>>>>> On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:16:23 -1000, Hydro Meteor said: > > Hello all, > > >From the User's Guide (Terminology Chapter 1.6), regarding the Retention > Period, an except that I have a question about: > > The Volume Retention Period is the minimum of time that a Volume will be > > kept before it is reused. Bacula will normally never overwrite a Volume that > > contains the only backup copy of a file. Under ideal conditions, the Catalog > > would retain entries for all files backed up for all current Volumes. Once a > > Volume is overwritten, the files that were backed up on that Volume are > > automatically removed from the Catalog. However, if there is a very large > > pool of Volumes or a Volume is never overwritten, the Catalog database may > > become enormous. To keep the Catalog to a manageable size, the backup > > information should be removed from the Catalog after the defined File > > Retention Period. Bacula provides the mechanisms for the catalog to be > > automatically pruned according to the retention periods defined. > > > > I just want to make sure I understand this sentence: > > To keep the Catalog to a manageable size, the backup information should be > > removed from the Catalog after the defined File Retention Period. > > > > The "backup information" that "should be removed" is information about any > Volume or Pool of Volumes correct?
I think not. Firstly, remember that there are two kinds of information in the catalog: - Mostly static stuff about the pools and volumes. This is never pruned automatically and you don't generally remove it from the catalog unless the volumes have been destroyed or you want Bacula to forget about them. - Dynamic stuff about jobs that have run. This consists of the list jobs with the media contains them and also a list of the files in each job. The Volume, Job and File retention periods control pruning of the dynamic information. The sentence you quoted is talking about the list of the files in each job, which is almost always the largest part of the catalog. > Secondly, what do Bacula users do, strategically, when it comes to archiving > data into perpetuity? For example, what if a government agency or a law firm > wanted to use Bacula to back up files to Volumes which Volumes should > neverbe overwritten? Of course the Catalog still needs to be pruned, > but even so, > have I understood correctly that even if a Volume has been pruned out of the > Catalog, it can later be scanned (using the bscan tool) and data extracted > (using the bextract tool)? In doing so, no Volumes are ever overwritten but > they are still recoverable in the future and at the same time the Catalog > database won't grow to mammoth proportions? Yes, you are correct about bextract and bscan. However, the Bacula terminology "prune" only applies to the job and file information. To remove a volumes from the catalog, you need to use "delete". __Martin ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2005. http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
