amcheck - run Amanda self-checks


SYNOPSIS

       amcheck [ -mwsclt ] [ -Maddress ] config


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.

       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.

       -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  subse­
              quent  amdump  to  fail).  If the tape is writable,
              this check causes all data after the tape label  to
              be  erased  (actually depends on the device driver:
              there is no portable non-destructive way  to  check
              for write-protection).  The check implies -t 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.

       -Maddress
              Mail  the  report  to address instead of the mailto
              value from amanda.conf.  Implies -m.

       The default is -cs.


EXAMPLES

       In this example, both the tape server and client tests are
       run.  The results are displayed on standard output.

              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 2.4.2)

       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 DailySet1


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  pat­
                     tern  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

                     ning will continue if necessary.

              labelstr match
                     This  tape  is the next one that matches the
                     labelstr pattern in amanda.conf.  Tape scan­
                     ning 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 dum­
              puser 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 accessi­
              ble.

       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)

                     (see curinfo in amanda.conf) or

              index  for an Amanda index directory (see  indexdir
                     in amanda.conf)

              tapelist
                     for   the  Amanda  tapelist  directory  (see
                     tapelist in amanda.conf)

       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 for­
              mat  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)   Amanda   tape  list  file  tapelist  (see
              tapelist in amanda.conf) is not writable or was not
              found.

       ERROR: tape list tapelist: parse error
              (error)   Amanda   tape  list  file  tapelist  (see
              tapelist in  amanda.conf)  could  not  be  read  or
              parsed.

              (warning)  The  tapedev parameter in amanda.conf is
              set to /dev/null and Amanda uses that  when  debug­
              ging 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  sys­
              tem  call  on  holding  disk disk (maybe because it
              does not exist).

       ERROR: holding disk disk: not writable
              (error) Holding disk disk, is not writable,  proba­
              bly  because the caller does not have write permis­
              sion 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 warn­
              ing, it causes amcheck to exit with a non-zero sta­
              tus.

       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.

              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 previ­
              ous 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.

              server-compression  and indexing will not work
              (warning) Compression program compress is not  exe­
              cutable, 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 try­
              ing 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  con­
              tacting host.

       ERROR: host: message
              (error)  Error  message  was reported by the status
              check on host.


AUTHOR

       James da Silva <jds@cs.umd.edu>
       University of Maryland, College Park


SEE ALSO

       amanda(8), amdump(8)


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