[Bacula-users] New user questions
Recently the place I work for hired a consultant to help us setup Bacula. He has been most helpfull and we have a basic setup working, but I wanted to start learning it since long term I will have to manage it. Pending boss approval I may still go and pester him some more in the near future. Just a matter of getting approval for the extra $$ :-) So far I have not found the following on the docs: * Difference between Full, Differential, Incremental in Bacula. I know the concepts, what I am interested is how these work in bacula. In particular I did a job/mod and changed a full to differental and then did an estimate. The estimate showed a number very close to what the full backup was. Does the estimate only works for full? Out of nearly 3 million files it's hard to imagine that they all changed since a full backup 2 days ago. :) How does bacula determines what has changed? By date/time/md5? Running bacula in FreeBSD (client/server) * If I made a change to bacula-dir.conf is there a command to check the syntax is correct? The consultant mentioned that if the syntax is wrong that it may kill the bacula-dir (is that usually referred as the server?) And if the bacula-dir did die, will running backups stop? * Does Bacula summits one transaction for each file to PostgreSQL? Any way to pool several files as to have them in a single transaction? --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] New user questions
On Sat, Apr 15, 2006 at 12:09:18PM -0400, Francisco Reyes wrote: So far I have not found the following on the docs: I'm far from the expert that several other list members are, but I'll take a shot at these. * Difference between Full, Differential, Incremental in Bacula. I know the concepts, what I am interested is how these work in bacula. In particular I did a job/mod and changed a full to differental and then did an estimate. The estimate showed a number very close to what the full backup was. Does the estimate only works for full? Out of nearly 3 million files it's hard to imagine that they all changed since a full backup 2 days ago. :) I'd guess that either you've changed something in your filesystem -- touched most of the files, or changed where a large filesystem is mounted -- or that Bacula overrode your request. Even if you specify an incremental, Bacula will perform a full backup if there's no suitable full backup found. This can happen if you change the fileset, if the last full backup didn't complete or was deleted, or under a few other circumstances. How does bacula determines what has changed? By date/time/md5? Running bacula in FreeBSD (client/server) By timestamp -- mtime, if I recall correctly. It's the same for Linux, the BSDs, and any other Unix-like platforms. * If I made a change to bacula-dir.conf is there a command to check the syntax is correct? The consultant mentioned that if the syntax is wrong that it may kill the bacula-dir (is that usually referred as the server?) I've always thought of the server as everything that's not the console or one of the clients: the director, the storage server, and the database. That is, all the stuff needed to service a client. As for testing your configuration, this is taken directly from the Testing your Configuration Files section of the online documentation: You can test if your configuration file is syntactically correct by running the appropriate daemon with the -t option. The daemon will process the configuration file and print any error messages then terminate. For example, assuming you have installed your binaries and configuration files in the same directory. cd installation-directory ./bacula-dir -t -c bacula-dir.conf And if the bacula-dir did die, will running backups stop? Yup. Even if you're sure that your configuration files are correct, I'd be surprised if the Bacula director could survive the type of mid-job restart the you seem to be contemplating. * Does Bacula summits one transaction for each file to PostgreSQL? Any way to pool several files as to have them in a single transaction? I have no idea, nor any reason to care as the database stuff has always just worked. Are you just curious, or is there some other issue that you're chasing? -- John Kodis. --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] New user questions
John Kodis writes: I'd guess that either you've changed something in your filesystem -- touched most of the files, or changed where a large filesystem is mounted -- or that Bacula overrode your request. Can't really imagine any of the above. Anyone could confirm that this sequence works for them: + Create full job + Change job to incremental + Do estimate on job (and estimate will show only changed files) Even if you specify an incremental, Bacula will perform a full backup if there's no suitable full backup found. Full backup finished without problems. Got email with status and I don't recall seeing any problems. And if the bacula-dir did die, will running backups stop? Yup. Even if you're sure that your configuration files are correct, I'd be surprised if the Bacula director could survive the type of mid-job restart the you seem to be contemplating. I really should have written if bacula-dir will die after doing a reload if there are any syntax errors I have no idea, nor any reason to care as the database stuff has always just worked. Are you just curious, or is there some other issue that you're chasing? It is actually a possible PostgreSQL performance issue. If each new record is inserted independantly, the inserts will be slower than if you have many inserts/updates within a single transaction. --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] New user questions
Estimates are full. It's in the manual, IIRC. Francisco Reyes wrote: John Kodis writes: I'd guess that either you've changed something in your filesystem -- touched most of the files, or changed where a large filesystem is mounted -- or that Bacula overrode your request. Can't really imagine any of the above. Anyone could confirm that this sequence works for them: + Create full job + Change job to incremental + Do estimate on job (and estimate will show only changed files) Even if you specify an incremental, Bacula will perform a full backup if there's no suitable full backup found. Full backup finished without problems. Got email with status and I don't recall seeing any problems. And if the bacula-dir did die, will running backups stop? Yup. Even if you're sure that your configuration files are correct, I'd be surprised if the Bacula director could survive the type of mid-job restart the you seem to be contemplating. I really should have written if bacula-dir will die after doing a reload if there are any syntax errors I have no idea, nor any reason to care as the database stuff has always just worked. Are you just curious, or is there some other issue that you're chasing? It is actually a possible PostgreSQL performance issue. If each new record is inserted independantly, the inserts will be slower than if you have many inserts/updates within a single transaction. --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
RE: [Bacula-users] New user questions
Use estimate level=Incremental Or estimate level=Differential From the manual: Using this command, you can get an idea how many files will be backed up, or if you are unsure about your Include statements in your FileSet, you can test them without doing an actual backup. The default is to assume a Full backup. However, you can override this by specifying a level=Incremental or level=Differential on the command line. A Job name must be specified or you will be prompted for one, and optionally a Client and FileSet may be specified on the command line. It then contacts the client which computes the number of files and bytes that would be backed up. Please note that this is an estimate calculated from the number of blocks in the file rather than by reading the actual bytes. As such, the estimated backup size will generally be larger than an actual backup. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ryan Novosielski Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 4:05 PM To: Francisco Reyes Cc: John Kodis; Bacula List Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] New user questions Estimates are full. It's in the manual, IIRC. Francisco Reyes wrote: John Kodis writes: I'd guess that either you've changed something in your filesystem -- touched most of the files, or changed where a large filesystem is mounted -- or that Bacula overrode your request. Can't really imagine any of the above. Anyone could confirm that this sequence works for them: + Create full job + Change job to incremental + Do estimate on job (and estimate will show only changed files) Even if you specify an incremental, Bacula will perform a full backup if there's no suitable full backup found. Full backup finished without problems. Got email with status and I don't recall seeing any problems. And if the bacula-dir did die, will running backups stop? Yup. Even if you're sure that your configuration files are correct, I'd be surprised if the Bacula director could survive the type of mid-job restart the you seem to be contemplating. I really should have written if bacula-dir will die after doing a reload if there are any syntax errors I have no idea, nor any reason to care as the database stuff has always just worked. Are you just curious, or is there some other issue that you're chasing? It is actually a possible PostgreSQL performance issue. If each new record is inserted independantly, the inserts will be slower than if you have many inserts/updates within a single transaction. --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=1216 42 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
Re: [Bacula-users] New user questions
Neat! I think this is new for 1.38, as I'm pretty certain you weren't able to do that in the past. Robert Nelson wrote: Use estimate level=Incremental Or estimate level=Differential From the manual: Using this command, you can get an idea how many files will be backed up, or if you are unsure about your Include statements in your FileSet, you can test them without doing an actual backup. The default is to assume a Full backup. However, you can override this by specifying a level=Incremental or level=Differential on the command line. A Job name must be specified or you will be prompted for one, and optionally a Client and FileSet may be specified on the command line. It then contacts the client which computes the number of files and bytes that would be backed up. Please note that this is an estimate calculated from the number of blocks in the file rather than by reading the actual bytes. As such, the estimated backup size will generally be larger than an actual backup. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ryan Novosielski Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 4:05 PM To: Francisco Reyes Cc: John Kodis; Bacula List Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] New user questions Estimates are full. It's in the manual, IIRC. Francisco Reyes wrote: John Kodis writes: I'd guess that either you've changed something in your filesystem -- touched most of the files, or changed where a large filesystem is mounted -- or that Bacula overrode your request. Can't really imagine any of the above. Anyone could confirm that this sequence works for them: + Create full job + Change job to incremental + Do estimate on job (and estimate will show only changed files) Even if you specify an incremental, Bacula will perform a full backup if there's no suitable full backup found. Full backup finished without problems. Got email with status and I don't recall seeing any problems. And if the bacula-dir did die, will running backups stop? Yup. Even if you're sure that your configuration files are correct, I'd be surprised if the Bacula director could survive the type of mid-job restart the you seem to be contemplating. I really should have written if bacula-dir will die after doing a reload if there are any syntax errors I have no idea, nor any reason to care as the database stuff has always just worked. Are you just curious, or is there some other issue that you're chasing? It is actually a possible PostgreSQL performance issue. If each new record is inserted independantly, the inserts will be slower than if you have many inserts/updates within a single transaction. --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=1216 42 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
RE: [Bacula-users] New user questions
I don't know for sure, I've only been using Bacula for a couple of weeks. But looking at the CVS logs it looks like it was added in June, 2004. -Original Message- From: Ryan Novosielski [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 4:17 PM To: Robert Nelson Cc: 'Francisco Reyes'; 'John Kodis'; 'Bacula List' Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] New user questions Neat! I think this is new for 1.38, as I'm pretty certain you weren't able to do that in the past. Robert Nelson wrote: Use estimate level=Incremental Or estimate level=Differential From the manual: Using this command, you can get an idea how many files will be backed up, or if you are unsure about your Include statements in your FileSet, you can test them without doing an actual backup. The default is to assume a Full backup. However, you can override this by specifying a level=Incremental or level=Differential on the command line. A Job name must be specified or you will be prompted for one, and optionally a Client and FileSet may be specified on the command line. It then contacts the client which computes the number of files and bytes that would be backed up. Please note that this is an estimate calculated from the number of blocks in the file rather than by reading the actual bytes. As such, the estimated backup size will generally be larger than an actual backup. -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Ryan Novosielski Sent: Saturday, April 15, 2006 4:05 PM To: Francisco Reyes Cc: John Kodis; Bacula List Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] New user questions Estimates are full. It's in the manual, IIRC. Francisco Reyes wrote: John Kodis writes: I'd guess that either you've changed something in your filesystem -- touched most of the files, or changed where a large filesystem is mounted -- or that Bacula overrode your request. Can't really imagine any of the above. Anyone could confirm that this sequence works for them: + Create full job + Change job to incremental + Do estimate on job (and estimate will show only changed files) Even if you specify an incremental, Bacula will perform a full backup if there's no suitable full backup found. Full backup finished without problems. Got email with status and I don't recall seeing any problems. And if the bacula-dir did die, will running backups stop? Yup. Even if you're sure that your configuration files are correct, I'd be surprised if the Bacula director could survive the type of mid-job restart the you seem to be contemplating. I really should have written if bacula-dir will die after doing a reload if there are any syntax errors I have no idea, nor any reason to care as the database stuff has always just worked. Are you just curious, or is there some other issue that you're chasing? It is actually a possible PostgreSQL performance issue. If each new record is inserted independantly, the inserts will be slower than if you have many inserts/updates within a single transaction. --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=1216 42 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=12164 2 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users --- This SF.Net email is sponsored by xPML, a groundbreaking scripting language that extends applications into web and mobile media. Attend the live webcast and join the prime developer group breaking into this new coding territory! http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnkkid=110944bid=241720dat=121642 ___ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users
