My reason for writing this is to share my thoughts with the Bacula
community before I move on to another project and forget all this.
The other day, I was documenting the backup procedure here, and how
it fit in with our DRP and business policy. As I was trying to
document our Bacula config and explain how it reflected our business
policy, I got to wondering, "Why do all backup softwares work this
way? Isn't the job of sofware to translate human stuff into computer
stuff for us?"
For example, imagine the following fictional software config for a
(yet non-existent) backup software:
Policy {
Name = "CriticalData"
Acceptable Loss = 4 hours
Archive = 6 months
}
Policy {
Name = "ConfigData"
Acceptable Loss = 1 day
Archive = 3 months
}
Client {
Name = FileServer
Default Policy = None
Policy {
Name = "CriticalData"
Dir = /home
}
Policy {
Name = "ConfigData"
Dir = /etc
}
}
Now, the backup software would automagically generate a schedule that
ensured that data on /home was backed up at least every 4 hours, and
that it was retained for at least 6 months, while ensuring that data
in /etc was backed up daily, and retained for three months. The rest
of the data on the server is not backed up (in this example).
Granted, there's a lot of detail missing from the example config.
The system would need to be told what its options were as far as
media and pools and the like, but I think it describes what I've been
thinking for the last few days: that the config _could_ be closer to
the business logic in structure than the application logic.
On the flip side, there are disadvantages. This kind of config might
abstract the process too much, and take too much control away from the
administrator. I've always been a big fan of software that is easy to
use, but has an "advanced" option that allows you to control the nitty
gritty details, should you want to. It's possible that creating such
a high level of abstraction as I'm describing would make advanced
control too difficult, or impossible.
Anyway, those are my thoughts. Hopefully I've described it in a way
that others can understand. Hopefully its useful information that
someone will find inspiring or something.
And Bacula kicks ass, just in case anyone was wondering :) This is
not intended to be a complaint about Bacula's config or anything, I'm
very happy with Bacula and how it works. I just thought I'd share my
thoughts.
--
Bill Moran
Collaborative Fusion Inc.
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