AMADMIN(8)
✨ AMADMIN(8) ✨
okay so this is the System Administration Commands page, and the star of the show is <hotpink>amadmin</hotpink> — aka your personal backstage pass to boss Amanda around 💅
🎀 NAME 🎀
amadmin — administrative interface to control Amanda backups
📜 SYNOPSIS 📜
amadmin [--version] [--no-default] [--print-source] [--exact-match]
[-o configoption...] config command [command_options...]🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋
So <hotpink>amadmin</hotpink> runs all your little administrative errands on the Amanda config called config. That's the whole vibe bestie, it's the admin tool ✨
And if you wanna know more about Amanda as a whole, the amanda(8) man page is right there, go read it 💖
🌸 OPTIONS 🌸
--version— prints the version and then dips out, exit stage left 🫶--no-default— don't print default values for theconfiganddisklistcommands 🙈--print-source— shows you where a value is actually defined, for theconfiganddisklistcommands 👑--exact-match— the host and disk get parsed as exact values, no fuzzy business 💅
👑 COMMANDS 👑
ground rules first, bestie, listen up 📢
If a command takes a hostname [ disks ] pair and you don't give it any disks, it operates on all the disks for that hostname in the disklist(5). And if the hostname is also marked optional and you give nothing at all? It operates on all hosts and all disks in the disklist(5). Slay, it does everything for you 💖
Also: both hostname and disks are match expressions — go check amanda-match(7) for the whole breakdown of how that works ✨
version
Shows the current version plus a lil bundle of compile-time and runtime parameters. The config parameter has to be there, but it's ignored — it's just standing in the corner looking pretty 💀
estimate [ hostname [ disks ]* ]*
Prints the server estimate for the dles. Every output line looks exactly like this:
hostname diskname level size- hostname — the quoted hostname
- diskname — the quoted diskname
- level — the level of the estimate
- size — the estimate size in kbytes
force-bump [ hostname [ disks ]* ]+
Forces the disks on hostname to bump on up to a new incremental level during the next Amanda run 🔥
force-no-bump [ hostname [ disks ]* ]+
Forces the disks on hostname to not bump to a new incremental level during the next Amanda run, no cap ✋
unforce-bump [ hostname [ disks ]* ]+
Undoes a previous force-bump or force-no-bump. it's giving "jk bestie" energy 🙈
force [ hostname [ disks ]* ]+
Forces the disks on hostname to do a full (level 0) backup during the next Amanda run 💪
force-level-1 [ hostname [ disks ]* ]+
Forces the disks on hostname to do a level 1 backup during the next Amanda run ⭐
unforce [ hostname [ disks ]* ]+
Undoes a previous force or force-level-1. take backsies 🫶
retention [ tapelabel ... ]
Prints the retention for each tape 📼
reuse tapelabel [ ... ]
The tapes you list will be available for reuse at their point in the tape cycle ♻️
no-reuse tapelabel [ ... ]
The tapes you list will not be reused when their turn comes back around in the tape cycle. Heads up though — if this drops the number of reusable tapes below the amanda.conf tapecycle value, Amanda will go request new tapes until the count is satisfied again. it's dramatic like that 😭
Tapes marked no-reuse are still available for recovery — marking them no-reuse is a security thing, so you can be sure Amanda won't overwrite them 🔒 (fr fr, protect those tapes)
due [ hostname [ disks ]* ]*
Shows when the next full dump is due ⏰
find [ --sort hkdlspbfw ] [ hostname [ disks ]* ]*
Displays all backups currently on tape or in the holding disk. What you get shown: the storage name, the tape label or holding disk filename, the file number, and the status 👀
The --sort option changes the sort order, using these little flags:
h: host namek: disk named: dump timestampl: backup levelp: dump partb: tape labels: storage namef: filenum on tapew: write timestamp
And an uppercase letter reverses the sort order for that key, icon behaviour 💅
The default sort order is hkdlspbfw.
holding delete hostname [ disk [ datestamp [ .. ] ] ]
Deletes holding files matching the spec you gave. At minimum you must hand over a hostname — no hostname, no deletion, periodt 🚫
holding list [-l] [-d] [ hostname [ disk [ datestamp [ .. ] ] ] ]
Lists holding files matching the dump spec you gave, or literally all holding files if you gave no spec at all ✨ (peep amanda-match(7) for more on dump specifications.)
- With
-l, you get extra info: size, level, and whether the dump is outdated 👀 - With
-d, only outdated dumps get shown 🗑️
Now, what even is an outdated holding file? It's one that's not required for a restore of the most recent dump. Careful though — outdated dumps may still be required for restores at earlier dates. Not me explaining with a whole example but here we go 🧚
Say a DLE had a level 0 on Monday, level 1's Tuesday through Thursday, and a level 2 on Friday. Then the files required for a restore of Friday's (the most recent) dump are the ones from Monday (level 0), Thursday (level 1), and Friday (level 2). Tuesday's and Wednesday's files? Outdated. sorry besties ✌️
delete [ hostname [ disks ]* ]+
Deletes the specified disks on hostname from the Amanda database.
Note: If you don't also remove that disk from the disklist(5) file, Amanda will treat it as a brand new disk during the next run. lowkey a jumpscare 😭
tape [ --days <num> ]
Displays the tape(s) Amanda expects to write to during the next run 📼✨ See also amcheck(8).
bumpsize
Displays the current bump threshold parameters, calculated for all backup levels 📊
balance [ --days <num> ]
Displays the distribution of full backups throughout the dump schedule 🗓️
export [ hostname [ disks ]* ]*
Converts records from the Amanda database into a text format you can send over to another Amanda machine and import there 📤
import
Converts exported records read from standard input into the form Amanda uses, and inserts them into the database on this machine 📥
config
Dumps the full internal representation of this config, in text format 💖 the whole thing, no filter, main character energy
disklist [ hostname [ disks ]* ]*
Displays the disklist(5) information for each of the disks on hostname (or all hosts). Mostly used for debugging 🔍
hosts
Outputs a list of distinct hosts in the disklist(5), one per line — perfect for dropping straight into shell scripts 🐚✨
dles
Outputs a list of distinct DLEs in the disklist(5), one per line, with host and diskname separated by a space. Again: made for shell scripts, no notes 👑
info [ hostname [ disks ]* ]*
Displays the database record for each of the disks on hostname (or all hosts). Mostly used for debugging 🐛🔍
-o configoption
See the "CONFIGURATION OVERRIDE" section in amanda(8) 🎀
✨ EXAMPLES ✨
okay bestie, this is the part where it all clicks 💖 real commands, real output, no cap. buckle up.
🎀 forcing full level 0 backups
want three specific file systems on machine-a to get a full level 0 backup on the very next Amanda run? say less:
$ amadmin daily force machine-a / /var /usr
amadmin: machine-a:/ is set to a forced level 0 tonight.
amadmin: machine-a:/var is set to a forced level 0 tonight.
amadmin: machine-a:/usr is set to a forced level 0 tonight.and if you're feeling generous and want every file system on machine-b to get that full level 0 glow-up:
$ amadmin daily force machine-b
amadmin: machine-b:/ is set to a forced level 0 tonight.
amadmin: machine-b:/var is set to a forced level 0 tonight.
amadmin: machine-b:/usr is set to a forced level 0 tonight.
amadmin: machine-b:/home is set to a forced level 0 tonight.🙈 actually, never mind (unforcing)
changed your mind about /home on machine-b? iconic of you. the other file systems are still getting that full level 0, don't worry:
$ amadmin daily unforce machine-b /home
amadmin: force command for machine-b:/home cleared.🔍 finding where your backups actually live
so you wanna locate backup images of /var from machine-c. here's the tea: the tape or file column shows either a tape label or a filename — it depends on whether the image is sitting on tape or still chilling in the holding disk. if the image is on tape, the file column tells you which file on that tape has the image (and heads up: file number zero is a tape label). that column shows zero and is not meaningful if the image is still in the holding disk. and the status column? that's your vibe check — it tells you whether the backup was successful or had some type of error.
$ amadmin daily find machine-c /var
date host disk lv tape or file file part status
2000-11-09 machine-c /var 0 000110 9 -- OK
2000-11-08 machine-c /var 2 000109 2 -- OK
2000-11-07 machine-c /var 2 /amanda/20001107/machine-c._var.2 0 OK
2000-11-06 machine-c /var 2 000107 2 -- OK
2000-11-05 machine-c /var 2 000106 3 -- OK
2000-11-04 machine-c /var 2 000105 2 -- OK
2000-11-03 machine-c /var 2 000104 2 -- OK
2000-11-02 machine-c /var 2 000103 2 -- OK
2000-11-01 machine-c /var 1 000102 5 -- OK
2000-10-31 machine-c /var 1 000101 3 -- OK💀 deleting a disk from the database
forgetting about the /workspace disk on machine-d? okay, but listen:
⚠️ if you do not also remove the disk from the disklist(5) file, Amanda will treat it as a new disk during the next run. no cap. go edit that file too.
$ amadmin daily delete machine-d /workspace
amadmin: machine-d:/workspace deleted from database.
amadmin: NOTE: you'll have to remove these from the disklist(5) yourself.📼 what tape is next tho
want to know which tape Amanda will grab next? here you go (in this case, 123456):
$ amadmin daily tape
The next Amanda run should go onto tape 123456 or a new tape.⚖️ balance check, aka the scheduling spreadsheet of my dreams
this shows how well the full backups are balanced across the dump cycle. let's decode the columns, bestie:
- the due-date column is the day the backups are due for a full backup.
- #fs shows the number of filesystems doing full backups that night.
- orig KB and out KB show the estimated total size of the backups before and after any compression, respectively.
now, the balance column shows how far off that night's backups are from the average size (which, fun fact, is shown at the bottom of the balance column). Amanda tries to keep the backups within +/- 5%, but — and this is just how it is — since the amount of data on each filesystem is always changing, and Amanda will never delay backups just to rebalance the schedule, it is common for the schedule to fluctuate by larger percentages. in particular, in the case of a tape or backup failure, a bump will occur the following night, which will not be smoothed out until the next pass through the schedule. so like… don't panic 💅
the last line also shows an estimate of how many Amanda runs will be made between full backups for a file system. in the example below, a file system will probably have a full backup done every eight times Amanda is run (e.g. every eight days).
$ amadmin daily balance
due-date #fs orig KB out KB balance
-------------------------------------------
11/10 Mon 21 930389 768753 +5.1%
11/11 Tue 29 1236272 733211 +0.2%
11/12 Wed 31 1552381 735796 +0.6%
11/13 Thu 23 1368447 684552 -6.4%
11/14 Fri 32 1065603 758155 +3.6%
11/15 Sat 14 1300535 738430 +0.9%
11/16 Sun 31 1362696 740365 +1.2%
11/17 Mon 30 1427936 773397 +5.7%
11/18 Tue 11 1059191 721786 -1.3%
11/19 Wed 19 1108737 661867 -9.5%
-------------------------------------------
TOTAL 241 12412187 7316312 731631 (estimated 8 runs per dumpcycle)🔗 SEE ALSO
go read these next, they're the whole friend group fr fr 🌸
The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/ 👑
👑 AUTHORS
these are the icons who made this:
- James da Silva
<jds@amanda.org> - Stefan G. Weichinger
<sgw@amanda.org>
and that's the whole page, bestie 💖 huge slay. this lil manual moment came to you from Amanda 3.5.4, dated 08/26/2026, living its best life as AMADMIN(8). go force a backup, you got this 🫶✨
📦 where this page comes from
- ubuntu stonking: amanda-common 1:3.5.4-2.1ubuntu1 · Custom
- 💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms