
#include "bacula_template.inc" title="Features" num=2

<h1>The Current State of Bacula</h1>
In other words, what is and what is not currently implemented
and functional.
<h2>What is Implemented</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Network backup/restore with centralized Director.</li>
  <li>Internal scheduler for automatic <a href="bacula.html#JobDef">Job</a> execution.</li>
  <li>Scheduling of multiple Jobs at the same time.</li>
  <li>You may run one Job at a time or multiple simultaneous Jobs.</li>
  <li>Job sequencing using priorities.</li>
  <li>Restore of one or more files selected interactively either for
      the current backup or a backup prior to a specified time and date.</li>
  <li>Restore of a complete system starting from bare
      metal. This is mostly automated for Linux systems and
      partially automated for Solaris. See <a href="rescue.html">Disaster Recovery
      Using Bacula</a>.</li>
  <li>Listing and Restoration of files using stand-alone <b>bls</b> and
      <b>bextract</b> tool programs.  Among other things, this permits
      extraction of files when <b>Bacula</b> and/or the catalog are not
      available.  </li>
  <li><a href="bacula.html#UADef">Console</a> interface to the <a href="director.html">Director</a>
       allowing complete control. Both a shell and GNOME GUI versions of
       the Console program are available. Note, the GNOME GUI program currently
       offers very few additional features over the shell program. </li>
  <li>Verification of files previously cataloged, permitting a Tripwire like
      capability (system break-in detection).</li>
  <li>CRAM-MD5 password authentication between each component (daemon).</li>
  <li>A comprehensive and extensible <a href="dirdconf.html#ConfigFile">configuration file</a> for each daemon.</li>
  <li>Catalog database facility for remembering Volumes, Pools, Jobs,
      and Files backed up.</li> 
  <li>Support for SQLite and MySQL Catalog databases.</li> 
  <li>User extensible queries to the SQLite and MySQL databases.</li> 
  <li>Labeled Volumes, preventing accidental overwriting 
      (at least by Bacula).</li> 
  <li>Any number of Jobs and Clients can be backed up to a single
      Volume. That is, you can backup and restore Linux, Unix, Sun, and  
      Windows machines to the same Volume.</li>
  <li>Multi-volume saves.  When a Volume is full, <b>Bacula</b>
      automatically requests the next Volume and continues the backup.</li>
  <li><a href="dirdconf.html#PoolResource">Pool and Volume</a> library management
      providing Volume flexibility (e.g. monthly, weekly, daily Volume sets,
      Volume sets segregated by Client, ...). </li> 
  <li>Machine independent Volume data format. Linux, Solaris, and Windows
      clients can all be backed up to the same Volume if desired. </li> 
  <li>A flexible <a href="messagesres.html#MessageResource"> message</a> 
      handler including routing of messages from any daemon back to the
      Director and automatic email reporting.</li>
  <li>Multi-threaded implementation.</li>
  <li>Mechanisms to handle arbitrarily long filenames and messages.</li>
  <li>GZIP compression on a file by file basis done by the Client program
      if requested before network transit.</li>
  <li>Computation of MD5 or SHA1 signatures if requested.</li>
  <li>Autochanger support using a simple shell interface that can interface
      to virtually any autoloader program. A script for <b>mtx</b> is
      provided.</li>
  <li>Support for autochanger barcodes -- automatic tape labeling from
      barcodes.</li>
  <li>Raw device backup.</li>

</ul>

<h2>Advantages of Bacula Over Other Backup Programs</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Since there is a client for each machine, you can backup
      and restore clients of any type ensuring that all attributes of
      files are properly saved and restored.</li>
  <li>It is also possible to backup clients without any client software by
      using NFS or Samba. However, if possible, we recommend running
      a Client File daemon on each machine to be backed up.</li>
  <li>Bacula handles multi-volume backups.</li>
  <li>A full comprehensive database of all files backed up. This permits
      online viewing of files saved on any particular Volume.</li>
  <li>Automatic pruning of the database (removal of old records) thus
      simplifying database administration.</li>
  <li>Any SQL database engine can be used making Bacula very flexible.</li>
  <li>The modular but integrated design makes <b>Bacula</b> very scalable.</li>
  <li>Since Bacula uses client file servers, any database or other 
      application can be properly shutdown by <b>Bacula</b> using the native 
      tools of the system, backed up, then restarted (all within a 
      <b>Bacula</b> Job).</li>
  <li>Bacula has a built-in Job scheduler.</li>
  <li>The Volume format is documented and there are simple C programs to
      read/write it.</li>
  <li>Bacula uses well defined (registered) TCP/IP ports -- no rpcs, 
      no shared memory.</li>
  <li>Bacula installation and configuration is relatively simple compared 
      to other comparable products.</li>
  <li>According to one user Bacula is as fast as the major commercial
      application.</li>
  <li>According to another user Bacula is four times as fast as a
      one particular commercial application, probably because that application
      stores its catalog information in a large number of individual
      files rather than an SQL database as Bacula does.</li>
</ul>


<h2>Current Implementation Weaknesses</h2>
<ul>
  <li>The graphical user interface is currently in an infant stage.</li>
  <li>Typical of Microsoft, not all files can always be saved on WinNT
      and Win2000.  Anyone knowing the magic incantations please step
      forward.  The files that are skipped seem to be in exclusive use
      by some other process, and don't appear to be too important.
      </li>
  <li>Windows Unicode filenames (e.g. Chinese) cannot be saved or restored.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Other Items Not Implemented (but planned)</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Complete error checking on configuration files.</li>
  <li>Event handlers are not yet implemented (e.g. when Job terminates
      do this, ...)</li>
  <li>File System Modules (configurable routines for saving/restoring special files).</li>
  <li>Data encryption between the daemons.</li>
</ul>


<h2>Temporary Limitations or Restrictions</h2>
<ul>
  <li>All three daemons (DIR, FD, SD) must be running for a Job to 
      run. If you use MySQL as the catalog, it must also be running.
      If you use SQLite as the catalog, it will be started automatically. 
      This isn't very significant as most other programs have the same
      limitation. </li>
  <li>Unicode is not yet supported.</li>
  <li>128 bit integers are not yet implemented.</li>
  <li>Supports only IPv4.</li>
</ul>

<h2>Design Limitations or Restrictions</h2>
<ul>
  <li>Names (resource names, Volume names, and such) defined in Bacula
      configuration files are limited to a fixed number of characters.
      Currently the limit is defined as 127 characters.  Note, this does
      not apply to filenames, which may be arbitrarily long.</li>
  <li>There is no concept of a Pool of backup devices (i.e. if 
      device /dev/nst0 is busy, use /dev/nst1, ...).</li>
  <li>We recommend that if possible you avoid running multiple
      simultaneous backup Jobs. This is because the jobs write to the
      archive device at the same time and thus their blocks will be
      interleaved, and as a consequence restores will be slower since
      it will have to read additional data to get to all the desired
      blocks. In addition, the <b>bscan</b> program used to re-create a
      database from an old Volume will not restore multiple simultaneous
      jobs correctly (this will be implemented in a later version). </li>
</ul>

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