IMHO, you should have a least one multiple of “dumpcycle” in number of tapes
“tapecycle”. IE minimum dumpcycle=2 if you only have 4 tapes.
Maybe even dumpcycle=1 if you are limited to 4 tapes. That’s the only
way to prevent writing over your only level-0.
I use dumpcycle=7 (a week) but I keep 10 times that many tapes, 70,
so that I have ten weeks of data being stored.
And, if you want to run more than one backup per day, having a large multiple
of tapes is even more important.
Dumpcycle DOES default to unit=days, but I think you can specify otherwise.
If you want to run 4 backups per day, you might be able to specify dumpcycle=6
hours
but I’m not at all certain about that.
If you are only running extra backups during testing, then make sure to FORCE
an extra level 0 sometime before you hit your tape limit.
AMADMIN <CONFIG> FORCE DLE-NAME
(Use lower case; my computer keeps trying to correct the spelling, unless I use
uppercase)
I know tapes are expensive (or virtual tapes, if you are using space on a
different disk)
but the question is, how much is your data worth?
Deb Baddorf
Fermilab
> On Apr 25, 2020, at 5:55 AM, Jukka Salmi <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Hello
>
> I just installed Amanda 3.5.1 on a Debian 10.3 (buster) system and am
> following the [1]"GSWA/Build a Basic Configuration" example.
>
> $ amgetconf MyConfig tapecycle
> 4
> $ amgetconf MyConfig dumpcycle
> 3
>
> Running amdump a few times seemed to be successful, but the I noticed
> that while the first run created a full backup...
>
> $ amadmin MyConfig find
>
> date host disk lv storage pool tape or file file
> part status
> 2020-04-25 10:41:40 localhost /etc 0 MyConfig MyConfig MyData01 1
> 1/1 OK
>
> ...all subsequent runs created incremental backups...
>
> $ amadmin MyConfig find
>
> date host disk lv storage pool tape or file file
> part status
> 2020-04-25 10:41:40 localhost /etc 0 MyConfig MyConfig MyData01 1
> 1/1 OK
> 2020-04-25 10:46:06 localhost /etc 1 MyConfig MyConfig MyData02 1
> 1/1 OK
> 2020-04-25 10:46:13 localhost /etc 1 MyConfig MyConfig MyData03 1
> 1/1 OK
> 2020-04-25 10:46:21 localhost /etc 1 MyConfig MyConfig MyData04 1
> 1/1 OK
>
> ...and the fifth run overwrote the first vtape which contained the full
> backup...
>
> $ amadmin MyConfig find
>
> date host disk lv storage pool tape or file file
> part status
> 2020-04-25 10:46:06 localhost /etc 1 MyConfig MyConfig MyData02 1
> 1/1 OK
> 2020-04-25 10:46:13 localhost /etc 1 MyConfig MyConfig MyData03 1
> 1/1 OK
> 2020-04-25 10:46:21 localhost /etc 1 MyConfig MyConfig MyData04 1
> 1/1 OK
> 2020-04-25 10:47:33 localhost /etc 1 MyConfig MyConfig MyData01 1
> 1/1 OK
>
> ...thus rendering the whole backup useless.
>
> What am I missing? Is the dumpcycle (3 _days_ in this case) to be taken
> literally, i.e. should I just not run amdump more often than once _per
> day_ (per Amanda config)? And if so, how can I configure Amanda not to
> overwrite a tape containing a full backup which is needed for the other
> incremental backups, no matter how often it is run in what period?
>
>
> TIA & cheers, Jukka
>
> [1]
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__wiki.zmanda.com_index.php_GSWA_Build-5Fa-5FBasic-5FConfiguration&d=DwIBAg&c=gRgGjJ3BkIsb5y6s49QqsA&r=HMrKaRiCv4jddln9fLPIOw&m=YWhNpDiVNBGAkjvVaNwXUETYT-bzQVA-4PYl06QDPaM&s=jy1VinwfaPAm_MGS5vWT5m0PgFAcCi5-_sQB4Sip1Y4&e=
>
>
> --
> This email fills a much-needed gap in the archives.
