Earthworm Group Amanda Backup System Restore Procedure
by Lucky Vidmar (October 29, 2002)

Background on Amanda Backup System

Amanda system works by backup levels. Level 0 backs up everything, Level 1 backs up all files that have changed since the last Level 0, Level 2 backs up files changed since the last Level 1, etc.

Amanda also allows for multiple configurations on one backup host. On gldylan, we run two configurations:

- zero2: Runs once weekly and backs up everything.
- incr2: Runs several time per week backing up only those files that have changed since the last backup (incremental backup).

Tapes in each configuration are rotated in a cycle. There are 40 tapes in the zero2 configuration and 6 tapes in incr2 configuration. This means that weekly backups will be kept for 40 weeks while incremental backups will be recycled every week or so (depending on the frequency of incremental backups).

Log in to dylan with
username: operator
password: dump,master

How to restore a file or a directory?

- First, determine when the file was last modified;
- If this was only a few days ago, you may want to perform incremental restore (see below);
- Otherwise, perform restore from a zero tape (see below).

Zero Level Restore

Find the zero2 tape (labelled ZERO2_<vol num>) done near the date of interest. Make sure that the filesystem on which the lost file resided was backed up on that tape (see the list of filesystems on the tape sleeve).

Insert the tape into the tape drive.

Assuming that the file to be restored was on gldrocky in directory /home/earthworm/EW6_utils, run the following command:

`amrestore -p /dev/rmt/0n gldrocky /home | restore ivbf 2 -`

Tape will fast forward looking for the /home backup.. be patient...

When tape is fast forwarded, the following will be the prompt:

`Dump date: Sat Jun 29 14:31:01 2002`
`Dumped from: the epoch`
`Level 0 dump of /home on gldrocky:/dev/dsk/c0t0d0s5`
`Label: none`
`Extract directories from tape`
`Initialize symbol table.`
`restore >`

On the prompt (restore>) you can use most of the usual UNIX commands (ls, cd), for example:

`restore > ls`
`.:`
`2 *./ 1458711 davidk/ 5504 lucky/`
`2 *../ 1172545 dec/ 1381697 luetgert/`
`1502826 Golden_OPS/ 176486 dhanych/ 1557764 markw/`
`357767 TT_DB/ 126784 dietz/ 1563371 mcnamara/`
`1491790 admin/ 33308 dkinchen/ 440534 moran/`
`22016 alex/ 363271 earthworm/ 594666 operator/`
`1519318 ali/ 462517 friberg/ 330437 patton/`
`611151 baldwin/ 682709 jnmarso/ 451535 ptwc/`
`688220 benz/ 1436717 ketchum/ 534124 small/`
`495363 bogaert/ 1062465 kohler/ 115791 steve/`
`600143 brian/ 1689971 llastowka/ 847850 tlmurray/`
`1266154 buland/ 1442234 lomax/ 1453209 websrv1/`
`385473 carl/ 1502785 lombard/ 1645903 whitmore/`
`699208 cjbryan/ 3 lost+found/ 1458763 withers/`

Now, using cd, go to the directory where the lost file is:

`restore > cd earthworm/EW6_utils```

`restore > ls`
`./earthworm/EW6_utils:`
`1331994 ./ 363271 ../ 1579901 nt/ 1530140 solaris/`

To restore the entire directory:

`restore > add .`
`Make node ./earthworm`
`Make node ./earthworm/EW6_utils`
`Make node ./earthworm/EW6_utils/solaris`
`Make node ./earthworm/EW6_utils/nt`

To restore a specific file:

`restore > add solaris`

Use the add command to add all the files or directories to be restored. When done:

`restore > extract`
`extract file ./earthworm/EW6_utils/solaris/README`
`extract file ./earthworm/EW6_utils/solaris/apache.tar.Z`
`extract file ./earthworm/EW6_utils/solaris/gmt.tar.Z`
`extract file ./earthworm/EW6_utils/solaris/ImageMagick.tar.Z`
`[ ...... ]`

Now, the restore procedure will begin. The subdirectory EW6_utils will
be created in your current directory, and all the files will be restored
into it. When restore is complete, the following prompt will be shown:

`[ ..... ]`
`extract file ./earthworm/EW6_utils/nt/TNSNAMES.ORA`
`extract file ./earthworm/EW6_utils/nt/achron4.exe`
`Add links`
`Set directory mode, owner, and times.`
`set owner/mode for '.'? [yn]`

Type: n

Then, at the next prompt:

`restore > quit`

To eject the tape:``

`mt -f /dev/rmt/0n offline`

Now, you can copy the restored files to the desired host (gldrocky).

Incremental Level Restore

Follow procedure equivalent to zero level, except do it in steps. Start with the last (most recent) Level 0, then Level 1, Level 2, etc...