Ok, then I am sending attached a new feature request.
Looking forward to its implementation - I'll look carefully for news
about it so to test it as soon as it is available.
Thanks,
Corneliu
On Wed, Apr 8, 2009 at 9:58 AM, Marc Schiffbauer <m...@schiffbauer.net> wrote:
> * Corneliu P schrieb am 08.04.09 um 15:08 Uhr:
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Does Bacula support deduplication feature?
>>
>> That is, for the backup software to detect duplicate files and not
>> actually backup duplicates, but store a pointer to original backed up
>> file, and make all this transparent on restore operations?
>
>
> No. But it may be listed in the feature request list...
>
> -Marc
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Feature Request Form
Item 1: Implement Deduplication feature
Origin: Corneliu Popescu, corneliu.popescu_at_gmail_dot_com
Date: 8 April 2009
Status: New
What: Detect duplicate files and not actually backup duplicates, but
store a pointer to original backed up file, and make all this
transparent on restore operations.
Why: It would eliminate redundancy therefore optimizing resource
usage during backup: storage space, network bandwidth, backup
window time. Especially in case of backing up multiple similar
systems (like end-user workstations for example) this would
dramatically improve performance.
Notes: Feature could be implemented via a checksum calculation. Checksum
number could be stored in the database along with file information
and could be searched for, to identify previous backed up copies of
the same file, regardless of original filename and path.
On having to back up a file, first a checksum calculation could be
done locally by the backup agent. Then the agent would sent checksum
and other necessary file information (like filename and path) to the
server. The server would search for the checksum in its database to
identify previously backed up copy of the same file. If not found,
the server would continue to backup the file normally, asking the
agent to send over the network the actual file content. Additionally
the server would store the checksum along with the
other file
information in the file's new database record, to allow for future
searches. If found, the server would consider it as duplicate, ask
the agent to mark the file as already backed up (therefore not
sending actual file content over the network) and to just continue
with the next file. Additionally, the server would create a new
database record for the duplicate file and also would store a pointer
to the database record of the original file, so to be able to locate
previously backed up content on a future restore request.
On having to restore a file, the server would first have to identify
if the file is a duplicate or not. If it is not a duplicate, restore
would continue normally. If it's a duplicate, then the server would
follow the original file pointer, locate original's file content and
then push it to the agent as the duplicate file.
Since implementing this feature would increase the probability to
have to restore files from different media, some additional
optimization of the restore job might be necessary (to restore at
once all files stored on the same media, independent of restore file
sequence). Also, apropriate backup media management would be
required, to make as sure as possible that duplicate file content
still exists and can be accessed by a future restore job.
The backup admin should be able to enable or disable this feature by
job, as needed.
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