4 \chapter{Messages Resource}
5 \label{MessagesChapter}
6 \index[general]{Resource!Messages}
7 \index[general]{Messages Resource}
9 The Messages resource defines how messages are to be handled and destinations
10 to which they should be sent.
12 Even though each daemon has a full message handler, within the File daemon and
13 the Storage daemon, you will normally choose to send all the appropriate
14 messages back to the Director. This permits all the messages associated with a
15 single Job to be combined in the Director and sent as a single email message
16 to the user, or logged together in a single file.
18 Each message that Bacula generates (i.e. that each daemon generates) has an
19 associated type such as INFO, WARNING, ERROR, FATAL, etc. Using the message
20 resource, you can specify which message types you wish to see and where they
21 should be sent. In addition, a message may be sent to multiple destinations.
22 For example, you may want all error messages both logged as well as sent to
23 you in an email. By defining multiple messages resources, you can have
24 different message handling for each type of Job (e.g. Full backups versus
27 In general, messages are attached to a Job and are included in the Job report.
28 There are some rare cases, where this is not possible, e.g. when no job is
29 running, or if a communications error occurs between a daemon and the
30 director. In those cases, the message may remain in the system, and should be
31 flushed at the end of the next Job. However, since such messages are not
32 attached to a Job, any that are mailed will be sent to {\bf
33 /usr/lib/sendmail}. On some systems, such as FreeBSD, if your sendmail is in a
34 different place, you may want to link it to the the above location.
36 The records contained in a Messages resource consist of a {\bf destination}
37 specification followed by a list of {\bf message-types} in the format:
41 \item [destination = message-type1, message-type2, message-type3, ... ]
42 \index[dir]{destination}
45 or for those destinations that need and address specification (e.g. email):
49 \item [destination = address = message-type1, message-type2,
51 \index[dir]{destination}
53 Where {\bf destination} is one of a predefined set of keywords that define
54 where the message is to be sent ({\bf stdout}, {\bf file}, ...), {\bf
55 message-type} is one of a predefined set of keywords that define the type of
56 message generated by {\bf Bacula} ({\bf ERROR}, {\bf WARNING}, {\bf FATAL},
57 ...), and {\bf address} varies according to the {\bf destination} keyword, but
58 is typically an email address or a filename.
61 The following are the list of the possible record definitions that can be used
62 in a message resource.
68 Start of the Messages records.
70 \item [Name = \lt{}name\gt{}]
72 The name of the Messages resource. The name you specify here will be used to
73 tie this Messages resource to a Job and/or to the daemon.
76 \item [MailCommand = \lt{}command\gt{}]
77 \index[dir]{MailCommand}
78 In the absence of this resource, Bacula will send all mail using the
81 {\bf mail -s "Bacula Message" \lt{}recipients\gt{}}
83 In many cases, depending on your machine, this command may not work. Using
84 the {\bf MailCommand}, you can specify exactly how to send the mail. During
85 the processing of the {\bf command}, normally specified as a quoted string,
86 the following substitutions will be used:
90 \item \%c = Client's name
91 \item \%d = Director's name
92 \item \%e = Job Exit code (OK, Error, ...)
94 \item \%j = Unique Job name
97 \item \%r = Recipients
98 \item \%t = Job type (e.g. Backup, ...)
101 The following is the command I (Kern) use. Note, the whole command should
102 appear on a single line in the configuration file rather than split as is
103 done here for presentation:
105 {\bf mailcommand = "/home/kern/bacula/bin/bsmtp -h mail.example.com -f
106 \textbackslash{}"\textbackslash{}(Bacula\textbackslash{})
107 \%r\textbackslash{}" -s \textbackslash{}"Bacula: \%t \%e of \%c
108 \%l\textbackslash{}" \%r"}
110 Note, the {\bf bsmtp} program is provided as part of {\bf Bacula}. For
111 additional details, please see the
112 \ilink{ bsmtp -- Customizing Your Email Messages}{bsmtp} section of
113 the Bacula Utility Programs chapter of this manual. Please test any {\bf
114 mailcommand} that you use to ensure that your bsmtp gateway accepts the
115 addressing form that you use. Certain programs such as Exim can be very
116 selective as to what forms are permitted particularly in the from part.
118 \item [OperatorCommand = \lt{}command\gt{}]
119 \index[fd]{OperatorCommand}
120 This resource specification is similar to the {\bf MailCommand} except that
121 it is used for Operator messages. The substitutions performed for the {\bf
122 MailCommand} are also done for this command. Normally, you will set this
123 command to the same value as specified for the {\bf MailCommand}.
125 \item [Debug = \lt{}debug-level\gt{}]
127 This sets the debug message level to the debug level, which is an integer.
128 Higher debug levels cause more debug information to be produced. You are
129 requested not to use this record since it will be deprecated.
131 \item [\lt{}destination\gt{} = \lt{}message-type1\gt{},
132 \lt{}message-type2\gt{}, ...]
133 \index[fd]{\lt{}destination\gt{}}
135 Where {\bf destination} may be one of the following:
141 Send the message to standard output.
145 Send the message to standard error.
148 \index[console]{console}
149 Send the message to the console (Bacula Console). These messages are held
150 until the console program connects to the Director.
153 \item {\bf \lt{}destination\gt{} = \lt{}address\gt{} =
154 \lt{}message-type1\gt{}, \lt{}message-type2\gt{}, ...}
155 \index[console]{\lt{}destination\gt{}}
157 Where {\bf address} depends on the {\bf destination}.
159 The {\bf destination} may be one of the following:
164 \index[dir]{director}
165 \index[general]{director}
166 Send the message to the Director whose name is given in the {\bf address}
167 field. Note, in the current implementation, the Director Name is ignored, and
168 the message is sent to the Director that started the Job.
172 \index[general]{file}
173 Send the message to the filename given in the {\bf address} field. If the
174 file already exists, it will be overwritten.
178 \index[general]{append}
179 Append the message to the filename given in the {\bf address} field. If the
180 file already exists, it will be appended to. If the file does not exist, it
184 \index[general]{syslog}
185 Send the message to the system log (syslog) using the facility specified in
186 the {\bf address} field. Note, for the moment, the {\bf address} field is
187 ignored and the message is always sent to the LOG\_DAEMON facility with
188 level LOG\_ERR. See {\bf man 3 syslog} for more details. Example:
190 syslog = all, !skipped, !saved
194 \index[general]{mail}
195 Send the message to the email addresses that are given as a comma
196 separated list in the {\bf address} field. Mail messages are grouped
197 together during a job and then sent as a single email message when the
198 job terminates. The advantage of this destination is that you are
199 notified about every Job that runs. However, if you backup five or ten
200 machines every night, the volume of email messages can be important.
201 Some users use filter programs such as {\bf procmail} to automatically
202 file this email based on the Job termination code (see {\bf
205 \item [mail on error]
206 \index[general]{mail on error}
207 Send the message to the email addresses that are given as a comma
208 separated list in the {\bf address} field if the Job terminates with an
209 error condition. MailOnError messages are grouped together during a job
210 and then sent as a single email message when the job terminates. This
211 destination differs from the {\bf mail} destination in that if the Job
212 terminates normally, the message is totally discarded (for this
213 destination). If the Job terminates in error, it is emailed. By using
214 other destinations such as {\bf append} you can ensure that even if the
215 Job terminates normally, the output information is saved.
217 \item [mail on success]
218 \index[general]{mail on success}
219 Send the message to the email addresses that are given as a comma
220 separated list in the {\bf address} field if the Job terminates
221 normally (no error condition). MailOnSuccess messages are grouped
222 together during a job and then sent as a single email message when the
223 job terminates. This destination differs from the {\bf mail}
224 destination in that if the Job terminates abnormally, the message is
225 totally discarded (for this destination). If the Job terminates in
226 normally, it is emailed.
229 \index[general]{operator}
230 Send the message to the email addresses that are specified as a comma
231 separated list in the {\bf address} field. This is similar to {\bf
232 mail} above, except that each message is sent as received. Thus there
233 is one email per message. This is most useful for {\bf mount} messages
237 \index[general]{console}
238 Send the message to the Bacula console.
241 \index[general]{stdout}
242 Send the message to the standard output (normally not used).
245 \index[general]{stderr}
246 Send the message to the standard error output (normally not used).
249 \index[general]{catalog}
250 Send the message to the Catalog database. The message will be
251 written to the table named {\bf Log} and a timestamp field will
252 also be added. This permits Job Reports and other messages to
253 be recorded in the Catalog so that they can be accessed by
254 reporting software. Bacula will prune the Log records associated
255 with a Job when the Job records are pruned. Otherwise, Bacula
256 never uses these records internally, so this destination is only
257 used for special purpose programs (e.g. {\bf bweb}).
261 For any destination, the {\bf message-type} field is a comma separated
262 list of the following types or classes of messages:
267 \index[general]{info}
268 General information messages.
271 \index[general]{warning}
272 Warning messages. Generally this is some unusual condition but not expected
276 \index[general]{error}
277 Non-fatal error messages. The job continues running. Any error message should
278 be investigated as it means that something went wrong.
281 \index[general]{fatal}
282 Fatal error messages. Fatal errors cause the job to terminate.
285 \index[general]{terminate}
286 Message generated when the daemon shuts down.
290 \index[general]{saved}
291 Files saved normally.
295 \index[general]{notsaved}
296 Files not saved because of some error. Usually because the file cannot be
297 accessed (i.e. it does not exist or is not mounted).
301 \index[general]{skipped}
302 Files that were skipped because of a user supplied option such as an
303 incremental backup or a file that matches an exclusion pattern. This is
304 not considered an error condition such as the files listed for the {\bf
305 notsaved} type because the configuration file explicitly requests these
306 types of files to be skipped. For example, any unchanged file during an
307 incremental backup, or any subdirectory if the no recursion option is
312 \index[general]{mount}
313 Volume mount or intervention requests from the Storage daemon. These
314 requests require a specific operator intervention for the job to
319 \index[general]{restored}
320 The {\bf ls} style listing generated for each file restored is sent to
328 \index[general]{security}
329 Security info/warning messages principally from unauthorized
333 \index[general]{alert}
334 Alert messages. These are messages generated by tape alerts.
337 \index[general]{volmgmt}
338 Volume management messages. Currently there are no volume mangement
344 The following is an example of a valid Messages resource definition, where
345 all messages except files explicitly skipped or daemon termination messages
346 are sent by email to enforcement@sec.com. In addition all mount messages
347 are sent to the operator (i.e. emailed to enforcement@sec.com). Finally
348 all messages other than explicitly skipped files and files saved are sent
355 mail = enforcement@sec.com = all, !skipped, !terminate
356 operator = enforcement@sec.com = mount
357 console = all, !skipped, !saved
362 With the exception of the email address (changed to avoid junk mail from
363 robot's), an example Director's Messages resource is as follows. Note, the {\bf
364 mailcommand} and {\bf operatorcommand} are on a single line -- they had to be
365 split for this manual:
371 mailcommand = "bacula/bin/bsmtp -h mail.example.com \
372 -f \"\(Bacula\) %r\" -s \"Bacula: %t %e of %c %l\" %r"
373 operatorcommand = "bacula/bin/bsmtp -h mail.example.com \
374 -f \"\(Bacula\) %r\" -s \"Bacula: Intervention needed \
376 MailOnError = security@example.com = all, !skipped, \
378 append = "bacula/bin/log" = all, !skipped, !terminate
379 operator = security@example.com = mount
380 console = all, !skipped, !saved