Today I tried to use Amanda to set up a court. You know, Amanda is a backup software that’s been around for ages. The goal was to use it to back up some data from a client to a tape library, which is also a bit old-school, but it gets the job done.
First, I installed Amanda on the server. The installation was pretty straightforward. I just followed the instructions from the Amanda website and everything went smoothly. No hiccups there, which was a good start.
Setting Up the Configuration Files
After the installation, I dove into configuring Amanda. This is where things got a bit tricky. There are a bunch of config files that you need to set up correctly, like the and the disklist file.
- : This is the main configuration file. It’s where you specify things like the name of your backup organization, the tape device to use, and the dump cycle parameters. I had to make sure these settings matched our setup, like the tape drive location and the backup schedule we wanted.
- disklist: This file lists all the directories or filesystems that you want to back up. It also specifies which host they’re on and what backup method to use. I carefully added all the important directories from the client machine to this list.
Testing the Configuration
Once the config files were set up, I ran some test commands to make sure everything was working as expected. I used commands like amcheck to verify the configuration and check if Amanda could communicate with the client and the tape drive. This step is crucial because it helps catch any errors early on. It showed a few issues with permissions and network connectivity, so I fixed those up.
Running the First Backup
With everything configured and tested, I initiated the first backup. I used the amdump command to start the backup process. I kept an eye on the logs to make sure there were no errors. It took a while, which is expected with tape backups, but eventually, it completed successfully. I saw the data getting written to the tape, and it felt pretty good to see it working.
Restoring Data
Of course, a backup is useless if you can’t restore the data. So, I tested the restore process using the amrestore command. I picked a few files to restore and checked if they were restored correctly to the client machine. Thankfully, the restore worked perfectly. The files were back in their original locations, and everything looked good.
Setting up Amanda for a court isn’t the most exciting task, but it’s an important one for data protection. The process involved installing the software, setting up the configuration files, testing the setup, running the backup, and then verifying the restore. It’s a bit of a process, but once it’s set up, it works like a charm. I have backed up a lot of data with it, and I’m quite happy with it.
