How To:Verify backups: Difference between revisions
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The first line of defense in verifying backups is [[amverify]], which simply reads all dumps off a tape and, where possible, runs them through a restore program to make sure they are sensible. Amverify does not, however, verify the integrity of the data which was backed up -- if the restore operation is successful, amverify considers the dump verified. | The first line of defense in verifying backups is [[amverify]], which simply reads all dumps off a tape and, where possible, runs them through a restore program to make sure they are sensible. Amverify does not, however, verify the integrity of the data which was backed up -- if the restore operation is successful, amverify considers the dump verified. | ||
Revision as of 20:07, 6 October 2010
This article is a part of the How Tos collection.
The first line of defense in verifying backups is amverify, which simply reads all dumps off a tape and, where possible, runs them through a restore program to make sure they are sensible. Amverify does not, however, verify the integrity of the data which was backed up -- if the restore operation is successful, amverify considers the dump verified.
Many users, especially new ones, want to verify that a run has been successful by performing a restore. This is also a good way to ensure that the you know how to do a restore, so you'll be prepared when the time comes.
You can use amrecover for this. You can run amrecover from either the original client or a different client, as long as you specify the correct backup server/configuration name. Please remember if you restore to the original client, amrecover will restore the data to the directory you are running amrecover from by default. So you can create a directory called /restore and cd into that directory and run amrecover from there. Be sure to setup amanda-client.conf (on the client side) as described in amrecover.
Another tool is amcheckdump(8). It reads the storage media and passes the result to the appropriate archival application (such as Gnutar) for parsing. The data isn't actually recovered.