On Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 4:39 PM, Eric Pratt wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 7:20 PM, Eric Sisolak
> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > I am looking for a way to limit the amount of space taken up by
> > backups by truncating/deleting volumes whose files and jobs have been
> > pruned according to retention periods with Bacula 5.0.3.
> >
> > ActionOnPurge=Truncate looks like it could do what I want, but it
> > seemed like there many people had issues with it.
> >
> > Has anyone else implemented this? How did you do it?
> >
> > --Eric
>
> I am doing something like this, but not using ActionOnPurge.
>
> I'm using vchanger as a VTL and initializing X number of volumes.
> Lets say X = 80. I tell Bacula to limit the volume size to 5GB
> meaning I'm now only using 400GB of disk space for backups. I also
> tell Bacula to use a volume retention period of one day and to recycle
> the oldest volume. Bacula will not use these settings unless it runs
> out of volumes so your data will be retained in older volumes until
> you run out of space in the pool. But, once you've filled up your
> 80th volume in this scenario, it will look at the volume with the
> oldest last written timedate stamp in the pool and see if the volume
> is past its retention period. If it is, it will purge the jobs and
> files and re-use the volume. The net result is that Bacula is now set
> to use 400GB of storage space and never exceed it. It will
> automatically cannibalize the oldest volumes and purge records
> associated with those volumes as needed.
>
> If you are a little queasy about a 1 day volume retention, you can set
> this to something higher like one month to insure you always have at
> least one month's worth of backups. Just be aware that any jobs
> attempting to use storage when all 400GB are allocated will hang
> waiting for volumes if there are no volumes past their volume
> retention period. You must make sure that you have enough storage to
> handle the actual retention period you want.
>
> This also makes the names of the volumes generic, so your volume names
> will no longer be indicative of their contents. I find that using
> volume names tied to their jobs and pools or whatnot to be useless for
> me. So using generic names for the volumes results in no loss, but I
> gain the ease of use of vchanger.
>
> Here are the relevant config sections I'm using to accomplish this:
>
> --
> bacula-sd.conf
> --
>
> Device {
> Name = PrimaryVTLDevice
> DriveIndex = 0
> Autochanger = yes
> Media Type = File
> Device Type = File
> Archive Device = /var/lib/bacula/PrimaryVTL/0/drive0
> Random Access = yes
> RemovableMedia = yes
> LabelMedia = yes
> }
>
> Autochanger {
> Name = PrimaryVTLAutoChanger
> Device = PrimaryVTLDevice
> ChangerDevice = /etc/bacula/PrimaryVTL.conf
> ChangerCommand = "/opt/bacula/bin/vchanger %c %o %S %a %d"
> }
>
> ---
> bacula-dir.conf
> ---
>
> Storage {
> Name = PrimaryVTLStorage
> Address = "enter.your.bacula-sd.hostname.here"
> SDPort = 9103
> Password = ""
> Device = PrimaryVTLAutoChanger
> Media Type = File
> Autochanger = yes
> }
>
> Pool {
> Name = PrimaryVTLPool
> PoolType = Backup
> Storage = PrimaryVTLStorage
> AutoPrune = yes
> VolumeRetention = 1 day
> MaximumVolumes = 80
> MaximumVolumeBytes = 5368709120
> RecycleOldestVolume = yes
> }
>
> ---
> PrimaryVTL.conf
> ---
>
> changer_name = PrimaryVTL
> work_dir = /var/lib/bacula/PrimaryVTL
> virtual_drives = 1
> slots_per_magazine = 80
> magazine_bays = 1
> magazine = "/var/backups/PrimaryVTL"
>
> --
>
> Hope that helps!
>
> Eric
>
Thank you. This is essentially they way we are doing it now (for servers
backing up one to a handful of clients), and it works nice. The down side
is that 400GB is always used, even if the retention I want would only take
up 200GB.
We would like to backup many more clients using one machine and want to make
the most efficient use of storage that we can. Instead of allocating a
static amount of space for backups, I would like to have it use the minimum
needed for the desired retention. Sort of like thin provisioning the
storage so it can be oversubscribed (and closely monitored).
-Eric
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