4 \chapter{Critical Items to Implement Before Production}
5 \label{CriticalChapter}
6 \index[general]{Production!Critical Items to Implement Before }
7 \index[general]{Critical Items to Implement Before Production }
9 We recommend you take your time before implementing a production a Bacula
10 backup system since Bacula is a rather complex program, and if you make a
11 mistake, you may suddenly find that you cannot restore your files in case
12 of a disaster. This is especially true if you have not previously used a
15 If you follow the instructions in this chapter, you will have covered most of
16 the major problems that can occur. It goes without saying that if you ever
17 find that we have left out an important point, please inform us, so
18 that we can document it to the benefit of everyone.
21 \section{Critical Items}
22 \index[general]{Critical Items }
23 \index[general]{Items!Critical }
25 The following assumes that you have installed Bacula, you more or less
26 understand it, you have at least worked through the tutorial or have
27 equivalent experience, and that you have set up a basic production
28 configuration. If you haven't done the above, please do so and then come back
29 here. The following is a sort of checklist that points with perhaps a brief
30 explanation of why you should do it. In most cases, you will find the
31 details elsewhere in the manual. The order is more or less the order you
32 would use in setting up a production system (if you already are in
33 production, use the checklist anyway).
36 \item Test your tape drive for compatibility with Bacula by using the test
37 command in the \ilink{btape}{btape} program.
38 \item Better than doing the above is to walk through the nine steps in the
39 \ilink{Tape Testing}{TapeTestingChapter} chapter of the manual. It
40 may take you a bit of time, but it will eliminate surprises.
41 \item Test the end of tape handling of your tape drive by using the
42 fill command in the \ilink{btape}{btape} program.
43 \item If you are using a Linux 2.4 kernel, make sure that /lib/tls is disabled. Bacula
44 does not work with this library. See the second point under
45 \ilink{ Supported Operating Systems.}{SupportedOSes}
46 \item Do at least one restore of files. If you backup multiple OS types
47 (Linux, Solaris, HP, MacOS, FreeBSD, Win32, ...),
48 restore files from each system type. The
49 \ilink{Restoring Files}{RestoreChapter} chapter shows you how.
50 \item Write a bootstrap file to a separate system for each backup job. The
51 Write Bootstrap directive is described in the
52 \ilink{Director Configuration}{writebootstrap} chapter of the
53 manual, and more details are available in the
54 \ilink{Bootstrap File}{BootstrapChapter} chapter. Also, the default
55 bacula-dir.conf comes with a Write Bootstrap directive defined. This allows
56 you to recover the state of your system as of the last backup.
57 \item Backup your catalog. An example of this is found in the default
58 bacula-dir.conf file. The backup script is installed by default and should
59 handle any database, though you may want to make your own local
61 \item Write a bootstrap file for the catalog. An example of this is found in
62 the default bacula-dir.conf file. This will allow you to quickly restore your
63 catalog in the event it is wiped out -- otherwise it is many excruciating
65 \item Make a copy of the bacula-dir.conf, bacula-sd.conf, and
66 bacula-fd.conf files that you are using on your server. Put it in a safe
67 place (on another machine) as these files can be difficult to
68 reconstruct if your server dies.
69 \item Make a Bacula Rescue CDROM! See the
70 \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using a Bacula Rescue
71 CDROM}{RescueChapter} chapter. It is trivial to make such a CDROM,
72 and it can make system recovery in the event of a lost hard disk infinitely
74 \item Bacula assumes all filenames are in UTF-8 format. This is important
75 when saving the filenames to the catalog. For Win32 machine, Bacula will
76 automatically convert from Unicode to UTF-8, but on Unix, Linux, *BSD,
77 and MacOS X machines, you must explicitly ensure that your locale is set
78 properly. Typically this means that the {bf LANG} environment variable
79 must end in {\bf .UTF-8}. An full example is {\bf en\_US.UTF-8}. The
80 exact syntax may vary a bit from OS to OS, and exactly how you define it
84 \section{Recommended Items}
85 \index[general]{Items!Recommended }
86 \index[general]{Recommended Items }
88 Although these items may not be critical, they are recommended and will help
92 \item Read the \ilink{Quick Start Guide to Bacula}{QuickStartChapter}
93 \item After installing and experimenting with Bacula, read and work carefully
94 through the examples in the
95 \ilink{Tutorial}{TutorialChapter} chapter of this manual.
96 \item Learn what each of the \ilink{Bacula Utility Programs}{_UtilityChapter}
98 \item Set up reasonable retention periods so that your catalog does not grow
99 to be too big. See the following three chapters:\\
100 \ilink{Recycling your Volumes}{RecyclingChapter},\\
101 \ilink{Basic Volume Management}{DiskChapter},\\
102 \ilink{Using Pools to Manage Volumes}{PoolsChapter}.
103 \item Perform a bare metal recovery using the Bacula Rescue CDROM. See the
104 \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using a Bacula Rescue CDROM}{RescueChapter}
108 If you absolutely must implement a system where you write a different
109 tape each night and take it offsite in the morning. We recommend that you do
112 \item Write a bootstrap file of your backed up data and a bootstrap file
113 of your catalog backup to a floppy disk or a CDROM, and take that with
114 the tape. If this is not possible, try to write those files to another
115 computer or offsite computer, or send them as email to a friend. If none
116 of that is possible, at least print the bootstrap files and take that
117 offsite with the tape. Having the bootstrap files will make recovery
119 \item It is better not to force Bacula to load a particular tape each day.
120 Instead, let Bacula choose the tape. If you need to know what tape to
121 mount, you can print a list of recycled and appendable tapes daily, and
122 select any tape from that list. Bacula may propose a particular tape
123 for use that it considers optimal, but it will accept any valid tape
124 from the correct pool.