Table of Contents
This is an attempt to document Amanda's internals. Please feel free to make comments and suggest changes. Text for new sections gratefully accepted!
Client I Server +-planner-+
I | |
I | |
I | | ______
+-amandad-+ I | | (______)
| | I | | |amdump|
| | I | | all ::::>| |
| | I | | stderr | |
| | I | | | |
| | I | so | +------+
| | I +---------+
| | I :: ______
| | I \/ (______)
| | I +-driver--+ | log |
+---------+ I | si | all ::::>| |
I | | log | |
I | | | |
+-sendback+ I | | +------+
| | I | |
| | I ::::::::| |<::::::
| | I :: | | ::
| | I :: ::::>| |:::: ::
| | I :: :: | | :: ::
| | I :: :: +---------+ :: ::
| | I :: :: :: ::
| | I :: :: :: ::
| | I :: :: ______ :: ::
+---------+ I :: :: (______) :: ::
I :: :: | /tmp | :: ::
I \/ :: :>| | \/ ::
+-dump----+ I +-dumper--+ :: +------+ +-taper/r-+ +-taper/w-+
| | I | si so | :: | si so | | |
| | I | | :: ______ | | | |
| | I |mesgfd | :: (______) | | | |
| se|::::>|::::::::>|:: | hold | | | | |
| | I | errf| | disk | | p2c|:::>|p2c |
| | I | | | | | c2p|<:::|c2p | ____
| | I |datafd | ::>| |::: |fd | | | / \
| so|::::>|::::::::>|:: +------+ :>|::::::::>SHDMEM::::::::>|::>|tape|
| | I | outfd| :: :: | | | tapefd| \ _ /
+---------+ I +---------+ :::::::::::: +---------+ +---------+
I
planner interrogates all clients and generates a plan of which disks to backup and what dump level to do them at. The plan is plain text with one line per disk to be dumped. It is piped from planners stdout to drivers stdin. Plan lines come in two flavours:
For total dumps: <host> <disk> <pri> <lev> <size> <time> <deg lev> <deg size> <deg time>
For incremental dumps: <host> <disk> <pri> <lev> <size> <time>
Where: <host> Host name of client (from disklist file) <disk> Name of disk (from disklist file) <pri> Priority of backup (pri from disklist and amanda.conf + days overdue for total) <lev> Dump level for dump (0 for total, 1-9 for incremental) <size> Estimated size (in Kb after compression if requested) <time> Estimated time for backup (in seconds) <deg lev> <lev> to use if in degraded mode <deg size> <size> to use if in degraded mode <deg time> <time> to use if in degraded mode
dumper talks via two pipes connected to each dumper's stdin and stdout. The commands and responses are plain text.
driver can ask dumper to do a dump to a file on the holding disk: FILE-DUMP <handle> <filename> <host> <disk> <level> <dumpdate> <chunksize> <prog> <options> or directly to taper: PORT-DUMP <handle> <port> <host> <disk> <level> <dumpdate> <prog> <options> or exit at the end of the run: QUIT
If the dump finishes correctly dumper replies with: DONE <handle> [<message>]
If something goes wrong with the dump, dumper can request that the dump be retried at a later time with: TRY-AGAIN <handle> [<message>] or, for fatal errors, be abandoned with: FAILED <handle> [<message>]
If the holding disk runs out of space, dumper will give: NO-ROOM <handle> and wait for driver to either fix the problem and say: CONTINUE or just say: ABORT in which case dumper kills the dump and replies with: ABORT-FINISHED <handle>
If driver says something that dumper doesn't recognise it responds with: BAD-COMMAND <message>
Where: <handle> Request ID <filename> Name of file (on holding disk) to write dump <port> Port (of taper) to send dump directly <host> Hostname of client <disk> Disk to backup <level> Dump level to do backup at <prog> Dump program to use <options> Options to pass to sendbackup <message> Error or status message
*driver and taper
driver talks via two pipes connected to taper's stdin and stdout. The commands and responses are plain text.
driver initialises taper with: START-TAPER <datestamp> to which taper replies with: TAPER-OK or, for fatal errors, with: TAPER-ERROR [<message>]
driver can ask taper to to copy a file from the holding disk to tape: FILE-WRITE <handle> <filename> <host> <disk> <level> or directly from a dumper: PORT-WRITE <handle> <host> <disk> <level> or exit at the end of the run: QUIT
taper responds to the PORT-WRITE command with: PORT <port> which driver should then hand on to dumper in a PORT-DUMP command.
taper responds to the QUIT command with: QUITING
If the copy to tape finishes correctly taper replies with: DONE <handle> [<message>]
If something goes wrong with the tape, taper can request that the dump be retried at a later time with: TRY-AGAIN <handle> [<message>] or, for fatal errors, be abandoned with: TAPE-ERROR <handle> [<message>]
If driver says something that taper doesn't recognise it responds with: BAD-COMMAND <message>
Where: <datestamp> Todays date as "yymmdd" <handle> Request ID <filename> Name of file (on holding disk) to write dump <port> Port (of taper) to send dump directly <host> Hostname of client <disk> Disk to backup <level> Dump level to do backup at <message> Error or status message
There are two parts to taper: the file reader and the tape writer. Communication between the two sides is via a bit of shared memory for data transfer and two pipes (one in each direction) for synchronisation.
The shared memory area is made up of NBUFS (=20) buffers each of which contains a status word and a BUFFER_SIZE (=32*1024) byte data buffer.
The sync pipes are used to transfer a simplistic command sequence:
reader writer ------ ------
Startup S<datestamp> ---> <--- S Start OK <--- E<messge> Error
Open tape O<datestamp><hostname><diskname><level> ---> <--- O Opening
Write buffer W<bufnum> ---> <--- R<bufnum> Buffer empty <--- E<message> Error <--- T<message> Error, try again E ack e ---> Protocol error X ---> <--- x X ack
Close tape C ---> <--- C<label><filenum><stats> Closing
Quit Q --->