I don't have time for the complete answer it sounds like you need, but I can at least point you in the right direction. Roughly what you need to do is use 'list media' to find the oldest volume - ie, the one that was written to least recently. You can then use the 'delete' command in bconsole to wipe all records of that volume from the catalog, and then safely delete the volume file from disk.
A few words of warning! * Don't be too quick to blindly delete that volume - it may not actually be a problem. Depending on how retention and volume recycling is set up, bacula may be configured to just automatically re-use the oldest volume whenever it needs a new one. If this is the case, bacula should be using just about all space made available to it, and you should expect said usage to remain constant +/- one volume. * Read the chapters on pruning and recycling. No, really. Unless you understand those chapters, you won't know what to expect from bacula, and you won't know if any changes you make to your configuration are going to help or hurt. * File retention only controls retention of records in the catalog database, not storage of files within volumes on disk (see above chapters). * You can't reduce the size of a volume, or partially recycle a volume (see above chapters). * Be aware that unless you carefully dig into which volume contains the last full backup of each client, you may be leaving some of your files without any backups on disk when you delete that oldest volume! If your oldest volumes contain the only copy of some files, this is not an easy one to get around. If you can live without a backup of those files for a brief time, the easiest solution is delete the volumes as listed above, and then let the backups run for each client. If there are any such gaps, bacula will automatically detect them based on the catalog, and promote backups as necessary (incremental to differential or full) to ensure that all files are covered. * Unless you properly set up the volume parameters, bacula will most likely just create more volumes and re-use that disk space. Most likely you will want to configure the maximum volume size and maximum number of auto-created volumes to set an upper limit on the disk space that bacula will use. * This may seem obvious, but you should also total up the data sets you need backed up, and take into account data change frequency and your retention requirements, and compare that with the amount of disk space you have available for backups. Long term, it may be that you really do need more space to hold you backups - but at least then you'll need some hard data to illustrate that need. Frank Sweetser fs at wpi.edu | For every problem, there is a solution that Manager of Network Operations | is simple, elegant, and wrong. Worcester Polytechnic Institute | - HL Mencken On 7/5/2011 9:37 PM, larold wrote: > I have been asked to support a Linux environment running Bacula on an > emergency basis. Bacula version is 3.0.1. I only have access to bconsole - no > guis. I am also completely brand new to Bacula as of a couple of hours ago. I > have no physical access to this server. > > Basically, I need to determine how to massively reduce the Bacula disk > footprint (physical space the disk-based volume files are using) without > adding more data to disk. > > This client has a Bacula server with 1.3+ TB of internal disk. It is > completely full. I used a 'tune2fs -m 1' to give me back some of the reserved > space for actual use and "breathing room". All Bacula data is written to a > group of 70 files, each roughly 10 GB a piece. Reducing this footprint would > help reduce the filesystem from being 100% full. > > There are 23 backup clients. I have set the File Retention on all jobs down > to 21 days. (Was 60 days). I have set the Job Retention on all jobs down to 2 > months (was 6 months.) > > I would like to know, using bconsole commands only, the correct steps that > will result in fewer physical volume files (hence reduced disk usage) without > corrupting any of the data in place. I have a hunch it is some combination of > prune commands, followed by purges? I just don't know, and want to proceed > safely. > > All advice much appreciated. > > Please, no: > - Criticizing of the setup - it wasn't mine > - Suggestions that require anything complex outside of bconsole > - Vague descriptions that don't point me to specific steps > - Steps which require more than a couple GB of free disk space > > Thanks!! > > +---------------------------------------------------------------------- > |This was sent by larry_sch...@yahoo.com via Backup Central. > |Forward SPAM to ab...@backupcentral.com. > +---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > All of the data generated in your IT infrastructure is seriously valuable. > Why? It contains a definitive record of application performance, security > threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes > sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. > http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2d-c2 > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-users mailing list > Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ All of the data generated in your IT infrastructure is seriously valuable. Why? It contains a definitive record of application performance, security threats, fraudulent activity, and more. Splunk takes this data and makes sense of it. IT sense. And common sense. http://p.sf.net/sfu/splunk-d2d-c2 _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
