That is correct. This feature is being worked on but for now, Bacula
restores ALL files, including deleted and renamed ones.
Most backup software works this way.
3) We perform backups overnight, when no operators are here, so as to
minimize performance impact on our users. We have enough data that it
is not possible to fit a full backup of every filesystem onto a single
tape.
Can't you afford an autochanger?
If not, it is not difficult to write definition files to stage full
backups for different machines through the week.
6) And even more generally, are people actually using Bacula in medium
to large organizations? Reading about how the author's test network is
using token ring, how some sites only have to swap tapes once a month,
and how many are able to keep using the same tape day after day makes me
think that Bacula may not really be suited for a situation in which we
store terabytes of information and back up dozens of machines. Is that
an incorrect assumption?
That is an incorrect assumption. I've read testimonials of people
backing up multiple TBs with Bacula on the list here.
Case in point - my setup is currently backing up approx 20TB of storage
(SAN attached), along with a dozen smaller standalone machines (ethernet).
This is being done using a Neo 4020 60 slot/2 drive LTO2 library (OEMed
with a HP badge)
Other admins have reported backing up even larger amounts of data and
using even larger libraries.
For the standalone machines, we cycle the tapes every 3 months in a GFS+1
pattern - 200GB LTO2 tapes last about a week and are forcibly closed if
not full at the end of 7 days. There are _always_ at least 3 complete
backup cycles in the data safe (Site policy is that standalone machines
are regarded as disposable and all data is carried on the SAN. These
backups are primarily for fast recovery of OSes.)
Personally, I cannot understand people in a business environment reusing
the same tape or tapes every other day, from the point of view of both
real disaster recovery (tapes which are not in data safes, or offsite burn
just as easily as the rest of the computing equipment) and archival file
recovery.
My favourite example of the necessity of keeping archive data is the telco
which turned out to have been backing up corrupt configuration data and
had to go back 9 MONTHS in order to find a valid initial configuration
which could be used as a start point (end result - telephone service
completely unavailable over a 3 day period for more than 200,000 people,
plus 6 weeks of disruptions as changelogs were spooled back into the
switching equipment)
Of course, most large organizations will rather pay for commercial
software (read Data Protector, Netbackup or TSM) than try open source
software, but in theory, Bacula should work for them too. Just a few
examples:
Bacula's featureset far exceeds that of many commercial packages,
including more than a few which end up costing tens of thousands of
dollars/euro in a large setup.
By far the biggest set of postings on this list revolves around fileset
definition questions, which is understandable given the complexity of the
questions. In larger backup sets the issues become less complex as it
tends to simply become "backup everything"
The second most common set of queries revolves around people trying to
provide reliable backups with inadequate amounts of hardware, requiring
more operator intervention.
(These days actual compilations questions are rare, thanks to the
widespread (and very welcome) availability of precompiled packages)
Quite simply: In a professional environment, if your full overnight
backups do not fit on a single tape then you either need an adequately
sized changer or larger tapes. Simple economic calculations will show that
staff costs will easily exceed that of adequate hardware in short order
when intervention is continuously required.
That does not apply for hobbyist environments: At home I use a DAT drive,
am prepared to change tapes as required and am also aware of the inherent
unreliability of the medium - I'm also quite ruthless about discarding
tapes which generate errors. If I didn't have a DAT, I'd probably be using
several USB external disk drives, in order to be able to keep at least one
full backup offsite (and will likely go that way when the DAT drive
finally dies)
Bacula itself is very much set-and-forget for most people and a setup
which requires continual operator intervention is likely poorly thought
out in the first place.
AB
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