Application API/Operations

The Application API changes the backup server interface, but most of the code that constitutes the API itself resides on the client. The operations listed below are from the perspective of backup clients.

Backup

Input: Specifies what is to be backed up: A filesystem, device, particular set of files, database table, etc.

Action: Reads the specified object.

Output: A set of collections (containing the backup data), and information on a set of user objects (identifier, attributes, associated collections)

Restore

Input: List of user objects to be restored, relevant collections, and target locations for the restore.

Action: Reads the collections and writes the relevant user objects in their original form to the specified location.

Output: None (other than administrative messages)

Reindex

Input: Octet stream of all the collections from a single job.

Output: Byte offsets for each collection in the stream, and information on the set of user objects in the stream.

Estimate

Input: Information on what is to be backed up: A filesystem, device, particular set of files, database table, etc.

Output: An estimate of how much space this data set will consume.

selfcheck

Input: Information on what is to be backed up: A filesystem, device, particular set of files, database table, etc.

Action: Determines if there are any configuration problems.

Output: Success or failure.

Capabilities

Input/Action: none.

Output: Capabilities of this application driver. For example, the application may not support exclusion. This command can also tell if this driver can read a dump from some other version of the same driver.

Print-Command

Input: Information on what is to be backed up: A filesystem, device, particular set of files, database table, etc.

Output: Prints a one-line command, if one exists, to restore this data from tape. This can be used for non-Amanda bare-metal disaster recovery.