AMSERVERCONFIG(8)

📦
version 3.5.4 · 8 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 AMSERVERCONFIG 💖

okay bestie, this is the amserverconfig page from section 8 of the manual — the System Administration Commands club 👑. It's a shell script, it's got opinions, and it wants to build you a whole Amanda setup from scratch. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

amserverconfig — the program that sets up your initial Amanda configuration. like, the "hi bestie let's get you a config" program 🌸

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

amserverconfig config [--template template] [--no-vtape]
               [--tapetype tapetype] [--tpchanger tpchanger]
               [--tapedev tapedev] [--changerfile changerfile]
               [--changerdev changerdev] [--labelstr labelstr]
               [--mailto mailto] [--dumpcycle dumpcycle]
               [--runspercycle runspercycle] [--runtapes runtapes]
               [--tapecycle tapecycle] [--help]

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so here's the vibe: once the Amanda rpms are successfully installed (✨ slay ✨), amserverconfig goes and sets up your initial Amanda configuration files for you. it's giving personal assistant, it's giving "I got you", no cap 💅

it will also create the /var/lib/amanda/guntar-lists directory if one does not exist yet. yes, that's spelled guntar in the original, I'm not gonna gaslight you about it 🍓

lowkey important: amserverconfig does not change existing Amanda configurations. it's not gonna come for your current setup, it makes new ones only 🎀

and one more thing, and it's a hard requirement: amserverconfig must be run by user backup. not root, not you, not your friend — backup. periodt 👑

✨ OPTIONS ✨

couple of ground rules first, bestie:

  • options may be abbreviated, as long as the abbreviation is not ambiguous (so abbreviate responsibly, or it gets confused and we don't want that 😭)
  • an option argument can either be separated by = or by a space
  • example, so it's crystal clear: --templ=harddisk --tapedev /dev/nst0

amserverconfig builds a new "config" Amanda configuration. you customize that configuration with the options below ⬇️

  • --template template — build the Amanda configuration using pre-configured template files. right now, the valid inputs for this option are harddisk, single-tape, tape-changer and S3. you can find the pre-configured template files in /var/lib/amanda/template.d. this option may be combined with other options 🌈
    • if tape-changer is chosen for this option, the program mtx is required. amserverconfig will search for mtx in the following directory: "/usr/sbin", "/usr/local/sbin", "/usr/local/bin", "/usr/bin", "/bin" and backup's PATH.
    • if harddisk is chosen and --no-vtape is not specified, amserverconfig will create and label virtual tape file://var/lib/amanda/vtapes/$config.
  • --no-vtape — do not create virtual tapes in the harddisk template case. just... none. no tapes for you, and that's the assignment 💀
  • --tapedev tapedev — the path name of the non-rewinding tape device. default [file://var/lib/amanda/vtapes/$config]
  • --tpchanger tpchanger — the name of the tape changer. default [chg-disk]
  • --changerdev changerdev — a tape changer configuration parameter. default [/dev/null]
  • --changerfile changerfile — a tape changer configuration parameter. default [/etc/amanda/$config/changer.conf]
  • --labelstr labelstr — the tape label constraint regular expression. default [^$config-[0-9][0-9]*$]
    • if this option is used with --template=harddisk, only an alphanumeric string is supported. that's the rule, I don't make 'em 🙈
  • --tapetype tapetype — the type of tape drive associated with tapedev or tpchanger. default [HARDDISK]
  • --mailto mailto — a space separated list of recipients for mail reports. default [backup]
  • --dumpcycle dumpcycle — the number of days in the backup cycle. default [1week]
  • --runspercycle runspercycle — the number of days in the backup cycle. default [5]
  • --runtapes runtapes — the maximum number of tapes used in a single run. default [1]
  • --tapecycle tapecycle — the size of tape rotation. default [25]
  • --help — display usage. the classic. the icon ⭐

✨ FILES ✨

all the places this thing lives and touches, bestie 🦋

  • /var/lib/amanda/template.d — Amanda configuration template files install location
  • /var/lib/amanda — backup home directory
  • /var/lib/amanda/gnutar-lists — a directory which contains backup timestamp and list of files backed up
  • /etc/amanda/$config — Amanda configuration files location for $config (e.g: DailySet1)
  • /etc/amanda/template.d — a directory contains dumptypes and tapetypes files used by all Amanda configurations
  • /etc/amandates — Amanda file on the client. it keeps track of structures of previous dumps
  • /tmp/amanda — directory contains Amanda debug log files

✨ RETURN VALUE ✨

  • on success, zero is returned 🎉
  • on error, 1 is returned 😭

✨ SEE ALSO ✨

amanda(8), amanda.conf(5), amaddclient(8)

The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/

✨ AUTHOR ✨

Kevin Till <kevin.till@zmanda.com> Zmanda, Inc. (http://www.zmanda.com)

and that's the whole page, bestie, you ate it 💅✨ this was Amanda 3.5.4, dated 08/26/2026 — go build a config, you've got this 🫶🎀

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