HOWTO Restore Files From Amanda

How to restore files from an Amanda tape backup.

SSH to musashi for recovering files from a machine, and SSH to yamato to recover files from users or projects.

Finding Where the Files you want to Restore are Located

hostname / # su - amanda
amanda@hostname ~ $ amadmin $backupname find $hostname/$ipaddress $directorypath

Worked Example:
amanda@hostname ~ $ amadmin DailyMusashi find 209.87.56.16 /etc

You should see something like this:

2006-04-07 209.87.56.16 /etc/  0 DailyMusashi20   24 OK
2006-04-10 209.87.56.16 /etc/  1 DailyMusashi21   16 OK
2006-04-11 209.87.56.16 /etc/  1 DailyMusashi22   19 OK
2006-04-12 209.87.56.16 /etc/  1 DailyMusashi23   23 OK
2006-04-13 209.87.56.16 /etc/  1 DailyMusashi24   29 OK
2006-04-18 209.87.56.16 /etc/  1 DailyMusashi25   23 OK

Another example:

amanda@trainwreck ~ $ amadmin Daily find inferno /srv/www
Scanning /holding...
Scanning /holding...

date       host    disk     lv tape or file file status
2007-04-23 inferno /srv/www  0 Daily05         8 OK
2007-04-24 inferno /srv/www  1 Daily06         4 OK
2007-04-25 inferno /srv/www  1 Daily07         2 OK
2007-04-26 inferno /srv/www  1 Daily08         2 OK
2007-04-27 inferno /srv/www  1 Daily09         2 OK
2007-04-30 inferno /srv/www  0 Daily10        10 OK
2007-05-01 inferno /srv/www  1 Daily01         6 OK
2007-05-02 inferno /srv/www  1 Daily02         2 OK
2007-05-03 inferno /srv/www  1 Daily03         2 OK
2007-05-04 inferno /srv/www  1 Daily04         2 OK

Restoring Files

Looking at the file-listing, you are interested in the most-recent level0 backup (to begin with), and the most-recent level1. None of the others (ie xxx ) are of any interest at all. We will only use DailyMusashi20, and DailyMusashi25 in the first example; Daily10 and Daily04 in the second example.
Now that you know what tape the files are on, insert the first tape into the drive and ask for the files. Note: The files will be extracted into the current directory.
NOTE: Make sure you have enough drive-space for the extraction to succeed! df -h

amanda@hostname ~ $ mkdir restore; cd restore
amanda@hostname ~ $ amrestore -p /dev/nst0 209.87.56.16 /etc | tar xvf -

This process will output the files and directories in the current folder. You can aboard the process at anytime when your file has been recovered (CTRL-C).

If you need multiple tapes, simply rewind (below), eject (below), insert the next tape, and repeat the above amrestore command.

Finish Up

Rewind a tape; as root:

hostname / # mt -f /dev/st0 rewind     (/dev/nst0 is the non-rewinding device, although it may rewind anyway)
hostname / # mt -f /dev/nst0 eject