Hi,
On 5/2/2006 9:25 PM, Ambahunen Gebremariam wrote:
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
Does that mean that server A backs up server B, server B backs up C, ...
R backs up A?
- We use Bacula Version 1.32 for backup jobs
Get one server with decent disk space, preferrably a tape autochanger,
install it as a dedicated backup server, and start fresh with Bacula
1.38 would be my recommendation...
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?
Which pool? You didn't show us any existing pools except CT-pool, nor
the definition of a second or third pool.
(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?
That can only be answered when you give us more information. I'm not
even sure if the pools retention times are all that matters in 1.32,
concerning volume retention.
3) Can you please explain to me the difference between the volume
statuses: Used, Append, purged, Recycled ...?
Used: Contains data, could be theoretically be appended, but is kind of
logically closed.
Append: Volume contains data and new data can be appended.
Purged: Volume contents is (logically) deleted and will be overwritten.
Recycled: This volume was selected to be used next.
A typical volume life cycle is like this:
because job count or size limit exceeded
Append ----------------------------------------> Used
^ |
| First Job writes to Retention time passed |
| the volume and recycling takes |
| place |
| v
Recycled <-------------------------------------- Purged
Volume is selected for reuse
The situation you have _might_ be this one:
CT1 contains a full backup.
CT2 is used for an incremental backup on day 1
CT3 is used for an incremental backup on day 2
On day 3, Bacula needs another volume. It can't append, because you set
Maximum Volume Jobs=1. So it purges the oldest volume, the full backup
is gone, and Bacula has to run another full (effectively also rendering
the previous incremental backups worthless).
This is mostly guesswork as I'm not sure how 1.32 works in detail
(another reason to upgrade - better support). Also, if this comes close
to the truth, you notice that your backup scheme is broken.
4) What is the proper way of deleting a file volume and what is the
consequence?
In 1.38: 'delete media volume=CT3' for example. This results in deletion
of all related records from Baculas catalog, the disk file itself
remains intact.
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
}
This schedule, together with a retention time of 10 days, does not look
very promising to me.
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.
Sounds like you really are.
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 .
Present them that there is no effective backup at all. Ask for one
server for backups, four weeks, and make sure they know what it means to
not have any useful backups. Even assuming that the backups are actually
happening and the data is kept as long as necessary who is expected to
know how to handle an emergency restore effectively with such a setup?
Start with a clean system and evaluate the backup needs that actually
exist. Install some linux on the new server, and make Bacula run on it.
This is work for about two weeks. The next few days will be used to set
up the clients, prepare volumes, pools, Baculas configuration etc.
according to your needs, then comes a week of test runs, and finally
some days writing down your installation, creating the necessary
manuals, and educating some of your co-workers.
Need a quote? ;-)
THE GOOD NEWS:
I hope I will have answers for most of their questions :)
Wish me luck,
Good luck, then... I think the place where you work really needs someone
to care for their data security. And if they expect a report with a
summary like "all is well, everything's really safe here" they should
start to listen carefully and think about it.
Arno
Ambex
PS: Sorry for making my first one too long.
--
IT-Service Lehmann [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Arno Lehmann http://www.its-lehmann.de
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