Re: [Bacula-users] Q. storage groups for a given pool using several external USB HDDs?

[Ana Emília M . Arruda]

Hello Justin,

You're welcome!

If you plan to monitor the disk space in each USB storage, then I think
removing the usb storage from the list is reasonable. You don't need it to
be in the list for restore purposes, Bacula will find out the storage
required by the restore.

vchanger helps to spread jobs in all usb disks, but it will not check if
any is full. But you can always remove the full disk from the list of
vchanger devices. It will probably work.

Best,
Ana

On Thu, Sep 1, 2022 at 9:34 PM Justin Case  wrote:

>
> Hi Ana, thank you for chiming in, see my response inline:
>
> On 1. Sep 2022, at 13:38, Ana Emília M. Arruda 
> wrote:
>
> On Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 3:43 PM Justin Case  wrote:
>
>> Greetings,
>>
>> I am interested in the new V13 storage groups feature.
>> If I wanted a given pool to use file folumes on several externally
>> connected USB HDDs:
>>
>> -the devices would be connected all the time, would the director fill the
>> devices one ofter the other, or would it scatter the jobs randomly across
>> the devices?
>>
>
> This will depend on the storage group policy you use. The default
> "ListedOrder" will always use the first storage in the storage group list
> unless there is a connection failure. The LeastUsed policy will load
> balance the storage usage between the storages defined in the list.
>
> It will not spread jobs randomly across the devices or it will not skip a
> storage if it gets full.
>
> -may I extend the list of storages in a given pool to extend the available
>> storage space by adding USB HDD devices to the storage? (I mean distinct
>> HDD devices, not enlarging the storage of a RAID!)
>>
> Yes.
>
>
>>
>> -This would mean that I don’t need to use vchanger vor this?
>>
> vchanger and storage groups have different purposes, but none will skip a
> device if it gets full.
>
>
> So to me it seems Storage Groups could actually be a good way to
> dynamically  extend USB storage (although requiring manual interaction).
> when a device is full, and using ListedOrder, I could move the full device
>  to the end of the list and could I still do restore jobs from all devices
> in the list?
>
> I was thinking vchanger would let me use a bunch of individual disks and
> fill them up one after the other… without me needing to manually interact
> with it after initial correct setup… weird.
>
>
>
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Re: [Bacula-users] Q. storage groups for a given pool using several external USB HDDs?

[Justin Case]

Hi Ana, thank you for chiming in, see my response inline:

> On 1. Sep 2022, at 13:38, Ana Emília M. Arruda  wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 3:43 PM Justin Case  > wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> I am interested in the new V13 storage groups feature.
> If I wanted a given pool to use file folumes on several externally connected 
> USB HDDs:
> 
> -the devices would be connected all the time, would the director fill the 
> devices one ofter the other, or would it scatter the jobs randomly across the 
> devices?
> 
> This will depend on the storage group policy you use. The default 
> "ListedOrder" will always use the first storage in the storage group list 
> unless there is a connection failure. The LeastUsed policy will load balance 
> the storage usage between the storages defined in the list.
> 
> It will not spread jobs randomly across the devices or it will not skip a 
> storage if it gets full.
> 
> -may I extend the list of storages in a given pool to extend the available 
> storage space by adding USB HDD devices to the storage? (I mean distinct HDD 
> devices, not enlarging the storage of a RAID!)
> Yes.
>  
> 
> -This would mean that I don’t need to use vchanger vor this?
> vchanger and storage groups have different purposes, but none will skip a 
> device if it gets full.
> 

So to me it seems Storage Groups could actually be a good way to dynamically  
extend USB storage (although requiring manual interaction). when a device is 
full, and using ListedOrder, I could move the full device  to the end of the 
list and could I still do restore jobs from all devices in the list?

I was thinking vchanger would let me use a bunch of individual disks and fill 
them up one after the other… without me needing to manually interact with it 
after initial correct setup… weird.


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Re: [Bacula-users] Q. storage groups for a given pool using several external USB HDDs?

[Ana Emília M . Arruda]

Hello Justin,

Currently there are two storage group policies that you can use:

StorageGroupPolicy =  Storage Group Policy
determines how Storage resources (from the 'Storage' directive) are being
choosen from the Storage list. If no StoragePolicy is specified Bacula
always tries to use first available Storage from the provided list.
Currently supported policies are: ListedOrder- This is the default policy,
which uses first available storage from the list provided LeastUsed- This
policy scans all storage daemons from the list and chooses the one with the
least number of jobs being currently run

On Tue, Aug 30, 2022 at 3:43 PM Justin Case  wrote:

> Greetings,
>
> I am interested in the new V13 storage groups feature.
> If I wanted a given pool to use file folumes on several externally
> connected USB HDDs:
>
> -the devices would be connected all the time, would the director fill the
> devices one ofter the other, or would it scatter the jobs randomly across
> the devices?
>

This will depend on the storage group policy you use. The default
"ListedOrder" will always use the first storage in the storage group list
unless there is a connection failure. The LeastUsed policy will load
balance the storage usage between the storages defined in the list.

It will not spread jobs randomly across the devices or it will not skip a
storage if it gets full.

-may I extend the list of storages in a given pool to extend the available
> storage space by adding USB HDD devices to the storage? (I mean distinct
> HDD devices, not enlarging the storage of a RAID!)
>
Yes.


>
> -This would mean that I don’t need to use vchanger vor this?
>
vchanger and storage groups have different purposes, but none will skip a
device if it gets full.

Best regards,
Ana

>
> Thanks for shedding a bit more light on this new feature.
>
> Best
>  J/C
>
>
>
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