Hi, On 10/21/2006 12:29 PM, Florian Bachmann wrote: > Hi, > > we are looking into replacing our existing backup solution, with Bacula > being one of the contenders. I have been experimenting a bit with both > the stable (1.38.11) and beta (1.39.26) series, and I must say I am > quite impressed with Bacula! However, some open questions still remain..
You wouldn't investigate very thorough if there weren't any... :-) > 1) The "RunScript" construct doesn't seem to work at all in 1.38, and it > doesn't work as the documentation implies in 1.39. That would be a bug. To be sure, RunScript is not implemented in 1.38, so that's ok, but the developer manual should reflect the 1.39 version. It might be best to file a detailed bug report at bugs.bacula.org, and also send this information to bacula-devel. Kern is on vacation at the moment, so waiting for him to pick this up might take a while. > For example, it > seems that > the "RunsOnClient" setting defaults to "yes", but any "RunsOnClient=no" > statement is silently ignored. This results in Bacula trying to execute > local scripts on the client and thus aborting the job with a fatal > error. Also, all kinds of weird errors occur when using "RunScript" > instead of "ClientRunAfterJob" etc. For example, a job suddenly has a > type of 0 (observed with "show jobs" from the director console) although > it should inherit a "Type=Backup" from the associated JobDefs record. > I'm mainly interested into using "RunScript" because the > "ClientRunAfterFailed" statement mentioned in the documentation does not > seem to be implemented as of 1.39.26. > > 2) We want to run automated backups for mobile users (notebooks > connected via a VPN), but with some restrictions. For example, > scheduled "full" backups should be downgraded to "incremental" if the > client is not within a certain range of IP adresses (is not physically > connected to our hq network etc.). However, a full backup should still > be run if it is explicitly requested from a console running on the > client. Is there any way to detect (by a "RunBefore" shell script > running on the server) if a job is run by the scheduler or from the console? That one looks difficult... there's no way to detect if a job is invoked from the conslole that I know of. The rest of this problem might be solved by using a python event that looks up the client id and sets the job level accordingly. > 3) When a job fails because a "RunBefore" script returns an exit code > other than 0, any "RunOnFailure" scripts will be bypassed. Is this > intended behaviour? I don't know how others feel about it, but I think this is a difficult question. My first instinct was to say "if it is bypassed it's a bug" but thinking about it I'm not so sure any more. A failing run before script need not result in a job not being run, but can result in retrying a job. See "Reschedule Interval" and related options in the job definition. Thus, a RunOnFailure script might be invoked many times. A - in my opinion - typical use of these options is preparing a backup on a client, like doing filesystem snapshots, database dumps, etc. In such cases, running the scripts to clean up after the backup job might not only be unnecessary but could also be harmful. > 4) I've found the provided GUI tool "wx-console" for the MS Windows > platform to be too complicated for non-tech savy users. Are there any > alternatives? Ideally, it should be possible for any such tool to be > preconfigured in such a way that a user can simply select files from a > tree and hit a "restore" button, and be done with that. ACLs? Proper application of ACLs for a console will, at least, prevent users from doing anything but restores for their own clients. Theoretically, at least - there seem to be some small problems left. This assumes that the restore mode works at all, which is something I can't comment on - I never found it to do what I wanted, but I haven't tried a lot. Apart from that, educating users to not need restores is very valuable ;-) > 5) I'd be interested in experiences other users of Bacula may have with > backing up mobile clients. Any clever solutions you may want to share, > etc. ;) My typical solution: RunBeforeScript to check if a host is up (might also check the IP range in your case) and retries in the job options. If you don't have regular in-office days (for full backups) you'd best only schedule incremental backups, and run the full ones when you have the notebooks in a (scheduled) on-site service period. The other idea would be not to use the internal scheduler, but rather to use a (cron'ed) script that checks the machines availability and address and then starts a job by invoking bconsole. Probably only after sending a popup message to the user not to turn off or disconnect their notebook in case of a full backup. Such a script could also verify that a full backup takes place at suitable intervals, notify administrative staff of missing full backups, and so on. (I think this is something I could create, given a good enough reason to do so, in only a few days...) > Any help will be appreciated! Perhaps these ideas help a little - much of the necessary details would need more thinking and testing from myself :-) Arno > Regards, > Florian > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? > Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-users mailing list > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users -- IT-Service Lehmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] Arno Lehmann http://www.its-lehmann.de ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
