Bacula 1.30 User's Guide | Chapter 2

Introduction | Index | Getting Started

# The Current State of Bacula

In other words, what is and what is not currently implemented and functional.

## What is Implemented

- Network backup/restore with centralized Director.
- Internal scheduler for automatic Job execution.
- Scheduling of multiple Jobs at the same time.
- You may run one Job at a time or multiple simultaneous Jobs. Multiple simultaneous jobs is not currently recommended.
- Restore of one or more files selected interactively.
- Restore of a complete system starting from bare metal. This is mostly automated for Linux systems and partially automated for Solaris. See Disaster Recovery Using Bacula.
- Listing and Restoration of files using stand-alone bls and bextract tool programs. Among other things, this permits extraction of files when Bacula and/or the catalog are not available.
- Console interface to the Director allowing complete control. Both a shell and GNOME GUI versions of the Console program are available. Note, the GNOME GUI program currently offers no additional features over the shell program.
- Verification of files previously cataloged, permitting a Tripwire like capability (system break-in detection).
- CRAM-MD5 password authentication between each component (daemon).
- A comprehensive and extensible configuration file for each daemon.
- Catalog database facility for remembering Volumes, Pools, Jobs, and Files backed up.
- Support for SQLite and MySQL Catalog databases.
- User extensible queries to the SQLite and MySQL databases.
- Labeled Volumes, preventing accidental overwriting (at least by Bacula).
- 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.
- Multi-volume saves. When a Volume is full, Bacula automatically requests the next Volume and continues the backup.
- Pool and Volume library management providing Volume flexibility (e.g. monthly, weekly, daily Volume sets, Volume sets segregated by Client, ...).
- Simple shell interface support for virtually any autoloader program. Several autoloaders including mtx are currently implemented.
- Machine independent Volume data format. Linux, Solaris, and Windows clients can all be backed up to the same Volume if desired.
- A flexible message handler including routing of messages from any daemon back to the Director and automatic email reporting.
- Multi-threaded implementation.
- Mechanisms to handle arbitrarily long filenames and messages.
- GZIP compression on a file by file basis done by the Client program if requested before network transit.
- Computation of MD5 or SHA1 signatures if requested.
- Autochanger support (any autochanger supported by mtx).
- Support for autochanger barcodes -- automatic tape labeling from barcodes.
- Raw device backup.

## Advantages of Bacula Over Other Backup Programs

- 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.
- 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.
- Bacula handles multi-volume backups.
- A full comprehensive database of all files backed up. This permits online viewing of files saved on any particular Volume.
- Automatic pruning of the database (removal of old records) thus simplifying database administration.
- Any SQL database engine can be used making Bacula very flexible.
- The modular but integrated design makes Bacula very scalable.
- Since Bacula uses client file servers, any database or other application can be properly shutdown by Bacula using the native tools of the system, backed up, then restarted (all within a Bacula Job).
- Bacula has a built-in Job scheduler.
- The Volume format is documented and there are simple C programs to read/write it.
- Bacula uses well defined (registered) ports -- no rpcs, no shared memory.
- Bacula installation and configuration is relatively simple compared to other comparable products.

## Current Implementation Weaknesses

- The graphical user interface is currently in an infant stage.
- Currently (as of version 1.29) we recommend that you not run multiple simultaneous jobs backing up to the same Volume. This is because the restore code is not yet mature enough (tested enough) to deal with intermingled blocks from multiple simultaneous jobs.
- 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.
- On WinXT systems (and possibly WinNT and Win2K), Bacula runs under the LocalSystem account. Thus all files that are restored are restored with that account as the owner. This may prevent normal users from accessing them. About the only solution to this problem at the moment is to either use the CACLS program in SafeMode (F8 on boot), or to run Bacula under your userid. When Bacula runs under your userid, it will not display the system tray icon (no permission!)
- Windows Unicode filenames (e.g. Chinese) cannot be saved or restored.

## Other Items Not Implemented (but planned)

- Complete error checking on configuration files.
- Event handlers are not yet implemented (e.g. when Job terminates do this, ...)
- File System Modules (configurable routines for saving/restoring special files).
- Data encryption between the daemons.

## Temporary Limitations or Restrictions

- 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.
- Unicode is not yet supported.
- 128 bit integers are not yet implemented.
- Supports only IPv4.

## Design Limitations or Restrictions

- 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.
- There is no concept of a Pool of backup devices (i.e. if device /dev/nst0 is busy, use /dev/nst1, ...).

Introduction | Index | Getting Started

Bacula 1.30 User's Guide The Network Backup Solution | Copyright © 2000-2003 Kern Sibbald and John Walker