On Sunday 27 November 2005 12:26, Harry Putnam wrote: > Christoph Haas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > Basically everytime you run a backup job Bacula will create a copy of > > every file on the disk (at least those you configured in the "file > > set") to your backup medium (be it a streamer, a DVD writer or another > > hard disk). Since the backed up data is stored in different "volumes" > > every backed up file goes to a new volume. > > This is confusing to me. In the example config files it appears that > the single client is writing to the same `volume' each time. In the > instant case ..on /tmp/Fname. > > You write as if that Fname changes for each backup, or do you mean > inside Fname some designated space is used for each incremental backup?
Sorry, it was confusing the way I tried to explain it. Yes, you are right. All the files in a fileset are written to the same volume until a volume is deemed full. So it's like making a huge ZIP or TAR archive from the files you are backing up. Or like copying files to a DVD recordable until it's full. Bacula will only request/change to a new volume when e.g. the volume is full (either because the tape has reached the end of the file has grown up to the maximum size that you configured) or when a new job starts or it has been used a number of times or... That criteria are configurable. > I could well be missing where the volume name changes, but the few > test backups I've run only wanted a LABEL once. After I'd given the > enitial LABEL any backups setup were written to it. Correct. The label is the unique identifier for a volume. It's a bit clearer when you think of tapes. Every tape has a name on it to find it in your big box of tapes. You label each tape once and when Bacula later decides that the volume "harry91" should be used then it will tell you to insert that volume. The label is always kept on the volume. If you buy new tapes you will need to label them once so both Bacula and you are sure how to call it. > So, I guess I'm > confused about VOLUME and LABEL, or maybe just missing where these are > changed for each backup. You may want to re-read: http://www.bacula.org/rel-manual/Getting_Started_with_Bacula.html#SECTION00092000000000000000 And: http://www.bacula.org/rel-manual/Configuring_Director.html#PoolResource The terminology is a bit confusing at first because you get bombarded with file sets, volumes, labels, storage daemons, directors, consoles etc. After reading a bit you will juggle with these terms pretty intuitively. Ah, while we are at it. The catalog database - your original issue why you started this thread. The catalog in the database is a directory which contains information about everything in Bacula. Like which volumes you have, which files have been backed up, which backup is on which volume etc. So when you order Bacula to restore a certain file it will look up certain information in the catalog and find out which volumes you need to fulfill the job. That's why it's important to keep the catalog backed up, too. If you lost your catalog you would need to show Bacula every volume you have so it can rebuild the catalog. So be sure to backup your MySQL database (or whatever you currently use), too. I feel like I have persuaded you already that Bacula does more than just copying files. :) Regards Christoph -- ~ ~ ".signature" [Modified] 1 line --100%-- 1,48 All ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Do you grep through log files for problems? Stop! Download the new AJAX search engine that makes searching your log files as easy as surfing the web. DOWNLOAD SPLUNK! http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7637&alloc_id=16865&op=click _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
