I'm having trouble getting amanda working with gentoo. I've never
used either amanda or xinetd before, and I'm new to gentoo as
well, so I may not be interpreting the symptoms properly, but I
get the impression that xinetd is not invoking /usr/libexec/amandad
when I think it's supposed to.

Specifically, executing

su amanda -c "/usr/sbin/amcheck daily"

gives these results:

Amanda Tape Server Host Check
-----------------------------
amcheck-server: slot 6: date X label daily6 (new tape)
NOTE: skipping tape-writable test
Tape daily6 label ok
Server check took 0.384 seconds

Amanda Backup Client Hosts Check
--------------------------------
WARNING: lotus: selfcheck request timed out. Host down?
Client check: 1 host checked in 30.030 seconds, 1 problem found

(brought to you by Amanda 2.4.4p3)


/var/log/messages contains


Apr 17 18:38:29 lotus su(pam_unix)[12607]: session opened for user
amanda by john(uid=0)
Apr 17 18:38:29 lotus xinetd[12616]: FAIL: amanda address from=192.168.1.101
Apr 17 18:38:29 lotus xinetd[9729]: START: amanda pid=12616
from=192.168.1.101
Apr 17 18:38:29 lotus xinetd[9729]: EXIT: amanda status=0 pid=12616
duration=0(sec)
Apr 17 18:38:39 lotus xinetd[12632]: FAIL: amanda address from=192.168.1.101
Apr 17 18:38:39 lotus xinetd[9729]: START: amanda pid=12632
from=192.168.1.101
Apr 17 18:38:39 lotus xinetd[9729]: EXIT: amanda status=0 pid=12632
duration=0(sec)
Apr 17 18:38:49 lotus xinetd[12633]: FAIL: amanda address from=192.168.1.101
Apr 17 18:38:49 lotus xinetd[9729]: START: amanda pid=12633
from=192.168.1.101
Apr 17 18:38:49 lotus xinetd[9729]: EXIT: amanda status=0 pid=12633
duration=0(sec)
Apr 17 18:38:59 lotus su(pam_unix)[12607]: session closed for user amanda


which tells me that xinetd didn't like something about trying to start
amandad.
"lotus" is the name of the machine on which amanda is installed and on
which I'm
executing all the commands.

/etc/xinetd.d/amanda contains the recommended configuration:

service amanda
{
socket_type = dgram
protocol = udp
wait = yes
user = amanda
group = amanda
groups = yes
server = /usr/libexec/amandad
only_from = localhost
disable = no
}

lsof | grep amanda gives this output:

xinetd 12820 root 5u IPv4 19164 UDP *:amanda
xinetd 12820 root 6u IPv4 19165 TCP
*:amandaidx (LISTEN)

and netstat -a | grep -i amanda gives

tcp 0 0 *:amandaidx *:* LISTEN
udp 0 0 *:amanda *:*

I'm running a fairly recent version of gentoo, built from stage 1 in the
last
2 weeks.


I'd appreciate any pointers about how to fix what amcheck is complaining
about.

John Blinka

So anyway, it was like, 00:57 CEST Apr 18 2005, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
John Blinka was all like, "Dude,

> Apr 17 18:38:39 lotus xinetd[12632]: FAIL: amanda address from=192.168.1.101

> only_from = localhost

Try removing the restriction to localhost as a source address.

hth.

--
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Perth ---> *
12:56:26 up 176 days, 22 min, 10 users, load average: 0.03, 0.02, 0.00
Linux 2.6.9 x86_64 GNU/Linux Registered Linux user #261729

Johan Lindquist wrote:
> So anyway, it was like, 00:57 CEST Apr 18 2005, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
> John Blinka was all like, "Dude,
>
>
>>Apr 17 18:38:39 lotus xinetd[12632]: FAIL: amanda address from=192.168.1.101
>
>
>> only_from = localhost
>
>
> Try removing the restriction to localhost as a source address.
>
> hth.
>

I've done that. It generates a different error:

ERROR: lotus: [access as amanda not allowed from amanda@lotus] open of
/var/spool/amanda/.amandahosts failed

At the moment, I'm only trying to run backups from localhost to localhost,
so the restriction should not be a problem. Besides, I'm now of the opinion
that xinetd is not the source of my troubles, since nmap -sU localhost gives

Starting nmap 3.75 ( http://www.insecure.org/nmap/ ) at 2005-04-18 11:06 EDT
Interesting ports on localhost (127.0.0.1):
(The 1476 ports scanned but not shown below are in state: closed)
PORT STATE SERVICE
631/udp open|filtered unknown
10080/udp open|filtered amanda

indicating that xinetd is listening at port 10080. But
/usr/libexec/amandad,
which should be invoked after an appropriate communication at port
10080, shows no access via the ls -lu command after doing the amcheck.
So, xinetd is listening, but it doesn't fire up amandad. Looking at the
ports
being accessed via iftop during amcheck, I see only traffic on port 674,
which seems very strange. What does 674 have to do with amanda?

John Blinka

So anyway, it was like, 17:21 CEST Apr 18 2005, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
John Blinka was all like, "Dude,
> Johan Lindquist wrote:
>> So anyway, it was like, 00:57 CEST Apr 18 2005, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
>> John Blinka was all like, "Dude,
>>>Apr 17 18:38:39 lotus xinetd[12632]: FAIL: amanda address from=192.168.1.101

>>> only_from = localhost
>>
>> Try removing the restriction to localhost as a source address.
>
> I've done that. It generates a different error:
>
> ERROR: lotus: [access as amanda not allowed from amanda@lotus] open
> of /var/spool/amanda/.amandahosts failed

That's quite logical then.

> At the moment, I'm only trying to run backups from localhost to
> localhost,

The log snippet you provided seems to say that you're failing to do
this, since the attempts aren't coming from localhost but from (I'm
presuming) the actual ip address of the host.

I haven't (yet) finished my own amanda setup, so I'm not sure I can
help you further. Just make sure you're actually using localhost as
the server, and not the hostname.

--
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Perth ---> *
19:28:06 up 176 days, 6:54, 9 users, load average: 0.06, 0.03, 0.01
Linux 2.6.9 x86_64 GNU/Linux Registered Linux user #261729

Johan Lindquist wrote:

>
> That's quite logical then.
>
>
>>At the moment, I'm only trying to run backups from localhost to
>>localhost,
>
>
> The log snippet you provided seems to say that you're failing to do
> this, since the attempts aren't coming from localhost but from (I'm
> presuming) the actual ip address of the host.

Yes, they are.

>
> I haven't (yet) finished my own amanda setup, so I'm not sure I can
> help you further. Just make sure you're actually using localhost as
> the server, and not the hostname.
>

I think you may have touched on the difficulty. While doing
something else, I discovered that the amanda emerge
populated /etc/csh.env and /etc/profile.env with all sorts
of environmental variables:

printenv | grep AMANDA

AMANDA_SERVER_INDEX=lotus
AMANDA_USER_GROUPS=amanda
AMANDA_PORTS_UDP=
AMANDA_USER_HOMEDIR=/var/spool/amanda
AMANDA_GROUP_NAME=amanda
AMANDA_USER_UID=87
AMANDA_CONFIG_NAME=DailySet1
AMANDA_PORTS_TCP=
AMANDA_PORTS_BOTH=
AMANDA_SERVER=lotus
AMANDA_TMPDIR=/var/spool/amanda/tmp
AMANDA_DBMODE=db
AMANDA_PORTS=
AMANDA_TAR_LISTDIR=/var/spool/amanda/tar-lists
AMANDA_USER_SH=/bin/false
AMANDA_GROUP_GID=87
AMANDA_USER_NAME=amanda
AMANDA_SERVER_TAPE=lotus

These values appear to be in conflict with at least some of
/etc/xinetd.d/amanda and /etc/amanda/... Now there's
something to explore.

John Blinka

So anyway, it was like, 00:48 CEST Apr 19 2005, you know? Oh, and, yeah,
John Blinka was all like, "Dude,

[..]

> populated /etc/csh.env and /etc/profile.env with all sorts of
> environmental variables:

The file you'll probably have to edit is /etc/env.d/97amanda. When
you've made the appropriate changes, don't forget to run 'env-update'.

--
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana. Perth ---> *
08:34:31 up 176 days, 20:00, 11 users, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Linux 2.6.9 x86_64 GNU/Linux Registered Linux user #261729