Amanda Work Group Administration Guide

							Chapter 9:
Using the Administrator Mailbox
Administering Amanda by Telephone
You, as system administrator, have a System Administrator mailbox (999) in addition to 
your personal mailbox. You access it by telephone or via Amanda Messenger.
You log into Amanda using the System Administrator mailbox to perform the following 
duties:
 Record system-wide announcements
 Record busy hold music
 Create system-wide mailing lists
 Lock, unlock, and reset mailboxes
 Listen to system status information
When you dial Amanda’s extension and identify yourself as this mailbox, your top level 
menu has one additional choice (
  ) for System Administration. The System 
Administration menu is as follows:
   to record the system announcement
   to delete the system announcement
   to record the busy-hold music
   to manage users
   to review system status
   to return to the previous menu
Managing System Announcements
The system announcement gives out system-wide information. When recorded, it is 
played automatically to users when they log on to their mailboxes. A user can interrupt the 
announcement by pressing any DTMF digit, but the announcement plays every time that 
user logs on until he hears it once in its entirety.
When you see this symbol in this chapter, use one 
of the methods of logging into Amanda and identi-
fying yourself. See Using [email protected]/
Windows Telephone Features for more information. 
						

							84 Administering [email protected]/Windows
After any recording:
To record a system announcement:
  
  +      +     +  make your recording  + 
To delete a system announcement:
  
  +      +  
Changing the Busy Hold Music
The busy-hold music is heard by callers when they hold for a busy extension by pressing 
*. Currently it plays approximately 30 seconds of custom music. You can replace this 
music with a recording that gives information about your company products and services. 
However, we strongly recommend that you prepare a professional recording for this.
To change the busy hold music:
  
  +      +     +  make your recording  + 
The busy hold music is stored in a file named HOLD.VOX in the C:\AMANDA directory. 
If you create HOLD0.VOX, HOLD1.VOX, etc. Amanda plays them after HOLD.VOX if 
the extension remains busy. Each one is created as HOLD.VOX, and must be changed to 
HOLDx.VOX with a DOS command:
COPY HOLD.VOX HOLDx.VOX
Do the recording for the real HOLD.VOX (the first music/message the caller hears) last.
Locking and Unlocking Mailboxes
You can lock a mailbox so that the user cannot access the mailbox. That means he cannot 
listen to his messages, record greetings, create mailing lists, and so forth. To allow him to 
access his mailbox again, you can unlock it.To D i a l
Review the recording
Rerecord
Add to the end of the recording
Cancel the recording
Save the recording 
						

							Chapter 9: Using the Administrator Mailbox 85
To lock or unlock a mailbox:
 
(to lock)
    +      +     + enter mailbox  +     +  
 
(to unlock)
repeat for more mailboxes
To  e x i t :
1. Re-enter the last mailbox then press  .
2. Press     to return to a previous menu.
Resetting Mailboxes
Resetting a mailbox reinitializes it to its default settings. Amanda copies all the field 
information from the mailbox template (usually mailbox 997) to the specified mailbox and 
the statistics for the mailbox are reset to zero. See “Using a Template” on page 38 for 
more information. 
If the mailbox is for a user, that user can change some of the settings over the telephone. 
For more information about what the user can change, see the guides Using 
[email protected]/Windows Telephone Features and Using [email protected]/
Windows Workstation Features.
N
OTE:You cannot reset a mailbox that is read-only.
To reset a mailbox:
  
  +      +     + enter mailbox  +     +  
repeat for more mailboxes
To  e x i t :
1. Re-enter the last mailbox then press  .
2. Press     to return to a previous menu.
Listening to System Status
The system status option informs you about Amanda’s status. It includes the amount of 
disk space, port usage, and the date and time. 
						

							86 Administering [email protected]/Windows
To hear system status:
  
  +      + 
Creating System-wide Mailing Lists
A system-wide mailing list is one that everyone can use when sending or forwarding 
messages. For example, you would usually create an all-employee mailing list and 
perhaps an all-managers list so that there would be only one of each of these lists on the 
system.
Each list, numbered 1–8 or 10–30, in mailbox 999 is available to all users and can be 
accessed as a user sends or forwards a message to a list. Users must enter * followed by 
the system list number to use the list with a message. 
When you add a mailbox to a system mailing list, the Amanda system confirms the new 
mailbox (or its copy-to mailbox) can receive mail. Otherwise the mailbox cannot be added 
to your mailing list.
To create a system-wide mailing list:
  +  
  +  the list’s number (1-8,10-30)  +     +  mailbox  +     + 
     (repeat for each mailbox)
  + record a name or description to identify the list  +   
To send a message using a system-wide mailing list:
  +  
  +     +     +  number of the system list  +  
  (to record) +     (to save the recording)  +     (to send)
Amanda processes messages sent to lists as a low priority task. This means that the system 
might take several minutes to send the message to everyone on a large list, especially if the 
system is busy. By making this a low priority task, Amanda can maintain high system 
performance for tasks such as answering calls and notifying users. It also means that the 
sender does not have to wait to exit until all the messages have been sent.
N
OTE:It is much easier to create system-wide mailing lists using Amanda Mes-
senger. See [email protected]/Windows Workstation Features for 
details. 
						

							Chapter 9: Using the Administrator Mailbox 87
Setting Up the Administrator Mailbox from the 
Computer
[email protected]/Windows is shipped with mailbox 999 as shown in the following 
figures. It has two functions: it is the System Administrator mailbox and it provides an 
automatic hang up. 
For example, you can use G(999), which translates from the Token Programming 
Language as “Go to mailbox 999 and process it.” Because mailbox 999 has H (for hangup) 
in its Extension field and both Do Not Disturb and Screen Calls? locked OFF, G(999) 
results in a disconnection. For more information about the G() command, see Installing 
[email protected]/Windows.
The only recommended change to mailbox 999 is the addition of one or more notification 
records with DISK as their type. In this way, Amanda notifies you when disk space falls 
below a predefined level (the default is 20%). For example, you can be paged or have a 
voice mail message left for you at your personal mailbox. For information about creating a 
notification record, see “Creating a Notification Record and a Notification Template” on 
page 54 and “Creating a Notification Record from an Existing Template” on page 58. See 
Installing [email protected]/Windows for more information about setting the 
diskwarn configuration option or contact your Amanda Marketing Partner or Solution 
Provider.
Mailbox 999 
						

							88 Administering [email protected]/Windows 
						

							Chapter 10:
Using Utilities
Overview
The utilities is this chapter allow you to back up files, delete mailboxes, etc.
C
AUTION:NEVER run these utilities when Amanda is running. ALWAYS shut 
down Amanda first.
Backing Up and Restoring Files
The BackRest utility backs up and restores the database, the greetings, and the incoming 
messages of an Amanda system. BackRest automatically detects the number of floppy 
drives in the computer and allows you to use either the A: or B: drive. The number of 
floppies as well as the number of bytes needed for the requested backup is estimated after 
you insert the first floppy. You can add a note (comment) that is displayed when you 
restore files from the floppy disks.
N
OTE:This process can require several floppy disks and can take a long time to 
execute.
Syntax: backrest
To back up or restore files:
 At the C:\AMANDA> prompt, type:
backrest
The computer displays:
Amanda Backup and Restore Utility Version 1.6
a. Backup Database to drive A:
b. Backup Greeting to drive A:
c. Backup Messages to drive A:
d. Backup All to drive A:
e. Restore from drive A:
f. Quit Backrest
Use the arrow keys to make a selection and press Enter to start the backup or restore 
operation. 
						

							90 Administering [email protected]/Windows
Deleting Mailboxes and Mailing Lists
The Amanda Company provides utilities that delete mailboxes and personal mailing lists.
Deleting Mailboxes
The DelUsers utility simplifies the deletion of mailboxes. Use it to delete a single mailbox 
or a range of mailboxes.
Syntax: delusers mailbox_list
To delete one or more users:
 At the C:\AMANDA> prompt, type:
delusers mailbox_list
where mailbox_list specifies individual mailboxes, a range of mailboxes, or both. Use 
a hyphen (-) to separate the first and last mailboxes in a range. Use a space to separate 
entries in the list. For example:
1000-2000 990-991 3000
Deleting Personal Mailing Lists
The List Del utility deletes the specified personal mailing list from the specified mailbox. 
(System mailing lists are the personal mailing lists for mailbox 999.) Mailing lists are 
numbered 1–8 and 10–30.
Syntax: list_del mailbox list_number
For example, deletes List 7 from mailbox 212, type the following at the C:\AMANDA> 
prompt:
list_del 212 7
Displaying Message Information
The MsgList utility displays the quantity, date, time, and type of messages stored for all 
the mailboxes or the specified mailboxes.
Syntax: msglist [-e] [mailbox_list]
The -e is optional. Use it to print the dates in European format (20/04/95) rather than the 
US format (04/20/95).
The mailbox_list specifies individual mailboxes, a range of mailboxes, or both. Use a 
hyphen (-) to separate the first and last mailboxes in a range. Use a space to separate 
entries in the list. For example:
1000-2000 990-991 3000
To report on all mailboxes:
 Type the following at the C:\AMANDA> prompt:
msglist 
						

							Chapter 10: Using Utilities91
To store the information in a file:
Type:
msglist > output_filename
where output_filename is the name or path to another file.
To use the Less utility and display 20 lines at a time:
Type:
msglist | less
To print the results rather than display or store them:
Type:
msglist > prn 
To display the information for mailbox 200 through mailbox 231:
Type:
msglist 200-231
To display message information in European format:
(for mailboxes in the range 200–231 and in the range 300–320)
Type:
msglist -e 200-231 300-320
Validating Notification Templates
The VMBEdit utility checks that:
 Notification templates are valid.
 No two templates are identical except for Title. If it finds duplicates, it keeps the 
first template (unless it has no title) and deletes the duplicate. VMBEdit updates 
the mailboxes that used the deleted template so that they use the template that was 
kept.
 If a template is not being used by any mailbox, VMBEdit asks you whether the 
template should be deleted, listed, or kept as-is.
VMBEdit makes a back up of VMB.DAT (named VMB.BAK) before it checks the 
templates.
N
OTE:Do not run VMBEdit from a batch file because it can ask questions and 
will wait for responses to be input from the keyboard.
Syntax: vmbedit 
						

							92 Administering [email protected]/Windows
Managing Text Files
Amanda provides utilities that allow you to search, edit, and display text files.
Searching Text Files
The Grep utility searches the specified file from beginning to end for the specified string 
of characters. The search is case sensitive, which means that it differentiates between 
upper and lower case letters within the file. Therefore, the search_string must be typed 
exactly as it appears in the file. The Grep utility displays the lines of the file that contain 
those characters. This is useful when viewing trace files.
Syntax: grep search_string filename
To display the results of the search on the screen:
 Type the following at the C:\AMANDA> prompt:
grep searchstring filename
To store the results in a file:
 Type (on one line):
grep search_string input_filename > output_filename 
where output_filename is the name or path to another file.
To print the results rather than display or store them:
Type:
grep searchstring filename > prn 
For additional information on GREP.EXE, read C:\AMANDA\GREP.MAN. See also the 
Less utility, “Displaying Text Files (20 Lines at a Time)” on page 95.
Editing a Text File
The JOVE utility allows you to edit any text file on your Amanda system. For example, 
you might want to edit INSTALL.CFG, TRACE.OUT, AMANDA.LOG, 1001.PBX, 
CONFIG.SYS, and AUTOEXEC.BAT.
Syntax: jove filename
Examples
The following examples show common uses of the JOVE utility.
To change your Amanda password using JOVE:
1. At the C:\AMANDA> prompt, type:
JOVE INSTALL.CFG