Using Amanda allows you quickly and easily implement a robust Open Source backup solution to almost any device, or even multiple devices simultaneously.
Moderation is good in almost all things, but there are a few things you just can’t overdo: Case in point, backups. It’s virtually impossible for your data to be too well backed-up or to have too many copies of your important files. It’s also a good thing to have a lot of options when it comes to backup software, which is why I’m talking about AMANDA this month.
Previously, I showed you how to create local and remote filesystem snapshots using rsnapshot. In that article, I promised to cover a more traditional Open Source backup application in the future. In this column I will be covering AMANDA, the Advanced Maryland Automatic Network Disk Archiver.
With development dating back to 1991, Amanda is one of the oldest and most popular Open Source backup utilities. Amanda allows you to set up a single server to back up multiple networked clients to a tape or disk-based storage system easily. It even allows you to write backups to tape and disk simultaneously, allowing for on-line quick restores from disk and off-site storage for disaster recovery and long-term retention.
Unlike many backup applications, Amanda does not use any proprietary device drivers, meaning any device supported by your operating system should work. From a client perspective, Amanda supports all major UNIX variants as well as Max OS X and Microsoft Windows. Backups are stored in a format that allows for easy recovery with native Linux tools, which can come in quite handy…
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