NAME
amcheck - run Amanda self-checks
SYNOPSIS
amcheck [-am] [-w] [-sclt] [-M address] config [host [disk...]...]
[{-o configoption}...]
DESCRIPTION
Amcheck runs a number of self-checks on both the Amanda tape server
host and the Amanda client hosts.
On the tape server host, amcheck can go through the same tape checking
used at the start of the nightly amdump run to verify the correct tape
for the next run is mounted.
Amcheck can also do a self-check on all client hosts to make sure each
host is running and that permissions on filesystems to be backed up are
correct.
You can specify many host/disk expressions, only disks that match an
expression will be checked. All disks are checked if no expressions are
given.
See the amanda(8) man page for more details about Amanda.
OPTIONS
-s
Run the tape server local and tape checks (same as -lt).
-c
Run the client host checks. Multiple specific clients can be
checked by specifying the client name.
-l
Run the local tests (e.g. permissions) on the server host.
-t
Run the tape tests on the server host.
-w
Enables a DESTRUCTIVE check for write-protection on the tape (which
would otherwise cause the subsequent amdump to fail). If the tape
is writable, this check causes all data after the tape label to be
erased. If the label_new_tapes option is enabled, this check may
ERASE any non-Amanda tape in the drive or changer. The check enable
the tape tests on the server host and is only made if the tape is
otherwise correct.
-m
Nothing is printed, but mail is sent if any errors are detected.
The mail goes to the mailto address specified in the amanda.conf
file or the address value if -M is set.
-a
Like -m but the mail is always sent.
-M address
Mail the report to address instead of the mailto value from
amanda.conf. Implies -m.
host [disk]*
Specify the host and disk on which the command will work.
-o configoption
See the "CONFIGURATION OVERRIDE" section in amanda(8).
The default is -cs.
EXAMPLES
In this example, both the tape server and client tests are run. The
results are displayed on standard output.
% amcheck daily
Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
/amanda2/amanda/work: 911475 KB disk space available, that´s plenty.
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test.
Tape VOL10 label ok.
Server check took 34.966 seconds.
Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
WARNING: northstar: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
WARNING: drinkme: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
WARNING: scruffy: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
Client check: 136 hosts checked in 51.945 seconds, 3 problems found.
(brought to you by Amanda 2.5.0)
In this example, if the line mailto csd-amanda is in amanda.conf, mail
will be sent to csd-amanda if the server check returns an error.
% amcheck -s -m daily
MESSAGES
fatal slot slot: error message
(error) The tape changer detected some kind of fatal error while
trying to load slot slot.
slot slot: error message
(warning) The tape changer detected some kind of non-fatal error
(e.g. an empty slot was detected) while trying to load slot slot,
or an error was detected trying to read the tape label.
slot slot: date YYYYMMDD label label (result)
(info) Tape label in slot slot was loaded and found to have been
last written on YYYYMMDD. If the tape is new, the date field will
be an X. The result may be one of:
exact label match
This is the expected tape.
no match
This label does not match the labelstr pattern in amanda.conf.
Tape scanning will continue.
active tape
This tape is still active and cannot be overwritten. Tape
scanning will continue.
first labelstr match
This tape is the first one that matches the labelstr pattern in
amanda.conf. Tape scanning will continue if necessary.
labelstr match
This tape is the next one that matches the labelstr pattern in
amanda.conf. Tape scanning will continue.
ERROR: cannot look up dump user user
(error) Dump user user from amanda.conf could not be found in the
system password information.
ERROR: cannot look up my own uid (uid)
(error) User id uid running amcheck could not be found in the
system password information.
ERROR: running as user runuser instead of dumpuser
(error) Amcheck should be run as the dump user dumpuser from
amanda.conf instead of runuser.
ERROR: program dir directory: not accessible
(error) The directory Amanda expects to find its auxiliary programs
in, directory, is not accessible.
ERROR: program program: does not exist
(error) Program program needed on the tape server could not be
found.
ERROR: program program: not a file
(error) Program program needed on the tape server exists but is not
a file.
ERROR: program program: not executable
(error) Program program needed on the tape server exists but is not
executable.
WARNING: program program: not setuid-root
(warning) Program program needed on the tape server exists but
should be owned by user "root" and setuid.
ERROR: XXX dir directory: not writable
(error) Directory directory is either not writable, i.e. the dump
user will not be able to create or remove files, or cannot be
accessed, perhaps because a parent directory does not allow search
permission. The XXX may be:
log
for the Amanda log directory (see logdir in amanda.conf)
oldlog
for the directory that holds the old log files (see logdir in
amanda.conf)
info
for an Amanda database information directory (see curinfo in
amanda.conf) or
index
for an Amanda index directory (see indexdir in amanda.conf)
tapelist
for the tapelist(5)
NOTE: XXX dir directory: does not exist
(info) A database (info) or index directory does not exist or
cannot be accessed. This might just mean this is a new client or
disk, but if that is not the case, this should be treated as an
error.
NOTE: it will be created on the next run
(info) This indicates the info directory listed in the previous
message will be created on the next run.
ERROR: XXX dir name: not a directory
(error) Amcheck expected name to be a directory, but it is
something else (e.g. file).
WARNING: info file file: does not exist
(warning) File file does not exist in the text format database.
Since the parent directories do exist, the file should already have
been created.
ERROR: info file name: not a file
(error) Amcheck expected name to be a file, but it is something
else (e.g. file).
ERROR: info file file: not readable
(error) The text format database file file is not readable.
ERROR: log file file: not writable
(error) Log file file (file log in logdir from amanda.conf) is
either not writable, or cannot be accessed, perhaps because a
parent directory does not allow search permission.
ERROR: tape list tapelist: not writable
(error) tapelist(5) is not writable or was not found.
ERROR: tape list tapelist: parse error
(error) tapelist(5) could not be read or parsed.
WARNING: tapedev is /dev/null, dumps will be thrown away
(warning) The tapedev parameter in amanda.conf is set to /dev/null
and Amanda uses that when debugging to throw all the dump images
away.
WARNING: hold file file exists
(info) Hold file file exists and will cause amdump to pause at the
beginning until it is removed.
ERROR: holding disk disk: statfs: error message
(error) An error was returned from the statfs system call on
holding disk disk (maybe because it does not exist).
ERROR: holding disk disk: not writable
(error) Holding disk disk, is not writable, probably because the
caller does not have write permission or a parent directory does
not allow search permission.
WARNING: holding disk disk: available space unknown N KB requested.
(warning) Amcheck could not determine the amount of available space
on holding disk disk to see if there were at least N KBytes
available.
WARNING: holding disk disk: only F KB free (R KB requested).
(warning) amanda.conf requested R KBytes of free space on holding
disk disk, but only F KBytes were available. 10 MBytes is
subtracted for each backup process (see the inparallel amanda.conf
option) to allow for unexpected overruns.
Note
Even though this message is listed as a warning, it causes
amcheck to exit with a non-zero status.
Holding disk disk: N KB disk space available, that´s plenty.
(info) There was sufficient free space on holding disk disk.
WARNING: holding disk disk: only F KB free, using nothing
(warning) Holding disk disk has F KBytes of free space, but that is
not enough for what is requested in amanda.conf.
Holding disk disk: F KB disk space available, using U KB
(info) Holding disk disk has F KBytes of free space and Amanda will
be using up to U Kbytes.
WARNING: if a tape changer is not available, runtapes must be set to 1.
(warning) The runtapes amanda.conf option must be set to 1 if the
tpchanger amanda.conf option is not set.
ERROR: error message.
(error) An error was detected while initializing the tape changer.
ERROR: tape device: error message.
(error) An error was detected while processing the tape label.
ERROR: cannot overwrite active tape label.
(error) Tape label is still active and cannot be used.
ERROR: label label doesn´t match labelstr pattern .
(error) The label on tape label does not match the labelstr
amanda.conf option.
(expecting a new tape)
(info) The tape is not OK and a new tape was expected.
(expecting tape label or a new tape)
(info) The tape is not OK and either tape label or a new tape was
expected.
ERROR: tape label label ok, but is not writable.
(error) Tape label is OK, but the write enable test failed.
Tape label is writable.
(info) Tape label is OK and the write enable test succeeded.
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test.
(info) The tape write test (see the -w option) was not enabled.
WARNING: skipping tape test because amdump or amflush seem to be
running, WARNING: if they are not, you must run amcleanup
(warning) It looked to amcheck like either amdump or amflush were
running because a log file or amdump file exists. If they are not
running, you probably need to run amcleanup to clear up a previous
failure. Otherwise, you need to wait until they complete before
running amcheck.
NOTE: skipping tape checks
(info) The tape tests are being skipped because you used the -t
command line option.
WARNING: compress is not executable, server-compression and indexing
will not work
(warning) Compression program compress is not executable, so
compression on the tape server host and creating index files will
not work.
Tape label label ok.
(info) Tape label is OK for the next run.
Server check took S seconds.
(info) Reports how long the tape server host checks took.
ERROR: host: could not resolve hostname
(error) Could not look up client hostname host.
Client check: H hosts checked in S seconds, N problems found.
(info) Reports the number of client hosts checked, how long it took
and the number of errors detected.
WARNING: host: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
(warning) There was no response from host when trying to do the
client checks. The host might really be down or it might not be
configured properly.
ERROR: host NAK: message
(error) Host reported a negative acknowledgment error of message to
the status check request.
ERROR: host NAK: [NAK parse failed]
(error) Amcheck could not parse the negative acknowledgment error
from host. There might be an Amanda version mismatch between the
host running amcheck and host.
ERROR: host [mutual-authentication failed]
(error) Kerberos authentication failed while contacting host.
ERROR: host: message
(error) Error message was reported by the status check on host.
EXIT CODE
The exit code of amcheck is one of:
0 = success
1 = error
SEE ALSO
amanda(8), amanda.conf(5), amdump(8)
The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/
AUTHORS
James da Silva <jds@amanda.org>
Stefan G. Weichinger <sgw@amanda.org>