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This page describes the environmental requirements you should verify before running the install program. The Amanda Enterprise components required on each are described in Downloading and Installing Amanda Enterprise Components.

Throughout this document, The Amanda Client refers the system being backed up by the Amanda Enterprise Server, which also called the Amanda Server or backup server.

  • Identify the hosts and filesystems to be protected using Amanda software. The list of hosts to be protected are the Amanda backup clients. The Amanda backup clients and the filesystems or directories to be backed up on each client will need to be specified during Amanda configuration.
  • Identify the Amanda backup server. The Amanda backup server should have access to the media (tape, disk, changers) where the Amanda client backups will be stored. Any Amanda client can also act as an Amanda server, and it is recommended that every Amanda server also be a backup client. In selecting your Amanda backup server machine, keep in mind that the server might use a significant amount of memory during backup runs, and that it must have good network connectivity to all Amanda clients.

Amanda Enterprise Requirements

  • The Amanda server and clients must have the latest service packs or updates to the distribution installed.
  • Amanda server and client cannot be installed on an NFS-mounted file systems.
  • To run the Rapid Installer, the Amanda Server requires 256MB of free memory. You should have at least 500MB of disk space, and you should not install the ZMC itself (/opt/zmanda/amanda) on an NFS partition.
  • In addition to the space required for the software itself, you should ensure that there is always 10% free in the Zmanda installation and temporary directories, defined here. If Amanda Enterprise runs out of space on either of these directories while a backup is in progress, the backup will fail with MySQL errors similar to the following: 
System Error
DBD::mysql::db do failed: Incorrect key file for table
'/var/tmp/#sql_24b8_0.MYI'; try to repair it at
/opt/zmanda/zmc/bin/amreport_wrapper line 105.
    8:51:26, Mon Mar 17, 2008:ZMC Database Query failed: mysql query
failed:Incorrect key file for table '/var/tmp/#sql_24b8_0.MYI'; try to repair it
If you encounter messages like this, try increasing the amount of available disk space in the relevant directories.
  • The following TCP ports must be open:
    • Amanda server: must open inbound TCP ports 11000:11040.
    • Non-Windows Amanda clients must open inbound TCP port 10080 and outbound TCP ports 11000:11040.
    • Windows clients must open inbound TCP ports 10080 and 10081, and outbound TCP ports 700:800.
  • Internal firewalls and selinux policy must not prevent PHP processes from using HTTP over the loopback address 127.0.0.1

Requirements for Restore Clients (Linux/Solaris/MacOSX)

There are no special requirements for restoring files to a Linux/Solaris/MacOSX system that already has the Zmanda Client software installed, except when:

  • Either the restore client or the Amanda backup server are running version 2.6.3 Amanda Enterprise.
  • Secure communications are required for the restore operation.

Under either of these circumstances, ssh is the preferred mechanism for executing restores. ssh is also required when restoring to a a MacOSX/Unix/Linux system that is not running the Zmanda Client software. To force the restore process to use ssh, edit /etc/xinetd.d/zmrecover to include the following line:

disable = yes

Or, on MacOSX systems, run the following command: launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.amanda.zmrecover.plist. To re-enable the standard client restore mechanism, enter: launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.amanda.zmrecover.plist.

Package Dependencies

The following packages are required on the Amanda backup server and any clients:

Linux

  • libcurl (7.10.0 or greater)
  • ssh (dependency of libcurl)
  • perl (5.6.0 or greater)
  • GNU tar (1.15.1 or greater)
  • gnuplot
  • mailx
  • xinetd
  • openssh

These packages are installed by default on most Linux distributions. If you need to add them, you can use yum or apt-get, either from the distribution media, or from a distribution repository (run either as root): 

#yum install package_name

or 

#apt-get install package_name

Solaris 10 (Both Sparc and Intel Architectures)

64-bit packages are required for Solaris10/sparc; 32-bit packages are required for Solaris/Intel. To account for inter-package dependencies, they should be installed in the order as listed.

  1. CSWcommon
  2. CSWzlib
  3. CSWiconv
  4. CSWexpat
  5. CSWgettext
  6. CSWreadline
  7. CSWgtar
  8. CSWglib2 (Required on Intel architecture only; version 2.14.2 or higher)
  9. CSWsunmath
  10. CSWosslrt
  11. CSWlibidn
  12. CSWossldevel
  13. CSWosslutils
  14. CSWossl
  15. CSWbdb4
  16. CSWsasl
  17. CSWlibnet
  18. CSWoldaprt
  19. CSWcurlrt
  20. CSWcurl

The Zmanda Network downloads page collects all of these packages in a downloadable tar archive (which is made available after you select a platform to download). If necessary, download the tar archive to the local system, extract it, and run pkgadd as the superuser to install it: 

# pkgadd -d package_name

Solaris 8 and 9 (Sparc Architecture)

The dependencies are the same as listed above for Solaris 10, with the following addition:

  • CSWperl (the default version of Perl shipped with Solaris 8 will not work with Amanda Enterprise 2.6.4).

Mac OSX (Client only)

Download and install the package dependencies available from the Zmanda Network download page when you select Mac OSX as the client platform.

Libraries installed in non-standard locations

Some of the dependency packages listed above may change the location of runtime libraries when installed or updated. If this happens, backups may fail with a message indicating that a required library or file could not be found. If this happens, you must update the system search path so that Amanda Enterprise can find the file(s). The Solaris crle (Configure Runtime Linking Environment) provides a simple way to do this:

1. Run crle without any parameters and pipe the output to a file to save the original configuration: 

crle > ld.config.old

2. Run crle with the -c and -l options to update the path. For example: 

crle -c /var/ld/ld.config -l /lib:/usr/lib:/lib/secure:/usr/lib/secure:/usr/local/lib

Will update the /var/ld/ld.config to use /lib:/usr/lib:/lib/secure:/usr/lib/secure:/usr/local/lib as the search path. Running crle without parameters will display the current search paths in effect. Refer to the Solaris documentation for further details on crle.

Windows (2003 Server, XP, and Vista) clients

Windows clients must open inbound TCP ports 10080 and 10081, and outbound TCP ports 700:800. Windows application backups (licensed as separate agents) require that the Volume Shadow Copy Service be enabled and started. To prevent excessive memory consumption on application backup clients, Zmanda also recommends that you install the following hotfix from Microsoft:

Link to Microsoft Knowledgebase

See the The Zmanda Windows Client User's Manual for further details on Windows client installation.

Zmanda Managment Console Browser Requirements

Zmanda Management Console Browser Requirements

The following browsers have been tested and verified to work with the Zmanda Management Console:

  • FireFox version 1.5 or greater
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 and 7 browser is required.

In all cases you must have JavaScript enabled.

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