I just find this on google news:
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From: Clinton Hogge (clint@western.net)
Subject: Tapeless Amanda Configuration
This is the only article in this thread
View: Original Format
Newsgroups: list.amanda.users
Date: 2001-11-28 17:07:21 PST

Hello,

Per a recent request, this is my own little HOWTO on how to set up Amanda
to backup using a hard disk instead of tape. I tried to post this to the
FOM at http://amanda.sourceforge.net/fom-serve/cache/191.html but I
received a permission denied error when I tried to create a new login. So
I'm posting it here. In addition to installation, I added a section on
recovering with amrecover.

Thanks especially to John R. Jackson for helping me set this up. Also, as
noted recently, there's also a nice summary by Alex Muc at
http://www.mail-archive.com/amanda-users@amanda.org/msg07758.html.

Regards,

Clinton Hogge
Industrial Images


Backing up to hard disk instead of tape
---------------------------------------
Assumes that:
Config files are in /etc/amanda
Configuration named "DailySet1"
Local state directory is /var/lib/amanda
Amanda is configured --with-user=amanda --with-group=disk
14 day dump cycle with an unattended "rotation" of the "tapes"
For the backup device I use a separate 4 gig hard drive mounted at /var2

Installation
------------
1. Obtain the tapeio source from sourceforge:

$cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.amanda.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/amanda login
$cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.amanda.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/amanda
checkout -r amanda-242-tapeio amanda
$cd amanda
$./autogen

2. Install Amanda as usual.

3. Edit the following config files (all mode 644, owner amanda, group disk):

---------------------------------
/etc/amanda/DailySet1/amanda.conf
---------------------------------
# These are the options that differ from examples/amanda.conf

dumpcycle 14 days
tapecycle 14
#runspercycle  # defaults to 1 per day

runtapes 1
tpchanger "chg-multi"
changerfile "/etc/amanda/DailySet1/changer.conf"
# Comment out tapedev and changerdev

tapetype HARD-DISK
labelstr "^DailySet1[0-9][0-9]*$"

define tapetype HARD-DISK {
    comment "Hard disk instead of tape"
    length 4000 mbytes  # Simulates end of tape on hard disk (a 4 GB disk here)
}

define dumptype hard-disk-dump {
    global
    comment "Back up to hard disk instead of tape - using dump"
    holdingdisk no
    index yes
    priority high
}

define dumptype hard-disk-tar {
    hard-disk-dump
    comment "Back up to hard disk instead of tape - using tar"
    program "GNUTAR"
}

----------------------------------
/etc/amanda/DailySet1/changer.conf
----------------------------------
multieject 0
gravity 0
needeject 0
ejectdelay 0

statefile /var/lib/amanda/DailySet1/changer-status

firstslot 1
lastslot 14

slot 1 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape01
slot 2 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape02
slot 3 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape03
slot 4 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape04
slot 5 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape05
slot 6 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape06
slot 7 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape07
slot 8 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape08
slot 9 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape09
slot 10 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape10
slot 11 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape11
slot 12 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape12
slot 13 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape13
slot 14 file:/var2/amandadumps/tape14

------------------------------
/etc/amanda/DailySet1/disklist
------------------------------
# hostname diskdev dumptype
# Replace "dumptype" with either "hard-disk-dump" or "hard-disk-tar"
# localhost /home hard-disk-dump
# localhost /etc hard-disk-tar

------------------------------

4. Create the "tapes" on the tape server hard drive with the associated
data directories:

$mkdir /var2/amandadumps
$mkdir /var2/amandadumps/tape01
$mkdir /var2/amandadumps/tape01/data
...
$mkdir /var2/amandadumps/tape14
$mkdir /var2/amandadumps/tape14/data

$chown -R amanda.disk /var2/amandadumps
$chmod -R 770 /var2/amandadumps

5. Use amlabel to label the tapes:

$amlabel DailySet1 DailySet101 slot 1
...
$amlabel DailySet1 DailySet114 slot 14


Recovery with amrecover
-----------------------
As root on the tape server:

$mkdir /tmp/restore
$cd /tmp/restore
$amrecover DailySet1
$setdate (Optional)
$sethost foo
$setdisk bar
$cd dir/which/contains/filetorecover
$add filetorecover
$list (note which "tape" the file is on)
$settape host:file:/var2/amandadumps/tapeXX

In this step, replace the appropriate host and tape values. For example to
extract a file from host "rustler" that's on tape 12:

$settape rustler:file:/var2/amandadumps/tape12

$extract
$quit

The only gotcha with amrecover is that if the files you want to extract are
on different tapes, you need to add only the files that are on tape01,
settape for tape01, extract, add files for tape02, settape tape02, extract,
etc. As a work-around, you can give amrecover a "fake" name (/tmp/whatever)
with the "-d" option and then symlink that to the appropriate "tape" as it
asks for it.

The above guide is pretty good, with just a few observations:

1. Amanda 2.4.3 includes tapeio, so you don't need to check out from CVS. And
for example, for Linux, RPMs of 2.4.3 now exist on vendors sites.

2. The example above includes "length 4000 mbytes" in the HARD-DISK tapetype for
a 4Gb disk. But actually this is the size of a single tape, so you should choose
a "length" corresponding to the amount of free disk space dedicated to backups
divided by tapecycle.

  run info '(automake)Extending aclocal'
  or see http://sources.redhat.com/automake/automake.html#Extending-aclocal

      If this token and others are legitimate, please use m4_pattern_allow.
      See the Autoconf documentation.