in the filesystem (each level bumpsize will be > multiplied with 1,5 in my case (bumpmult)). But Amanda makes a level 1 > dump again with 175GB!? After that Amanda bumped to level 2, and dumped > a few MBs (as expected). But the next day a level 2 occurred with > 175GB. This was done also the next day: Level 2 with 175GB. > > I always thought, that dumps > level 0 are just incremental. Why is that > different in Amanda? What I would expect or what I want to achieve is > the following: > > Within 14 days I want to run dumps every day to backup as less as > possible the full DLE data (level 0) the other days I want to dump just > changes, as my DLEs change very rare and the changed data is normally > really small (I am backing up private data not in a company). How can I > achieve this with Amanda? > > I have about 21 DLEs with sizes between some MBs and 175GB and work with > 100GB vTapes. I tried to force Amanda to do smaller dumps by setting > runtapes to 2 or 3, but than Amanda moans that dumps are way too big > (of course they are, if Amanda makes that large level >0's)... > > Any help will be appreciated. If necessary, please let me know which > kind of information you need for helping me. > > Thank you! > > Regards, > Thomas
Your tar version(s) please? ISTR there was a tar problem that this resembles, back up the log a year or so. To use my /home as an example, it appears I never got past level 2 Aug 17 level 0 31612050 Aug 18 level 1 3347160 Aug 19 level 1 3389080 Aug 20 level 2 3352290 Aug 21 level 0 31476240 which is my dumpcycle But I had bumpdays at 2, which I just reduced to 1 and reduced some of the other settings so amanda could be a bit more aggressive in bumping levels. Perhaps Jean-Louis can clarify the tar version issue? FWIW mine is 1.26. ISTR 1.24 and 1.25 had issues. Cheers, gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) Save the Whales -- Harpoon a Honda.
