Amanda log files

Backup server

• amdump.<run #> for each run for each amanda configuration. This log file is created in the same directory specified by the "logdir" parameter in the amanda.conf file.

This log file can be used for debugging an amdump run. This log file is read by amplot and amstatus command. amdump.1 contains the most recent run information.

• log.<year><month><day>.<run #> for each run for each configuration. This log file is created in the directory specified by

the "logdir" parameter in the amanda.conf file.

Run number is 0 for the most recent run. This log file is used for generating backup reports (amreport). Each line in the file begins with a keyword. Depending on the keyword, rest of the line is parsed. Backup statistics can obtained from the log file.

These log files are also used to locate the dumps on tapes with "amadmin xx find".

Do not delete these log files. Amanda takes care of the them when they are not needed anymore.

• System log (logged by syslogd utility). This log may contain errors regarding xinetd configuration. It can also contain device error

logs.

Log and Debug Files on the Backup Client

The different commands that run on the Amanda client (amandad, sendsize, runtar, rundump) create files with debugging information in the AMANDA_DBG directory. This directory is defined at compile time and can be found with the amadmin command:

$ amadmin x version | grep DBG
AMANDA_DBG=/tmp/amanda

Usually the value is /tmp/amanda, but some distro's have it defined as /var/log/amanda. This directory should be writeable by the dumpuser on the client. Amanda tries to create it if it does not exist.

The first part of the debug filename is the command name, followed by the date and time when the command was started, optionally followed by a sequence number, and ends in ".debug":

$ ls /tmp/amanda
amandad.20051207000402.debug
amandad.20051207000402000.debug
amandad.20051207004031.debug
amandad.20051207004713.debug
runtar.200512070004031.debug
runtar.200512070004713.debug
sendbackup.20051207004031.debug
sendbackup.20051207004713.debug
sendsize.20051207000402.debug

The amrecover command communicates with the programs amindexd on the Amanda index server and amidxtaped on the Amanda tape server (usually the same host), and both of these programs create a debug file in AMANDA_DBG on the Amanda server.

The Amanda server also trims the server Log files (see above) and index files, and these two utilities store their debug information on the server AMANDA_DBG directory: amtrmlog.datetime.debug and amtrmidx.datetime.log.

The debug files are removed automatically by Amanda after a few days, usually 4, a value defined at compile time:

$ amadmin x version | grep DAYS
AMANDA_DEBUG_DAYS=4

You may remove the files manually, especially handy when debugging a setup, and concentrating only on the debug files created in the last run.