How To:Build a Test Environment With Virtual Tapes

Here is a Quick Setup for a test configuration with a virtual tape changer, emulating tapes on disk.

A test environment is very handy to experiment with the more obscure features of amanda, or get more familiar with all the possible options in amanda.conf and the dumptype options. And you can practice restores quickly.

Let's call the configuration "test".

First find out where the configuration directory is, and create a new config, as user amanda:

$ amadmin x version | grep CONFIG_DIR
CONFIG_DIR=/usr/local/etc/amanda
$ cd /usr/local/etc/amanda
$ mkdir test

Copy a template amanda.conf file to the directory created, and adapt the parameters to your environment. Here are some values:

org "Acme Inc."
mailto "[email protected]"
dumpcycle 7
runspercycle 5
tapecycle 5
dumpuser "amanda"
tpchanger "chg-disk"                            # a virtual tape changer
tapedev "file:/space/vtapes/test/slots"
changerfile "/home/amanda/test/changerfile"
labelstr "TEST-.*"
tapetype DISK
infofile "/home/amanda/test/curinfo"
logdir "/home/amanda/test/log"
indexdir "/home/amanda/test/index"
tapelist "/home/amanda/test/tapelist"

holdingdisk hd1 {
    directory "/space/amandahold/test"
}

define dumptype comp-tar {
    program GNUTAR
    compress fast
    index yes
    record no           # Important! avoid interfering with production runs
}  

define tapetype DISK {
    filemark 15 bytes
    length 1g
}

The above contains only the bare minimum. The idea of a test environment is just to add and change most of the values in amanda.conf.

Note: you may set "record yes" in the dumptype for those directories that are NOT used by any real Amanda config.

Create some directories/files that we configured in amanda.conf:

# mkdir -p /space/amandahold
# su - amanda
$ mkdir /space/amandahold/test 
$ mkdir -p /home/amanda/test/curinfo
$ mkdir /home/amanda/test/log
$ mkdir /home/amanda/test/index
$ touch /home/amanda/test/tapelist

And create the virtual tapes:

# mkdir /space/vtapes
# chown amanda:disk /space/vtapes
# su - amanda
$ mkdir -p /space/vtapes/test/slots
$ cd /space/vtapes/test/slots
$ for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do mkdir slot$1; done
$ ln -s slot1 data

In the loop above: create as many slots as you have specified tapecycle in the amanda.conf. (Do not add a leading zero to the numbers.)

Quick test to verify the virtual tape setup:

$ ammt -f file:/space/vtapes/test/slots status

Then label the tapes:

$ for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do amlabel test TEST-$i slot $i; done

And reset the changer to the first slot again:

$ amtape test reset

Now create a small disklist file:

amandaserver.example.com   /var/log   comp-tar
client1.example.com        /var/log   comp-tar

Run amcheck and solve all issues.

And you're ready for the first test run:

$ amdump test