Backup to LTO with Amanda on TrueNAS Core

[Aluveitie]

I recently got my hands on an LTO tape drive. Finding useful information was quite tricky and it took a lot of trial and error to find a starting point.
Since useful information is very scattered, I've collected things together in a little guide, maybe it's helpful for someone:

Creating jail​

First we need to create a jail with access to the tape drive.
Create a jail using the "Advanced Jail Creation". Under Jail Properties set `devfs_ruleset` to `0`, enable `allow_mount` and select `allow_mount_devfs` under the `allow_mount_*` dropdown.
Then create and start the jail.

As root on TrueNAS enter the jail using `iocage console <your jail name>`.
Check you can access the tape drive from your jail using `mt status`.
The output should look like this:

Code:

Drive: sa0: <TANDBERG LTO-6 HH 3329>
---------------------------------
Mode      Density              Blocksize      bpi      Compression
Current:  0x5a:LTO-6           variable       384607   enabled (0x1)
---------------------------------
Current Driver State: at rest.
---------------------------------
Partition:   0      Calc File Number:   0     Calc Record Number: 0
Residual:    0  Reported File Number:   0 Reported Record Number: 0
Flags: BOP

# Basic setup
Then type `pkg info` to install the package manager.<br/>
Then install the necessary software:

Code:

pkg install amanda-server amanda-client aespipe

Enable inetd to run the Amanda service later

Code:

echo 'inetd_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf

Then restart the jail to apply those changes and log back in.

Create and empty `/etc/fstab` as Amanda requires the file to be there, also the hosts configuration file.

Code:

touch /etc/fstab

pkg already created an `amanda` user/group. To later use it we need to assign a login shell:

Code:

chsh -s /bin/csh amanda

Prepare config and var directories:

Code:

chown amanda:amanda /usr/local/etc/amanda
mkdir -p /var/lib/amanda
chown amanda:amanda /var/lib/amanda

Configure Amanda Server​

First configure the Amanda server by appending in `/etc/inted.conf`:

Code:

amanda stream tcp nowait amanda /usr/local/libexec/amanda/amandad amandad -auth=bsdtcp amdump amindexd amidxtaped

and restart inetd:

Code:

service inetd restart

If you don't find a predefined `tapetype` for your drive you need to run `amtapetype` to test the speed, size etc of the tape.
This can run for a couple of hours. You may need to give it size hint for it to complete in reasonable time, see amtapetype(8).

Code:

amtapetype -f /dev/sa0

This should give out the `tapetype` definition of our tape drive looking like:

Code:

define tapetype tandberg-lto6hh {
    comment "Tandberg LTO-6 HH; compression enabled"
    length 2442932512 kbytes
    filemark 1065 kbytes
    speed 137420 kps
    blocksize 32 kbytes
}

Then let amanda create our backup configuration, see amserverconfig(8).

Code:

su - amanda
amserverconfig sample-backup --template single-tape --tapedev /dev/sa0 --mailto admin@example.local

Edit the generated `/usr/local/etc/amanda/sample-backup/amanda.conf` and add the `define tapetype` block from above and adapt the `tapetype` to it.

Next copy the `/usr/local/share/amanda/example/amanda-client.conf` to `/usr/local/etc/amanda` and adapt it:

Code:

conf "sample-backup"            # your config name

index_server "localhost"        # your amindexd server
tape_server  "localhost"        # your amidxtaped server
tapedev      "tape:/dev/sa0"    # your tape device
auth "bsdtcp"

ssh_keys ""                     # your ssh keys file if you use ssh auth

`amrecover` will use this to initialize.

Prepare localhost access by creating the file `/var/db/amanda/.amandahosts` to allow connections from localhost:

Code:

localhost amanda amdump
localhost root amindexd amidxtaped

Then fix permissions of etc folder as root again (Amanda client requires /usr/local/etc/amanda to belong to root)
as well as the `.amandahosts` file which must belong to `amanda` user and be accessible by the user only.

Code:

chown root:wheel /usr/local/etc/amanda
touch /var/db/amanda/.amandahosts
chmod 600 /var/db/amanda/.amandahosts
chown amanda:amanda /var/db/amanda/.amandahosts

Testing backup​

With our completed configuration we can go on and test our setup and do a simple backup/restore.

Run the integrated check as amanda user:

Code:

amcheck sample-backup

There should be no errors besides mentioning tape labels.

Next we set up the disk list to quickly back something up in `/usr/local/etc/amanda/sample-backup/disklist`:

Code:

localhost /etc root-tar

If the tape drive is using hardware compression, root-tar should be a good fit. See `/usr/local/etc/amanda/template.d/dumptypes` and disklist(5).

We need to label a tape for Amanda to backup to it, matching our `labelstr` defined in the `amanda.conf`:

Code:

amlabel -f sample-backup sample-backup-0

Then write our first backup:

Code:

amdump sample-backup

To test recover, we need to run `amrecover` as `root`:

Code:

mkdir /tmp/test
cd /tmp/test
amrecover sample-backup
amrecover> sethost localhost
amrecover> setdisk /etc
amrecover> ls
amrecover> add resolv.conf
amrecover> extract

`amrecover` will note which tape to insert and continue to extract the selected file into `/tmp/test` . You can quit `amrecover` with `exit`.

To clean up our test run, delete the tape as `amanda` user again:

Code:

amrmtape sample-backup sample-backup-0

 

[Ericloewe]

Fancy. Late last year, I had to wrestle with an old tape library (which seems to have one dying PSU and one dead PSU) with two old tape drives, both seized up - but I did get one of the drives to work, though not inside the library.

I have to admit, I was intrigued by the whole thing, but the economics just aren't there in my case.

 

[Aluveitie]

Still playing around and trying to figure out if this can be a suitable backup solution :)

 

[WI_Hedgehog]

Still playing around and trying to figure out if this can be a suitable backup solution :)

It can be for several solid reasons the tape zealot will espouse. I love tape, though it's slothy s-l-o-w.

 

[Ericloewe]

I was so happy with tape speed on LTO3 when I saw that the tape had reached its end. Then the drive started reading in reverse. Then I looked up the number of tracks on the tape and the realization of my (then) near future sunk in.

 

[acp]

It can be for several solid reasons the tape zealot will espouse. I love tape, though it's slothy s-l-o-w.

While I use bacula I find tape quite the solution. I started with an lto 5 drive. Then I went all in with an library (TL4000). I too have found documentation is lacking or just plan wrong. I just kept at it. I can fill a lto 5 tape (1.5 tb) in about 6 hours. My solution is fully virtualized. Now I'm all automated. Next is to figure out tape encryption.