How To:Verify backups

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.