Greetings!
I'm a relative new bacula user (about three weeks, now), and this is
my first posting to this mailing list.
The highlight/short story of how I'm using bacula is this. I had a
(RedHat 7.1) version of Linux, and a Travan tape that I used for backup
since I got this computer, in the middle of 1999. (It's a 450 MHz Pentium
II.)
I have had MANY problems with the Travan tape drive *and* tapes --
more than half of even new tapes weren't reliable! As I began to get
other people's opinion of Travan tapes, I can see that I wasn't the only
one who didn't consider it very reliable.
(In general, I've always, in the past, been very happy with tape
backups. And, I've used a variety of tape backups since the mid 1980's.
This is the first tape backup with which I have not been pleased.)
So, I was planning on going to a newer version of Linux, and I chose
Fedora Core 4, and began installing it on Labor Day weekend, just over a
month and a half ago, now.
My Linux and system is *all* home. While I am presently a software
engineer, and use a variety of computers at work, all of my Linux and
bacula communication will be regarding my home system.
So! With the new version of Linux, I had purchased two new internal
hard disk drives, and a USB external hard disk (SimpleTech 400GB drive).
(I heard that there were still many good and reliable tape backups,
including DLT, but the PRICES of those drives are just currently beyond
me! [I was laid off for nearly TWO AND A HALF years, and was working
whatever job, and just got back in my field, as a software engineer at ITT
Industries, in May of this year. I was making good money again, and I did
purchase two new hard disk drives, and the USB external drive, and the
prices of all of these aren't as much as just the DLT drive!])
So, just after the first weekend of October, I began to install and
play with bacula. (I used BRU with my Travan tape drive, and this is
mentioned in the bacula manual. I will -- EVENTUALLY -- be possibly
interested in backing up my Sun [Ultra 30] system this same way, and I'm
all for going to a "newer" backup system!) :-)
My Sun system was given to me in 2003 (right after my lay-off). It
has only a 5 GB hard drive. I have Solaris 2.8 installed on it, but I do
NOT have many things, including X stuff. It has two network-interface
cards, so it is my Linux router. One NIC is attached to the firewall, and
the firewall to the cable modem. The other NIC is attached to my only
Linux system NIC. It is my mail host, and my router. That is really
about all it is doing, right now.
My mother and I use the Linux system. (My mother uses FMS, a
financial management system software set I finished in 1988, which allows
us to record basically any financial transaction, vendors, cash, checking,
savings, IRA, credit card, etc. Statements are balanced automatically,
etc.) I use the Linux system for a LOT beyond that. (Though I do have
financial data since 1988.)
Still, and in spite of this, I had decided that the only "automatic"
backups I wanted was pretty well what I had with my Travan tape system.
Every Saturday morning. (I may very well want to be able to kick off a
backup manually, if a lot has changed on the system, just when I want to.
I've done this, but it's not a real frequent need for me.)
So, in my bacula-dir.conf, I scheduled a full backup the first
Saturday of each month, and a differential backup every other Saturday
morning.
This is really the first weekend that the system completely (without
any help from me) did the backups I had planned.
At the moment, I have two wonders. I'll go ahead and make brief
mention of this first wonder, though it just happened, this morning, and I
haven't spent much time yet looking into it, beyond just checking my
schedule.
The backup this morning appears to have worked just fine! (Last
weekend, it did a differential upgraded to a full, which the manual
describes it will do. I had done a full, and I'm not sure why it didn't
realize that. But, last weekend was the first "pretty well" automatic
operation. Today, it *was* differential. [The size is sure better!]
:-D)
I actually got two full backup files, in addition to the catalog
backup:
-rw-r----- 1 root root 320925208 Oct 30 01:16 Diff-2005-10-29-1-5-5
-rw-r----- 1 root root 321375463 Oct 30 01:16 Diff-2005-10-30-1-5-5
-rw-r----- 1 root root 162904207 Oct 30 02:12 Diff-2005-10-30-2-11-25
Both were created at 1:16 this morning. (The full is 1:05 and the
catalog is 2:10. Of course, the maximum jobs is 1, so if the full is
still going at 2:10, the catalog backup doesn't start until the full
finishes.)
Notice the date of the first differential backup is 2005-10-29, and
the second is 2005-10-30. I *wonder* if this is because of my "mess up"
this weekend! :-O
I have been turning the USB hard drive off, and turning it back on on
Fridays, so that early Saturday morning, it is ready to go. Well...
<sigh>... I forgot to turn it on Friday, so yesterday (Saturday) morning,
I got two emails from bacula saying it couldn't create the files. <duhhh>
:-)
Really seriously wanting to see what this weekend's COMPLETELY
automatic backup would do, yesterday, I changed the differential backups
to be the first SUNDAY of the month, instead of Saturday, so it will still
be done this weekend. (I put the original schedule, with Saturdays, back
today. And, I am having cron send me an email every Friday to make sure I
turn on the USB hard drive, so THAT won't happen again!) :-D
So, this morning (Oct 30), the file differential and catalog backups
were done, perfectly, so far as I can see. But, that extra file. I don't
know whether the failed Saturday (date 2005-10-29) backup caused the file
to be named thusly, and then it did another one (dated 2005-10-30, the
date of the backup) as well.
At the moment, I'm not largely concerned about this. I had already
figured I'd be *at least* one full month very carefully analyzing things
(in gnome-console and my emails, and sample restores) and making little
tweaks to get it working as I want.
The second thing is a more serious question.
Right now, the Sun doesn't have much extra room. Reading the manual,
such as on page 381, it says I need my bacula directory, catalog, and
storage daemon running on another machine on my local network.
This was just a little bit of a concern to me. One question I have
is, will I be able to restore (I mean a real disaster-recovery restore,
such as if I lose an internal hard disk drive) if I plan on using bacula,
prior to getting the Sun with enough disk space to support extra things?
Here's what I've done, just beginning to work on this for less than a
week.
The Sun Ultra 30 has NO USB ports. So, the backup information would
be readable -- from the Linux system. (I *think* I would be able to do
this, from a rescue-type boot, I just haven't put real 100% certain
confidence in it yet.)
I did, a few days ago, manage to get a version of MySQL on the Sun,
and the bacula source -- the same source file I'm using on the Linux.
I started getting MySQL going. I got it beginning. But, it aborts
because it needs a library. (And, I haven't yet gone any further on this.
I'm *expecting* I can likely find the library, and get it going. My disk
space usage is now about 80%. The bacula source is on the disk, but I
haven't compiled the bacula source yet.)
I'm still working on steps needed to see whether it will be possible
for me to get the bacula directory, catalog and storage daemons running
with my extremely limited disk space on the Sun for right now. (I'm
planning on seeing whether I can get MySQL working first, since I'm using
MySQL on the Linux.)
Now, I AM PLANNING on getting a larger hard disk for the Sun, but it
will likely be into next year before I can do that. I was EXTREMELY SHORT
on money, and I had an unplanned financial emergency about a month ago,
and this is a bad time of year (my car insurance for six months, house
insurance for one year, and next month, real estate taxes, which I pay
myself) all go out. I am not going to be able to afford a new and larger
disk drive for the Sun for at least a couple of months, into next year.
So, presently, what I have is all I can work with, regarding the Sun.
Is it going to be possible for me to do a full restore from losing an
internal (Linux) hard disk drive, in this situation? (You know what?
I've NEVER actually had to do this, yet! And, I ran one cabinet with disk
drives for a DECADE! But, I do normally do what I have to do to assure
that IF it does happen, I'm prepared for it!)
I would appreciate whatever ideas and suggestions that you all,
knowing bacula much better than I, since I am a "bacula newbie", have to
give me. Things I haven't even thought of yet. Or, perhaps there is a
way I will be able to do a restore, though it perhaps would be more
involved and more difficult than if I had another computer on my internal
network all already prepared to run these things. (The Sun IS my internal
Linux network, and connects me to the Internet! In this way, things are
perfect! I just don't yet have the disk space. I don't even have X and
many programs on it. I had something, about a month ago, where if I just
could have accessed a web page for my work, I would have been able to find
out whether we were working that day [it was Hurricane Ophelia], but that
week was the week I had my Linux system down because I was installing
Fedora Core 4! I continued having mail, but I didn't even have a web
browser to check that week! Again, I AM PLANNING on having these things,
when I get more disk space! Since I do have another computer, there is no
good reason I can't at least do a basic web access or the most needed
things, even if the main [Linux] system is down!)
I want to thank you, if you're still reading! :-) I'm sorry. This
was a little long, and yet I feel I still just barely touched on the most
basic important things to know to be able to begin to assist me! :-)
If you want to know anything at all that I have not included in this
email, just ask, and I'll gladly provide the information!
Thank you again!
Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Industries | (My personal home web page, last
| updated February 17, 2005)
|
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