[Bacula-users] Clarification in volume creation and utilization (Help)

[Ambahunen Gebremariam]

I am new to Bacula and to this mailing list. I have been reading people's questions and answers for the last two days and I am encouraged by the activity of this mailing list. I hope to come an active participant! I am currently half way through reading the manaul, but I am running out of time.

ENVIRONMENT:
- We own 18 RedHat 7.3 Linux servers, all backing up each other
- We use Bacula Version 1.32 for backup jobs

QUESTIONS:
1) Because of my Pool Resouce & Schedule Resource configuration, I know I am required to have at least 2 pools. Why do I have the 3rd one? (Please see partial result of MEDIA LIST and CONFIGURATION FILE below)
2) On this particular client (CT), I have only 17GB of data in my FileSet to backup. But my volumes indicate that I have a total of 39GB of data in my backup. Why is that? Is my differential backup being promoted to full backup?
3) Can you please explain to me the difference between the volume statuses: Used, Append, purged, Recycled ...?
4) What is the proper way of deleting a file volume and what is the consequence?

MEDIA LIST (partial):

CT-pool
VolumeName     VolStatus    VolBytes         LastWritten
CT3            Used          13 GB           2006-04-14 01:28:52
CT2            Append        18 GB           2006-04-21 01:37:00
CT1            Purged         8 GB           2006-04-07 01:55:47

 

CONFIGURATION FILE (partial):

Pool {
  Name = CT-pool
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = yes                    
  AutoPrune = yes                   
  Volume Retention = 10 days       
  Accept Any Volume = yes          
  Maximum Volume Jobs = 1
}

Schedule {
  Name = "WeeklyCycle2"
  Run = Full 1st friday at 1:05
  Run = Differential 2nd friday at 1:05
  Run = Full 3rd friday at 1:05
  Run = Differential 4th friday at 1:05
  Run = Differential 5th friday at 1:05
}

Below this ... it is ONLY a further explanation of my situiation


BACKGROUND:
I started this job a month ago and was given the responsiblity of backup (bacula) about a week ago. Since then I have been trying to learn bacula and understand the mess we are in. The people who installed and configured Bacula are not here anymore. The worst part is that they did not have any documentation. Now we are having disk space problems and no one in the team knows where to start to resolve the issues. Oh yea ... did I mention no one has tried restoration before?

MY BIGGEST ISSUE:
Time! I have to understand the backup environment and present it to the team the coming Thursday Morning .

THE GOOD NEWS:
I hope I will have answers for most of their questions :)

Wish me luck,

Ambex

PS: Sorry for making my first one too long.