Results of Amanda Users Survey 2003

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Introduction

AMANDA (Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver) is a backup system freely available available in source form. For more information about AMANDA visit the website http://www.amanda.org.

Readers of the amanda-users mailing list (approximately 1100 subscribers) were asked in April of 2003 to describe their use of the backup system by filling out a survey questionnaire that was posted to the mailing list weekly. Seventy two (72) surveys were submitted during the month-long collection period.

In several postings that follow, I will report summaries of the collected data. In some cases I've included comments (Surveyor's Notes) of my own reaction to the data.

Later, I plan to recast these results in the form of questions and answers to add to the FOM (FAQ-O-Matic) at amanda.org. Should you have any thoughts on this please let me know via the list or personal email.

Jon LaBadie

[Surveyor's Note] While the number of submitted surveys neither surprised me, nor disappointed me, what did  
greatly disappoint me personally was this fact: Of the twenty five (25) individuals most active on the list 
(based  on number of postings for 12 months), only seven (7) bothered to respond to the survey.

Organizations

What follows is a summarization of the responses describing the organizations using AMANDA.

Types of organizations using AMANDA

Category Num Type
University Department 20 -
Research Organizations 10
Internet Service Providers 5 -
Data Processing Services 11 software, graphics, integration, consulting
Manufacturers (DP) 5 computers, electronics, semiconductors
Manufacturers (non-DP) 4 rubber, chemical, turbine, videoBoris
Service Organizations 4 publishing, power utility, forestry, money management
Small Office/Home Office 6 -
Others 3 natural history museum, education charity, national opera and ballet
[Surveyor's Note] The `Categories' were my grouping, they were not on the survey. I expected more in the SOHO  category.
[Surveyor's Note] Extent of AMANDA usage was asked on the survey. Few indicated that their entire firm based 
their  backups on AMANDA, and then only relatively small companies (like JG Computing :). Thus the category 
is `University Department' not `University'. Similarly, AMANDA is used by a groups within organizations like 
the chemical manufacturer or computer manufacturer or federal government noted above, not the entire entity. 
But AMANDA may have helped produce the tires you are riding on, the workstation you are typing on, or to 
collect the taxes you pay :))

Location of organizations using AMANDA

Country Num
Belguim 1
Japan 1
Poland 1
Canada 1
Mexico 1
Switzerland 2
Estonia 1
Norway 1
Sweden 3
Finland 1
Portugal 1
Germany 5
France 1
United Arab Emirates 1
United Kingdom 5
Italy 1
Netherlands 2
United States 45


[Surveyor's Note] The totals are greater than number of submitted surveys as some respondents described 
multi-national installations.
[Surveyor's Note] Americans must be procrastinators. For a while, the number of non-US submitted surveys 
exceeded the ones from the US.

Length of AMANDA usage at organization

Usage in years Num
0-1 25
1-2 8
2-3 13
3-4 10
4-5 8
5-6 2
7-8 2
8-9 2
9+ 1

Summary

10% of responders > 5 years use
33% of responders > 3 years use
50% of responders > 2 years use
33% of responders < 1 year use

Mean and Median are ~29 months (2.5 years)

[Surveyor's Note] Some really long time users of AMANDA. It must do the job.

Servers and Clients

AMANDA servers

Number of servers in organisation Num
1 53
2 11
3 5
5 1
6 1
7 1

Operating Systems Running on AMANDA Server Hosts

Operating system (version) Num
FreeBSD Total 10, including
4-STABLE 2
4.7 1
4x 1
HP-UX Total 2, including
10.20 1
11.00 1
IRIX Total 2, including
6.5 1
SCO Openserver Total 1, including
5.0.6 1
Solaris Total 14, including
8 5
8 x86 1
9 3
Tru64 Total 4, including
5.1 3
Linux Total 48, including
Debian Total 13
2.4 1
3.0 2
Woody 3
Redhat Total 14
6.2 1
7.1 2
7.2 1
7.3 6
8.0 3
8.0 with RHnet kernel 1
Slackware Total 1
7 1
SusE Total 3
8.1 2

AMANDA Versions Run on Server Hosts

Amanda Version Num
2.4.1 Total 2, including
2.4.1p1 1
2.4.2 Total 33, including
2.4.2p1 1
2.4.2p2 28
2.4.3 Total 21, including
2.4.3b2 1
2.4.3b3 1
2.4.3b4 2
2.4.4 Total 21, including
2.4.4-20030415 2
2.4.4-20030426 1
[Surveyor's Note] The percentage of older versions surprised me. Shouldn't have as I just upgraded 2 months ago. If it works why fix it?

AMANDA CLIENTS

Number of AMANDA Clients

Number of Clients Host sites
14 a6-1012
25 b11-2013
36 21-3012
46 31-505
57 61-704

Operating Systems Run on AMANDA Clients

(mentions, not number of hosts)

Operating system num
AIX total 4,
Linux (all variants) total 86 including
1 4
Debian total 17
2.2 1
Darwin total 1
2.4 1
3.0 2
FreeBSD total 17, including
potato 1
2.2.5 1
sarge 2
3.2 1
sid 1
3.3 1
stable 1
3.4 1
woody 2
4-STABLE 2
Mandrake total 1
4.1 1
8 1
4.7 1
RedHat total 26
5.0 1
6.0 1
6.2 2
6.2 Alpha 1
6.2 sparc 2
7.1 3
7.2 2
7.3 4
8.0 5
9 1
HP-UX total 8, including
10 1
10.20 2
11 3
Irix total 8, including
6.5 3
6.5 MIPS 1
Slackware total 3, including
7.0 2
8.1 1
MacOS X total 6, including
10.1 1
10.2 1
SuSE total 4
NetBSD total 1, including Yellowdog
OpenBSD total 1
Tru64 total 8, including
3.2 1
4.0 Alpha 1
5.1 1
Snap total 1
Windows total 22
95 1
98 2
NT 4
NT 4 server 1
2000 7
XP 3
Solaris total 39, including
2.5 2
2.6 2
7 5
8 11
9 4
8 x86 3
9 x86 1
SunOS total 1 including
4.1.4 1

AMANDA Versions of Run on Client Hosts

Version num
2.4.1 total 4, including
2.4.1p1 3
2.4.2 total 42, including
2.4.2p1 1
2.4.2p2 33
2.4.3 total 30, including
2.4.3b2 1
2.4.3b3 1
2.4.3b4 1
2.4.4 total 25, including
2.4.4-20030415 2
2.4.4-20030426 1
2.4.4b1 1

Installation Properties

Total Disk Capacity of Clients

smallest: 20 GB

largest: 5000 GB

Capacity num
20 to 100 GB 13
101 to 200 GB 22
201 to 500 GB 16
501 to 1000 GB 12
1001 to 2000 GB 5
2001 to 5000 GB 6

Total Data Currently Stored on Clients Disks

smallest: 3 GB

largest: 4000 GB

Capacity num
3 to 50 GB 22
51 to 100 GB 14
101 to 200 GB 15
201 to 500 GB 10
501 to 1000 GB 7
1001 to 4000 GB 5

Average Size of a Single Backup

smallest: 0.3 GB

largest: 700 GB

Backup average size num
0.3 to 10 GB 22
11 to 20 GB 11
21 to 50 GB 22
51 to 100 GB 13
101 to 200 GB 8
350 GB 1
700 GB 1

Backup Program Used

Program Num
gnutar or some tar variant 72 (hfstar:3, nttar:1, smbtar:1)
dump or some dump variant 50 (e2fsdump:1, ext2dump:2, ufsdump:12, vdump:2, vfsdump:1, vxdump:2, xfsdump:5)

Dumpcycle

Dumpcycle Num
0 days 5
1 days 3
2 days 1
3 days 6
5 days 5
7 days 34
8 days - 2 weeks 17
15 days - 4 weeks 10
30 days - 75 days 5
4 months 1
6 months 1
1 year 1
1000 days 1

Frequency of Backups

Frequency Num
1/week 6
2/week 4
4 3/week 4
4/week 5
5/week 36
6 6/week 6
7/week 31
1/month 2

Type of Compression Used

Compression method Num
gpg 1
none 15
hw 17
sw - server 31
sw - client 46

Tape Hardware

Brand and Model of Tape Drive Used at AMANDA Installations

The number of mentions of each brand is shown followed by specific models where reported.

Num Brand/Model
3 Archive, including: 2 Qualstar TLS-4200 Python 04106 Python 06408
10 Quantum, including: DLT-VS80
5 Compaq, including: DLT-4000 AIT-2 DLT-7000 DLT-90 DLT-8000 MSL5126-S2 SDLT320
10 Seagate, including: DAT
1 Dell DLT-IV 12/24G 20/40G
5 Ecrix, including: CTL-96/4586N VXA-1 DDS4 DDS3 Scorpion-24/STD124000N
5 Exabyte
13 Sony, including: 8500 AIT-1 Eliant 820 AIT-2 VXA-2 AIT-3 DLT-IV
15 HP, including: DLT-9000 A4845A SDX-500C C1533A Sony SDX-700C C1557 C6280-7000
3 Sun, including: DDS-4 DDS3 DLT vs80 7000 ESL9595 Python SureStor DAT-24 SureStor DAT-8
7 Tandberg, including: Surestore Ultrium 230e DLT vs80 Ultrium 1 SDLT 220 SDLT-320
1 IBM DDS4 SLR5 SLR7
1 Mammoth
2 Wang, including: DAT 3400DX
3 None, backup to disk only
2 Overland Data, including: Loaderexpress DLT8000

Native Tape Capacity of the Above Drives

Capacity 4 GB 7 GB 10 GB 12 GB 15 GB 17 GB 20 GB 22 GB 25 GB 30 GB 35 GB 40 GB 50 GB 60 GB 80 GB 100 GB 110 GB 160 GB 500GB
Num 7 1 2 11 1 1 10 1 4 2 8 13 8 1 1 7 1 3 1

Preferred Brand of Tape

Brand Num
Compaq 2
Dell 1
Exabyte 4
Fujifilm 3
HP 5
Imation 1
Maxell 2
Quantum 2
Sony 11
Verbatim 1
No Preference 16

Tape Format

4mm 8mm AIT AIT-1 AIT-2 AIT-3 DDS-2 DDS-3 DDS-4 DLT DLT-80 DLT-IV EXA LTO Mammoth sDLT sDLT320 SLR SLR25 SLR7 Travan-20 VXA VXA V-23 VXA-2
1 4 2 1 7 3 8 12 6 15 1 7 1 3 1 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Tape Changers/Libraries Used at AMANDA Installations

[Surveyor's Note] A total of 28 of 72 respondents reported having using tape changer or library. Several of those 
reported having more than one.  Surprisingly, the 28 respondents reported 26 distinct models of changer/library.

The table below shows the models reported by 28 respondents. Where multiple reports for the same model existed, only one entry is show. Where the multiple reports showed different configurations (eg. 1 drive vs 2 drive), only the larger configuration is shown.

BRAND MODEL num of drives tapes Capacity
ADIC ?? 1 4 200 GB
ADIC FastStor DLT 1 7 245 GB
Compaq MSL5126 1 25 4000 GB
Compaq SSL2020 2 20 1000 GB
Dell Powervault 122T 1 8 320 GB
Hewlett-Packard A4845A 5 588 20000 GB
Hewlett-Packard C1557A 1 6 72 GB
Hewlett-Packard ESL9595 2 595 70000 GB
Hewlett-Packard MSL5026S2 2 26 4160 GB
Hewlett-Packard SureStore 6x40 1 6 120 GB
Hewlett-Packard SureStore 6x24 1 6 72 GB
Overland Data LXB 4120 1 10 150 GB
Overland Data Library Pro 1 19 1900 GB
Overland Data LoaderXpress 1 15 525 GB
Qualstar 6220 2 20 700 GB
Qualstar TLS-4200 2 20 2000 GB
Quantum DLT7000 2560 1 8 320 GB
Segate CTL-96/4586N 1 4 14 GB
Sony TSL-9000 1 8 96 GB
SpectraLogic Bullfrog 10000 3 40 10000 GB
SpectraLogic Treefrog 2000 1 15 750 GB
StorageTek Timberwolf 9730 2 30 1000 GB
Straightline Harrier/830 2 30 1500 GB
Sun L20 2 20 2000 GB
Sun L40 2 40 1600 GB
Sun Storedge L9 1 9 360 GB

Special Feature Usage

What follows is a summarization of the responses describing the use of two special features of recent versions of AMANDA, the "file:driver" to use a hard disk drive as a backup device and RAIT (Redundant Array of 'Inexpensive' Tapedrives) to allow mirroring or striping of backups across multiple drives.

The file:driver

Do you use the <file:driver>?

  • 53 no
  • 11 yes
  • 5 what is the <file:driver>

If not, do you expect to?

  • 32 no
  • 14 yes
  • 8 maybe

RAIT

Do you use RAIT?

  • 68 no
  • 0 yes

If not, do you expect to?

  • 40 no
  • 8 yes
  • 3 maybe
[Surveyor's Note] I was mildly surprised, and amused, by the 5 "what is the
<file:driver> responses. And considering those responses, but the lack of
similar responses to the RAIT question. No respondent uses RAIT! Disappointing. I wonder if any
site is currently using this feature.

Non UNIX Clients

What follows is a summarization of the responses describing the various methods to backup 'non-unix' clients, mostly PC's running versions of Windows.

PC's Backed Up Using SAMBA Connections to AMANDA Clients

A total of 22 survey respondents (out of 72) report they use amanda and samba to backup PC clients.

  • 10 have 1 PC client
  • 10 have 2 - 5 PC clients
  • 1 has 15 PC clients
  • 1 has 40 PC clients
[Surveyor's Note] From these results it seems to me that amanda/samba is seldom a first choice for backing up PC's. 
Instead it seems to be used when a site has an existing amanda installation and would like to implement some form 
of PC backup.

The respondents mentioned the following Operating Systems were being run on the PC clients. The number is the number of mentions, not number of PC's.

  • 1 Windows 95 2 Windows 2000 Server
  • 1 Windows 98 5 Windows XP
  • 3 Windows NT 1 Windows XP Pro
  • 2 Windows NT 4 1 Snap Server
  • 9 Windows 2000
[Surveyor's Note] Of interest to users running Lotus Domino:  One respondent reported using "The Open File Manager"
from http://www.stbernard.com to create online backups of their Lotus Domino database files which then could be
backed up to their amanda host using samba.

PC's Backed Up Using Cygwin/AMANDA Client Software

A total of 4 survey respondents (out of 72) report they use a cygwin/amanda client to backup PC clients.

  • 2 have 1 PC client
  • 1 has 3 PC clients
  • 1 has 15 PC clients

The only PC operating systems mentioned were Windows 2000 and Windows 2000 Server.

PC's Backed Up by AMANDA Using Other Techniques

A variety of techniques, other than samba or cygwin, were described by respondents to backup PC's

  • Two respondents installed an NFS server on Windows 2000 and then NFS mounted the PC disks on the amanda host

and backed them up as local file systems.

  • Similarly, two respondents mounted PC shares of Windows 95, Windows NT, and Windows 2000 on the amanda host

using 'smbmount' and backed them up as local 'smbfs' file systems.

  • Several respondents reported they first backed up their PC's (Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows XP,

Windows 2000 Server) to disk files on the PC's and then backed that file up using amanda; presumably using samba or some file transfer technique.

  • One mentioned that the backup stream was sent directly to a Linux host and backed up there as a local file.
  • The backup programs the respondents mentioned included:
    • 'Windows backup program'
    • 'BackupPC', a Linux opensource program
    • 'Win2000 Backup Tool'
    • 'Backup Exec'
  • One respondent noted their firewall was a PC running linux. That system was mirrored using rsync and the mirror

was backed up.

Other Backup Techniques Mentioned

Five respondents described backing up systems using "non-traditional" methods. These methods were used to backup systems running either MacOS or Windows. They included:

  • MacOS 9, mounted (NFS?) onto a Linux host and backing up the mounts as

local filesystems.

  • Backing up 37 MacOS 8 and MacOS 9 systems using the program Retrospect. The output of Retrospect

was transferred to a Linux host using ftp and preserved with amanda.

  • Build a native amanda client on MacOS X and use hfstar instead of gnutar.
  • Backup 6 Windows XP hosts using a native windows amanda client.
  • Backup 12 Windows 2000 Server hosts using a native windows amanda client. This respondent also noted

their intention to switch to a cygwin/amanda client in the near future.