Provided by: amanda-common_3.5.1-9_amd64 
NAME
amcheck - run Amanda self-checks
SYNOPSIS
amcheck [-am] [-w] [-sclt] [-M address] [--client-verbose] [--exact-match]
[-o configoption...] config [host [disk...]...]
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.
You can specify many host/disk expressions, only disks that match an expression will be
checked. All disks are checked if no expressions are given.
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. Multiple specific clients can be checked by specifying the
client name.
-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 subsequent amdump to fail). If the tape is writable, this check causes all
data after the tape label to be erased. If the autolabel option is enabled, this check
may ERASE any non-Amanda tape in the drive or changer. The check enable the tape tests
on the server host 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.
-a
Like -m but the mail is always sent.
-M address
Mail the report to address instead of the mailto value from amanda.conf. Implies -m.
--client-verbose
Print all client messages.
--exact-match
The host and disk are parsed as exact values
host [disk]*
Specify the host and disk on which the command will work.
-o configoption
See the "CONFIGURATION OVERRIDE" section in amanda(8).
The default is -cs.
EXAMPLES
In this example, both the tape server and client tests are run. The results are displayed
on standard output.
% amcheck daily
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 2.5.0)
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 daily
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 pattern 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 labelstr pattern in amanda.conf. Tape
scanning will continue if necessary.
labelstr match
This tape is the next one that matches the labelstr pattern in amanda.conf. Tape
scanning 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 dumpuser 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 accessible.
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)
info
for an Amanda database information directory (see curinfo in amanda.conf) or
index
for an Amanda index directory (see indexdir in amanda.conf)
tapelist
for the tapelist(5)
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 format 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) tapelist(5) is not writable or was not found.
ERROR: tape list tapelist: parse error
(error) tapelist(5) could not be read or parsed.
WARNING: tapedev is /dev/null, dumps will be thrown away
(warning) The tapedev parameter in amanda.conf is set to /dev/null and Amanda uses
that when debugging 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 system call on holding disk disk (maybe
because it does not exist).
ERROR: holding disk disk: not writable
(error) Holding disk disk, is not writable, probably because the caller does not have
write permission 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
inparallelamanda.conf option) to allow for unexpected overruns.
Note
Even though this message is listed as a warning, it causes amcheck to exit with a
non-zero status.
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.
(warning) The runtapesamanda.conf option must be set to 1 if the tpchangeramanda.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 labelstramanda.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 previous 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.
WARNING: compress is not executable, server-compression and indexing will not work
(warning) Compression program compress is not executable, 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 trying 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 contacting host.
ERROR: host: message
(error) Error message was reported by the status check on host.
EXIT CODE
The exit code of amcheck is one of:
0 = success
1 = error
SEE ALSO
amanda(8), amanda.conf(5), amdump(8)
The Amanda Wiki: : http://wiki.zmanda.com/
AUTHORS
James da Silva <jds@amanda.org>
Stefan G. Weichinger <sgw@amanda.org>