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Hi all, In this article we will learn how to install amanda backup server and cofigure it to start taking backups. It is completely free and based on GPL License. we don't need to pay any license fee to use this software in live/production environment.

Steps to install amanda backup server.

1. Install centos 5.2 x86_64.
2. Get rpm from www.amanda.org/download.php for latest stable version of amanda server. E.g amanda-backup_server-2.6.1p2-1.rhel5.x86_64.rpm
3. install this downloaded rpm using #rpm –ivh command
   e.g #rpm –ivh amanda-backup_server-2.6.1p2-1.rhel5.x86_64.rpm
4. If there were any missing dependencies then it will ask you to install that first. It will also create required files and directories.
5. Default configuration directory is /etc/amanda for all configurations.
6. We have 4 TB separate storage for backups. That storage is mounted on /amanda partition.
7. I have copied all configuration from /etc/amanda to /amanda and created soft link from /etc/amanda --> /amanda
8. Configuration file which holds details about what is getting backed up is /amanda/DailySet123/disklist.
9. Imp configuration about server, tapes etc is in /etc/amanda/DailySet123/amanda.conf.

My amanda.conf file is as below

org "DailySet123" # your organization name for reports
mailto "user@domain" # space separated list of operators at your site
dumpuser "amandabackup" # the user to run dumps under
inparallel 4 # maximum dumpers that will run in parallel (max 63)
dumporder "sssS" # specify the priority order of each dumper
taperalgo first # The algorithm used to choose which dump image to send
displayunit "m" # Possible values: "k|m|g|t"

netusage 600000 Kbps # maximum net bandwidth for Amanda, in KB per sec
dumpcycle 1 week # the number of days in the normal dump cycle
runspercycle 7 # the number of amdump runs in dumpcycle days
tapecycle 240 # the number of tapes in rotation
bumpsize 20 Mb # minimum savings (threshold) to bump level 1 -> 2
bumppercent 20 # minimum savings (threshold) to bump level 1 -> 2
bumpdays 1 # minimum days at each level
bumpmult 4 # threshold = bumpsize * bumpmult^(level-1)
etimeout 3600 # number of seconds per filesystem for estimates.
dtimeout 7200 # number of idle seconds before a dump is aborted.
ctimeout 100 # maximum number of seconds that amcheck waits

runtapes 40 # number of tapes to be used in a single run of amdump
tpchanger "chg-disk" # the tape-changer glue script
tapedev "file:/etc/amanda/DailySet123/vtape/slots" # the no-rewind tape device to be used
changerfile "/etc/amanda/DailySet123/vtape/chg-disk-status"
maxdumpsize -1 # Maximum number of bytes the planner will schedule
tapetype HARD-DISK # what kind of tape it is (see tapetypes below)
labelstr "^DailySet123-[0-9][0-9]*$" # label constraint regex: all tapes must match
amrecover_do_fsf yes # amrecover will call amrestore with the
amrecover_check_label yes # amrecover will call amrestore with the
amrecover_changer "null:" # amrecover will use the changer if you restore
holdingdisk hd1 {
comment "main holding disk"
directory "/holding" # where the holding disk is
use -5 Gb # how much space can we use on it
chunksize 1Gb # size of chunk if you want big dump to be
}
autoflush no #
infofile "/etc/amanda/DailySet123/curinfo" # database DIRECTORY
logdir "/etc/amanda/DailySet123/logs" # log directory
indexdir "/etc/amanda/DailySet123/index" # index directory
define tapetype HARD-DISK {
comment "Dump onto hard disk"
length 10240 mbytes # specified in mbytes to get the exact size of 10GB
}
define dumptype global {
comment "Global definitions"
auth "bsd"
maxdumps 2
estimate calcsize
fallback_splitsize 1g
holdingdisk yes
index yes
tape_splitsize 1G
}
define dumptype always-full {
global
comment "Full dump of this filesystem always"
compress none
priority high
dumpcycle 0
}
define dumptype root-tar {
global
program "GNUTAR"
comment "root partitions dumped with tar"
compress none
index
priority low
}
define dumptype user-tar {
root-tar
comment "user partitions dumped with tar"
priority medium
}
define dumptype user-tar-span {
root-tar
comment "tape-spanning user partitions dumped with tar"
priority medium
}
define dumptype user-tar-span-tcp {
root-tar
auth "bsdtcp"
comment "tape-spanning user partitions dumped with tar"
priority medium
}
define dumptype high-tar {
root-tar
comment "partitions dumped with tar"
priority high
}
define dumptype comp-root-tar {
root-tar
comment "Root partitions with compression"
compress client fast
}
define dumptype comp-root-tar-span {
comp-root-tar
comment "Root partitions with compression"
}
define dumptype comp-root-tar-span-tcp {
comp-root-tar
auth "bsdtcp"
comment "Root partitions with compression"
}
define dumptype comp-user-tar {
user-tar
compress client fast
}
define dumptype comp-user-tar-span {
user-tar-span
compress client fast
}
define dumptype comp-user-tar-span-tcp {
user-tar-span
auth "bsdtcp"
compress client fast
}
define dumptype holding-disk {
global
comment "The master-host holding disk itself"
holdingdisk no # do not use the holding disk
priority medium
}
define dumptype comp-user {
global
comment "Non-root partitions on reasonably fast machines"
compress client fast
priority medium
}
define dumptype comp-user-span {
global
comment "Tape-spanning non-root partitions on reasonably fast machines"
compress client fast
priority medium
}
define dumptype nocomp-user {
comp-user
comment "Non-root partitions on slow machines"
compress none
}
define dumptype nocomp-user-span {
comp-user-span
comment "Tape-spanning non-root partitions on slow machines"
compress none
}
define dumptype comp-root {
global
comment "Root partitions with compression"
compress client fast
priority low
}
define dumptype nocomp-root {
comp-root
comment "Root partitions without compression"
compress none
}
define dumptype comp-high {
global
comment "very important partitions on fast machines"
compress client best
priority high
}
define dumptype nocomp-high {
comp-high
comment "very important partitions on slow machines"
compress none
}
define dumptype nocomp-test {
global
comment "test dump without compression, no /etc/dumpdates recording"
compress none
record no
priority medium
}
define dumptype comp-test {
nocomp-test
comment "test dump with compression, no /etc/dumpdates recording"
compress client fast
}
define dumptype custom-compress {
global
program "GNUTAR"
comment "test dump with custom client compression"
compress client custom
client_custom_compress "/usr/bin/bzip2"
}
define dumptype encrypt-fast {
global
program "GNUTAR"
comment "test dump with fast client compression and server symmetric encryption"
compress client fast
encrypt server
server_encrypt "/usr/local/sbin/amcrypt"
server_decrypt_option "-d"
}
define interface local {
comment "a local disk"
use 1000 kbps
}
define interface le0 {
comment "10 Mbps ethernet"
use 400 kbps
}

10. As we have created virtual tapes using disk storage, we need to perform following steps before we using those disks.

a. Create empty directories using this command from command prompt
#for n in `seq 1 200`; do mkdir /amanda/DailySet123/vtape/slots/slot${n}; done
Note: this will create 200 empty directories. Slot1 to slot200
b. Then we need to label each of slot with specific label for amanda to use it.
# for n in `seq 1 200` ; do amlabel DailySet123 DailySet123-${n} slot ${n}; done
c. Each directory size is limited to 10GB. It is defined in amanda.conf file.

10. All backup related processes are owned by user “amandabackup”. It is a local system user.
11. To check / test the configuration manually use following steps.

a. Login to server as root user.
b. su - amandabackup
c. amcheck DailySet123

This is to check and verify whether your configuration is valid and amanda server is able to connect to other servers to take backups or not. It will display output something like :

[root@mybackupserver ~]# su - amandabackup
-sh-3.2$ amcheck DailySet123
Amanda Tape Server Host Check

-----------------------------
Holding disk /holding: 143292 MB disk space available, using 138172 MB
slot 183:read label `DailySet123-123', date `20100129334512'.
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape DailySet123-123 label ok
Server check took 5.746 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
Client check: 40 hosts checked in 1.352 seconds. 0 problems found.

(brought to you by Amanda 2.6.1p2)
-sh-3.2$

My disklist configuration file is as below

server1 /etc comp-root-tar-span

server2 /etc comp-root-tar-span-tcp
server3 /etc comp-root-tar-span
server3 /usr/local/nagios comp-root-tar-span

server4 /etc comp-root-tar-span-tcp
server4 /var comp-user-tar-span-tcp
server4 /nfs/home comp-user-tar-span-tcp
server4 /nfs/newrepository user-tar-span-tcp

server5 /development comp-user-tar-span-tcp
server5 /shared_development comp-user-tar-span-tcp
server5 /production1/content comp-user-tar-span-tcp
server5 /production1/common_files {
server5 /production1/common_files {
comp-user-tar-span-tcp
exclude "./myimages/"
exclude append "./mylogdir*"
} 3