known issue: amrecover - can't talk to tape server: service amidxtaped:

[zwigno]

When trying to recover data from a backup with amrecover following the guides at:

http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/GSWA/Build_a_Basic_Configuration
http://wiki.zmanda.com/index.php/GSWA/Recovering_Files

One eventually gets the error, "amrecover - can't talk to tape server: service amidxtaped" when trying to do a restore. This is a known bug in 1:3.3.0-1 and is fixed in 1:3.3.1-1. It's already fixed in Debian wheezy.
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=655025

Unfortunately wheezy requires a newer version of perl so the package isn't installable.

Since 12.04 is an LTS release can we get this package updated to the fixed version?

Secondarily,
The file /etc/xinetd.d/amanda only contains an entry for the main amanda service. It's missing definitions for amidxtape and amandaidx. They should look something like this:

service amidxtape
{
        socket_type = stream
 flags = IPv4
        protocol = tcp
        wait = no
        user = backup
        group = disk
        groups = yes
        server = /usr/lib/amanda/amidxtape
        disable = no
}
service amandaidx
{
        socket_type = stream
 flags = IPv4
        protocol = tcp
        wait = no
        user = backup
        group = disk
        groups = yes
        server = /usr/lib/amanda/amindexd
        disable = no
}

It looks like it's acceptable for all 3 definitions to be in the /etc/xinetd.d/amanda file

[Logan Rosen (logan)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, I am closing it because the bug has been fixed in the latest development version of Ubuntu - Raring Ringtail.

This is a significant bug in Ubuntu. If you need a fix for the bug in previous versions of Ubuntu, please do steps 1 and 2 of the SRU Procedure [1] to bring the need to a developer's attention.

[1]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure

[Lindsay (fmouse)]

The fix for this bug should be bacported ASAP to precise (12.04 LTS) since it renders amanda useless as a functional backup package. The bug only shows up when amanda is needed most - when data has been lost and needs to be restored from backups, which is unacceptable for a LTS release used in production and enterprise environments. The SRU Procedure referred to by logan is very obscure and the page he links to is long on what and when, and short on exactly how to get this process going. Perhaps one of the Ubuntu team would be kind enough to undertake to escalate Bug #1077105 (which provides a fix) accordingly and put the fix into consideration for backporting to the LTS version.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Jakub Kalab (jakubkalab-n)]

+1 for backporting this to 12.04 LTS, as @fmouse said 'it renders amanda useless as a functional backup package' and it shows up pretty late.

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

The Precise Pangolin has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that release