4 \section*{Critical Items to Implement Before Going Production}
5 \label{_ChapterStart32}
6 \index[general]{Production!Critical Items to Implement Before Going }
7 \index[general]{Critical Items to Implement Before Going Production }
8 \addcontentsline{toc}{section}{Critical Items to Implement Before Going
12 \index[general]{General }
13 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{General}
15 We recommend you take your time before implementing a Bacula backup system
16 since Bacula is a rather complex program, and if you make a mistake, you may
17 suddenly find that you cannot restore your files in case of a disaster.
18 This is especially true if you have not previously used a major backup
21 If you follow the instructions in this chapter, you will have covered most of
22 the major problems that can occur. It goes without saying that if you ever
23 find that we have left out an important point, please point it out to us, so
24 that we can document it to the benefit of everyone.
27 \subsection*{Critical Items}
28 \index[general]{Critical Items }
29 \index[general]{Items!Critical }
30 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Critical Items}
32 The following assumes that you have installed Bacula, you more or less
33 understand it, you have at least worked through the tutorial or have
34 equivalent experience, and that you have set up a basic production
35 configuration. If you haven't done the above, please do so and then come back
36 here. The following is a sort of checklist that points you elsewhere in the
37 manual with perhaps a brief explanation of why you should do it. The order is
38 more or less the order you would use in setting up a production system (if you
39 already are in production, use the checklist anyway).
42 \item Test your tape drive with compatibility with Bacula by using the test
43 command in the \ilink{btape}{btape} program.
44 \item Better than doing the above is to walk through the nine steps in the
45 \ilink{Tape Testing}{_ChapterStart27} chapter of the manual. It
46 may take you a bit of time, but it will eliminate surprises.
47 \item Make sure that /lib/tls is disabled. Bacula does not work with this
48 library. See the second point under
49 \ilink{ Supported Operating Systems.}{SupportedOSes}
50 \item Do at least one restore of files. If you backup both Unix and Win32
51 systems, restore files from each system type. The
52 \ilink{Restoring Files}{_ChapterStart13} chapter shows you how.
53 \item Write a bootstrap file to a separate system for each backup job. The
54 Write Bootstrap directive is described in the
55 \ilink{Director Configuration}{writebootstrap} chapter of the
56 manual, and more details are available in the
57 \ilink{Bootstrap File}{_ChapterStart43} chapter. Also, the default
58 bacula-dir.conf comes with a Write Bootstrap directive defined. This allows
59 you to recover the state of your system as of the last backup.
60 \item Backup your catalog. An example of this is found in the default
61 bacula-dir.conf file. The backup script is installed by default and should
62 handle any database, though you may want to make your own local
64 \item Write a bootstrap file for the catalog. An example of this is found in
65 the default bacula-dir.conf file. This will allow you to quickly restore your
66 catalog in the event it is wiped out -- otherwise it is many excruciating
68 \item Make a Bacula Rescue CDROM! See the
69 \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using a Bacula Rescue
70 CDROM}{_ChapterStart38} chapter. It is trivial to make such a CDROM,
71 and it can make system recovery in the event of a lost hard disk infinitely
75 \subsection*{Recommended Items}
76 \index[general]{Items!Recommended }
77 \index[general]{Recommended Items }
78 \addcontentsline{toc}{subsection}{Recommended Items}
80 Although these items may not be critical, they are recommended and will help
84 \item Read the \ilink{Quick Start Guide to Bacula}{_ChapterStart37}
85 \item After installing and experimenting with Bacula, read and work carefully
86 through the examples in the
87 \ilink{Tutorial}{_ChapterStart1} chapter of this manual.
88 \item Learn what each of the \ilink{Bacula Utility Programs}{_ChapterStart9} does.
89 \item Set up reasonable retention periods so that your catalog does not grow
90 to be too big. See the following three chapters:\\
91 \ilink{Recycling your Volumes}{_ChapterStart22},\\
92 \ilink{Basic Volume Management}{_ChapterStart39},\\
93 \ilink{Using Pools to Manage Volumes}{_ChapterStart11}.
94 \item Perform a bare metal recovery using the Bacula Rescue CDROM. See the
95 \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using a Bacula Rescue CDROM}{_ChapterStart38} chapter.