4 \chapter{The Current State of Bacula}
6 \index[general]{Current State of Bacula }
8 In other words, what is and what is not currently implemented and functional.
10 \section{What is Implemented}
11 \index[general]{Implemented!What}
12 \index[general]{What is Implemented}
17 \item Network backup/restore with centralized Director.
18 \item Internal scheduler for automatic
19 \ilink{Job}{JobDef} execution.
20 \item Scheduling of multiple Jobs at the same time.
21 \item You may run one Job at a time or multiple simultaneous Jobs
22 (sometimes called multiplexing).
23 \item Job sequencing using priorities.
24 \item \ilink{Console}{UADef} interface to the Director allowing complete
25 control. A shell, GNOME GUI and wxWidgets GUI versions of the Console program
26 are available. Note, the GNOME GUI program currently offers very few
27 additional features over the shell program.
28 With version 2.2.0, a much more complete GUI interface has been
29 written, which is called the Bacula Admistration Tool, or bat.
34 \item Verification of files previously cataloged, permitting a Tripwire like
35 capability (system break-in detection).
36 \item CRAM-MD5 password authentication between each component (daemon).
38 \ilink{TLS (SSL) communications encryption}{CommEncryption} between each
41 \ilink{Data (on Volume) encryption}{DataEncryption}
42 on a Client by Client basis.
43 \item Computation of MD5 or SHA1 signatures of the file data if requested.
47 \item Restore Features
49 \item Restore of one or more files selected interactively either for the
50 current backup or a backup prior to a specified time and date.
51 \item Restore of a complete system starting from bare metal. This is mostly
52 automated for Linux systems and partially automated for Solaris. See
53 \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using Bacula}{RescueChapter}. This is also
54 reported to work on Win2K/XP systems.
55 \item Listing and Restoration of files using stand-alone {\bf bls} and {\bf
56 bextract} tool programs. Among other things, this permits extraction of files
57 when Bacula and/or the catalog are not available. Note, the recommended way
58 to restore files is using the restore command in the Console. These programs
59 are designed for use as a last resort.
60 \item Ability to restore the catalog database rapidly by using bootstrap
61 files (previously saved).
62 \item Ability to recreate the catalog database by scanning backup Volumes
63 using the {\bf bscan} program.
68 \item Catalog database facility for remembering Volumes, Pools, Jobs, and
70 \item Support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite Catalog databases.
71 \item User extensible queries to the MySQL, PostgreSQL and SQLite databases.
74 \item Advanced Volume and Pool Management
76 \item Labeled Volumes, preventing accidental overwriting (at least by
78 \item Any number of Jobs and Clients can be backed up to a single Volume.
79 That is, you can backup and restore Linux, Unix, Sun, and Windows machines to
81 \item Multi-volume saves. When a Volume is full, {\bf Bacula} automatically
82 requests the next Volume and continues the backup.
84 \ilink{Pool and Volume}{PoolResource} library management
85 providing Volume flexibility (e.g. monthly, weekly, daily Volume sets, Volume
86 sets segregated by Client, ...).
87 \item Machine independent Volume data format. Linux, Solaris, and Windows
88 clients can all be backed up to the same Volume if desired.
89 \item The Volume data format is upwards compatible so that old Volumes
92 \ilink{message}{MessagesChapter} handler including routing
93 of messages from any daemon back to the Director and automatic email
95 \item Data spooling to disk during backup with subsequent write to tape from
96 the spooled disk files. This prevents tape "shoe shine" during
97 Incremental/Differential backups.
100 \item Advanced Support for most Storage Devices
102 \item Autochanger support using a simple shell interface that can interface
103 to virtually any autoloader program. A script for {\bf mtx} is provided.
104 \item Support for autochanger barcodes -- automatic tape labeling from
106 \item Automatic support for multiple autochanger magazines either using
107 barcodes or by reading the tapes.
108 \item Support for multiple drive autochangers.
109 \item Raw device backup/restore. Restore must be to the same device.
110 \item All Volume blocks (approximately 64K bytes) contain a data checksum.
111 \item Migration support -- move data from one Pool to another or
112 one Volume to another.
113 \item Supports writing to DVD.
116 \item Multi-Operating System Support
118 \item Programmed to handle arbitrarily long filenames and messages.
119 \item GZIP compression on a file by file basis done by the Client program if
120 requested before network transit.
121 \item Saves and restores POSIX ACLs on most OSes if enabled.
122 \item Access control lists for Consoles that permit restricting user access
124 \item Support for save/restore of files larger than 2GB.
125 \item Support for 64 bit machines, e.g. amd64, Sparc.
126 \item Support ANSI and IBM tape labels.
127 \item Support for Unicode filenames (e.g. Chinese) on Win32 machines on
128 version 1.37.28 and greater.
129 \item Consistent backup of open files on Win32 systems (WinXP, Win2003,
131 but not Win2000, using Volume Shadow Copy (VSS).
132 \item Support for path/filename lengths of up to 64K on Win32 machines
133 (unlimited on Unix/Linux machines).
138 \item Multi-threaded implementation.
139 \item A comprehensive and extensible
140 \ilink{configuration file}{DirectorChapter} for each daemon.
144 \section{Advantages Over Other Backup Programs}
145 \index[general]{Advantages of Bacula Over Other Backup Programs }
146 \index[general]{Programs!Advantages of Bacula Over Other Backup }
149 \item Since there is a client for each machine, you can backup
150 and restore clients of any type ensuring that all attributes
151 of files are properly saved and restored.
152 \item It is also possible to backup clients without any client
153 software by using NFS or Samba. However, if possible, we
154 recommend running a Client File daemon on each machine to be
156 \item Bacula handles multi-volume backups.
157 \item A full comprehensive SQL standard database of all files backed up. This
158 permits online viewing of files saved on any particular Volume.
159 \item Automatic pruning of the database (removal of old records) thus
160 simplifying database administration.
161 \item Any SQL database engine can be used making Bacula very flexible.
162 Drivers currently exist for MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite.
163 \item The modular but integrated design makes Bacula very scalable.
164 \item Since Bacula uses client file servers, any database or
165 other application can be properly shutdown by Bacula using the
166 native tools of the system, backed up, then restarted (all
167 within a Bacula Job).
168 \item Bacula has a built-in Job scheduler.
169 \item The Volume format is documented and there are simple C programs to
171 \item Bacula uses well defined (IANA registered) TCP/IP ports -- no rpcs, no
173 \item Bacula installation and configuration is relatively simple compared to
174 other comparable products.
175 \item According to one user Bacula is as fast as the big major commercial
177 \item According to another user Bacula is four times as fast as another
178 commercial application, probably because that application stores its catalog
179 information in a large number of individual files rather than an SQL database
181 \item Aside from a GUI administrative interface, Bacula has a
182 comprehensive shell administrative interface, which allows the
183 administrator to use tools such as ssh to administrate any part of
184 Bacula from anywhere (even from home).
185 \item Bacula has a Rescue CD for Linux systems with the following features:
187 \item You build it on your own system from scratch with one simple command:
188 make -- well, then make burn.
189 \item It uses your kernel
190 \item It captures your current disk parameters and builds scripts that allow
191 you to automatically repartition a disk and format it to put it back to what
193 \item It has a script that will restart your networking (with the right IP
195 \item It has a script to automatically mount your hard disks.
196 \item It has a full Bacula FD statically linked
197 \item You can easily add additional data/programs, ... to the disk.
202 \section{Current Implementation Restrictions}
203 \index[general]{Current Implementation Restrictions }
204 \index[general]{Restrictions!Current Implementation }
207 \item If you have over 4 billion file entries stored in your database, the
208 database FileId is likely to overflow. This is a monster database, but still
209 possible. Bacula's FileId fields have been modified so that they can be
210 upgraded from 32 to 64 bits in version 1.39 or later, but you must
212 \item Files deleted after a Full save will be included in a restoration. This
213 is typical for most similar backup programs (we have a project to
215 \item Bacula's Differential and Incremental backups are based on
216 time stamps. Consequently, if you move files into an existing
217 directory or move a whole directory into the backup fileset
218 after a Full backup, those files will probably not be backed
219 up by an Incremental save because they will have old dates.
220 You must explicitly update the date/time stamp on all moved
221 files (we have a project to correct this).
222 \item File System Modules (configurable routines for
223 saving/restoring special files) are not yet implemented.
224 \item Bacula supports doing backups and restores to multiple
225 devices of different media type and multiple Storage daemons.
226 However, if you have backed up a job to multiple storage
227 devices, Bacula can do a restore from only one device, which
228 means that you will need to manually edit the bootstrap file
229 to split it into two restores if you split the backup across
230 storage devices. This restriction has been removed in version
231 2.2.0 and later, but it is not yet fully tested.
232 \item Bacula cannot restore two different jobs in the same
233 restore if those jobs were run simultaneously, unless you had
234 data spooling turned on and the spool file held the full
235 contents of both jobs. In other terms, Bacula cannot restore
236 two jobs in the same restore if the jobs' data blocks were
237 intermixed on the backup medium. This poses no restrictions
238 for normal backup jobs even if they are run simultaneously.
239 \item Bacula can generally restore any backup made from a client
240 to any other client. However, if the architecture is significantly
241 different (i.e. 32 bit architecture to 64 bit or Win32 to Unix),
242 some restrictions may apply (e.g. Solaris door files do not exist
243 on other Unix/Linux machines; there are reports that Zlib compression
244 written with 64 bit machines does not always read correctly on a 32 bit
248 \section{Design Limitations or Restrictions}
249 \index[general]{Restrictions!Design Limitations or }
250 \index[general]{Design Limitations or Restrictions }
253 \item Names (resource names, Volume names, and such) defined in Bacula
254 configuration files are limited to a fixed number of
255 characters. Currently the limit is defined as 127 characters. Note,
256 this does not apply to filenames, which may be arbitrarily long.
257 \item Command line input to some of the stand alone tools -- e.g. btape,
258 bconsole is restricted to several hundred characters maximum.