The Quick Backup Guide

Amanda- an open source backup and recovery solution that stores all your important, encrypted and compressed backups on local storage and remote file servers. Amanda is designed to back up a large amount of data on servers and workstations running on multiple versions of Linux/ Unix and Windows.

Review this user guide to use Amanda for backup.

1. TAKE A BACKUP USING AMANDA

1.1 UNLOCK THE AMANDABACKUP USER

1. Login/ssh into the server as user with admin privileges
2. Unlock the amandabackup user using ‘passwd -u amandabackup’
3. Assign a password for the amanddabackup user using ‘passwd amandabackup’
4. Logout of the server

1.2 ADD A BACKUP SET

1. Login /ssh into the server as the amandabackup user
2. Create a directory for Amanda configuration using ‘mkdir /etc/amanda/DailySet1’
3. Copy the example configuration file present in ‘/var/lib/amanda/example/amanda.conf’ to ‘/etc/amanda/DailySet1’using ‘cp /var/lib/amanda/example/amanda.conf /etc/amanda/DailySet1’
4. Open ‘/etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf’ in viusing ‘vi/etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf’
5. Add the following lines to specify the size of the virtual tapes:
   define tapetype HARDDISK {
   length 100000 mbytes    #size of the harddisk  is 100000mbytes
   }
6. Scroll to the ‘define dumptype global’ section in the file and add the       line ‘auth bsdtcp’ line before the closing bracket
7. Save and close the file
8. Logout of the server

1.3 CREATE A HOLDING DISK

1. Login/ssh into the server as user with admin privileges
2. Create a cache directory to use as a holding disk using ‘mkdir -p /dumps/amanda’
3. Change the ownership of the holding disk using ‘chown amandabackup:disk /dumps/amanda’
4. Set the appropriate permissions for the holding disk using ‘chmod 750 /dumps/amanda’
5. Logout of the server

1.4 CREATE AND CONFIGURE THE VIRTUAL TAPES

1. Login/ssh into the server as user with admin privileges
2. Create a directory for vtapes using ‘mkdir -p /var/amanda/vtapes’
3. Change the ownership for vtapes using ‘chown amandabackup:disk /var/amanda/vtapes’
4. Set appropriate permissions using ‘chmod 755 /var/amanda/vtapes’
5. Open ‘/etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf’ in vi using ‘vi /etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf’
6. Remove the line ‘tapedev “file: …”
7. Add the line ‘tapedev “chg-disk:/var/amanda/vtapes”
8. Save and close the file
9. Logout of the server
10. Login/ssh into the server as the amandabackup user
11. Change the directory using ‘cd /var/amanda/vtapes’
12. Create slots for the vtape using ‘for ((i=1; $i<=25; i++)); do mkdir slot$i; amlabel DailySet1 DailySet1-$i slot $i;done’
13. Logout of the server

1.5 CONFIGURE THE BACKUP SET

1. Login/ssh into the server as the amandabackup user
2. Create a file to store the list of directories to backup using ‘vi /etc/amanda/DailySet1/disklist’
3. Add one line per directory to back up in the following format
   IP_address_of_the_client directory_to_backup comp-user-tar
4. Save and close the file
5. Open the ‘/var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts’ in vi using ‘vi /var/lib/amanda/.amandahosts’
6. Add one line per client in the following format
   IP_address_of_the_client amandabackup amdump
7. Create a cron job to run the command ‘/usr/sbin/amdump DailySet1’.
8. Logout of the server

1.6 VERIFY THE BACKUP CONFIGURATION

1. Login/ssh into the server as the amandabackup user
2. Run the amcheck tool using ‘amcheck DailySet1’. If running “amcheck” gives compilation error for JSON, then uninstall the perl-JSON and then reinstall perl-JSON.
3. Logout of the server

1.7 RUN A BACKUP

1. Login/ssh into the server as the amandabackup use
2. Run amdump to start the DailySet1 using ‘amdump DailySet1’
3. Run the tool amadmin using ‘amadmin DailySet1 find’
4. Logout of the server

CONCLUSION

Amanda is designed to be accessible and easy-to-use even for the novice user.
A one stop solution that solves all the data protection challenges.
Get Started! Don’t Wait-Install Today!
Also, be sure to check out The Amanda 15-Minute Backup Solution