4 \chapter{Installing and Configuring PostgreSQL}
5 \label{PostgreSqlChapter}
6 \index[general]{PostgreSQL!Installing and Configuring }
7 \index[general]{Installing and Configuring PostgreSQL }
8 \index[general]{Upgrading}
10 If you are considering using PostreSQL, you should be aware
11 of their philosophy of upgrades, which could be
12 destabilizing for a production shop. Basically at every major version
13 upgrade, you are required to dump your database in an ASCII format,
14 do the upgrade, and then reload your database (or databases). This is
15 because they frequently update the "data format" from version to
16 version, and they supply no tools to automatically do the conversion.
17 If you forget to do the ASCII dump, your database may become totally
18 useless because none of the new tools can access it due to the format
19 change, and the PostgreSQL server will not be able to start.
21 If you are building PostgreSQL from source, please be sure to add
22 the {\bf \verb:--:enable-thread-safety} option when doing the ./configure
25 \section{Installing PostgreSQL}
26 \index[general]{PostgreSQL!Installing }
28 If you use the {\bf ./configure \verb:--:with-postgresql=PostgreSQL-Directory}
29 statement for configuring {\bf Bacula}, you will need PostgreSQL version 7.4
30 or later installed. NOTE! PostgreSQL versions earlier than 7.4 do not work
31 with Bacula. If PostgreSQL is installed in the standard system location, you
32 need only enter {\bf \verb:--:with-postgresql} since the configure program will
33 search all the standard locations. If you install PostgreSQL in your home
34 directory or some other non-standard directory, you will need to provide the
35 full path with the {\bf \verb:--:with-postgresql} option.
37 Installing and configuring PostgreSQL is not difficult but can be confusing
38 the first time. If you prefer, you may want to use a package provided by your
39 chosen operating system. Binary packages are available on most PostgreSQL
42 If you prefer to install from source, we recommend following the instructions
44 \elink{PostgreSQL documentation}{http://www.postgresql.org/docs/}.
46 If you are using FreeBSD,
47 \elink{this FreeBSD Diary article}{http://www.freebsddiary.org/postgresql.php}
48 will be useful. Even if you are not using FreeBSD, the article will contain
49 useful configuration and setup information.
51 If you configure the Batch Insert code in Bacula (attribute inserts are
52 10 times faster), you {\bf must} be using a PostgreSQL that was built with
53 the {\bf \verb:--:enable-thread-safety} option, otherwise you will get
54 data corruption. Most major Linux distros have thread safety turned on, but
55 it is better to check. One way is to see if the PostgreSQL library that
56 Bacula will be linked against references pthreads. This can be done
57 with a command such as:
61 nm /usr/lib/libpq.a | grep pthread_mutex_lock
65 The above command should print a line that looks like:
73 if does, then everything is OK. If it prints nothing, do not enable batch
74 inserts when building Bacula.
76 After installing PostgreSQL, you should return to completing the installation
77 of {\bf Bacula}. Later, after Bacula is installed, come back to this chapter
78 to complete the installation. Please note, the installation files used in the
79 second phase of the PostgreSQL installation are created during the Bacula
80 Installation. You must still come back to complete the second phase of the
81 PostgreSQL installation even if you installed binaries (e.g. rpm, deb,
85 \label{PostgreSQL_configure}
86 \section{Configuring PostgreSQL}
87 \index[general]{PostgreSQL!Configuring PostgreSQL -- }
89 At this point, you should have built and installed PostgreSQL, or already have
90 a running PostgreSQL, and you should have configured, built and installed {\bf
91 Bacula}. If not, please complete these items before proceeding.
93 Please note that the {\bf ./configure} used to build {\bf Bacula} will need to
94 include {\bf \verb:--:with-postgresql=PostgreSQL-directory}, where {\bf
95 PostgreSQL-directory} is the directory name that you specified on the
96 ./configure command for configuring PostgreSQL (if you didn't specify a
97 directory or PostgreSQL is installed in a default location, you do not need to
98 specify the directory). This is needed so that Bacula can find the necessary
99 include headers and library files for interfacing to PostgreSQL.
101 An important thing to note here is that {\bf Bacula} makes two connections
102 to the PostgreSQL server for each backup job that is currently running. If
103 you are intending to run a large number of concurrent jobs, check the value
104 of {\bf max\_connections} in your PostgreSQL configuration file to ensure
105 that it is larger than the setting {\bf Maximum Concurrent Jobs}
106 in your director configuration. {\bf Setting this too low will result in
107 some backup jobs failing to run correctly!}
109 {\bf Bacula} will install scripts for manipulating the database (create,
110 delete, make tables etc) into the main installation directory. These files
111 will be of the form *\_bacula\_* (e.g. create\_bacula\_database). These files
112 are also available in the \lt{}bacula-src\gt{}/src/cats directory after
113 running ./configure. If you inspect create\_bacula\_database, you will see
114 that it calls create\_postgresql\_database. The *\_bacula\_* files are
115 provided for convenience. It doesn't matter what database you have chosen;
116 create\_bacula\_database will always create your database.
118 Now you will create the Bacula PostgreSQL database and the tables that Bacula
119 uses. These instructions assume that you already have PostgreSQL running. You
120 will need to perform these steps as a user that is able to create new
121 databases. This can be the PostgreSQL user (on most systems, this is the pgsql
125 \item cd \lt{}install-directory\gt{}
127 This directory contains the Bacula catalog interface routines.
129 \item Create the database owner ({\bf bacula})
130 On many systems, the PostreSQL master
131 owner is {\bf pgsql} and on others such as Red Hat and Fedora it is {\bf
132 postgres}. You can find out which it is by examining your /etc/passwd
133 file. To create a new user under either your name or with say the name
134 {\bf bacula}, you can do the following:
138 (enter root password)
139 su pgsql (or postgres)
141 Shall the new user be allowed to create databases? (y/n) y
142 Shall the new user be allowed to create more new users? (y/n) (choose
146 Normally the {\bf bacula} user must be able to create new databases,
147 if you use the script in the next item,
148 or you will have to create one for it, but it does not need to
151 \item ./create\_bacula\_database
153 This script creates the PostgreSQL {\bf bacula} database.
154 Before running this command, you should carefully think about
155 what encoding sequence you want for the text fields (paths, files, ...).
156 We strongly recommend that you use the default value of SQL\_ASCII
157 that is in the create\_bacula\_database script. Please be warned
158 that if you change this value, your backups may fail. After running
159 the script, you can check with the command:
165 and the column marked {\bf Encoding} should be {\bf SQL\_ASCII} for
166 all your Bacula databases (normally {\bf bacula}).
168 \item ./make\_bacula\_tables
170 This script creates the PostgreSQL tables used by {\bf Bacula}.
171 \item ./grant\_bacula\_privileges
173 This script creates the database user {\bf bacula} with restricted access
174 rights. You may want to modify it to suit your situation. Please note that
175 this database is not password protected.
179 Each of the three scripts (create\_bacula\_database, make\_bacula\_tables, and
180 grant\_bacula\_privileges) allows the addition of a command line argument.
181 This can be useful for specifying the user name. For example, you might need
182 to add {\bf -h hostname} to the command line to specify a remote database
185 To take a closer look at the access privileges that you have setup with the
190 PostgreSQL-directory/bin/psql --command \\dp bacula
194 Also, I had an authorization problem with the password. In the end,
195 I had to modify my {\bf pg\_hba.conf} file (in /var/lib/pgsql/data on my machine)
200 local all all ident sameuser
206 This solved the problem for me, but it is not always a good thing
207 to do from a security standpoint. However, it allowed me to run
208 my regression scripts without having a password.
210 A more secure way to perform database authentication is with md5
211 password hashes. Begin by editing the {\bf pg\_hba.conf} file, and
212 just prior the the existing ``local'' and ``host'' lines, add the line:
216 local bacula bacula md5
220 and restart the Postgres database server (frequently, this can be done
221 using "/etc/init.d/postgresql restart" or "service postgresql restart") to
222 put this new authentication rule into effect.
224 Next, become the Postgres administrator, postgres, either by logging
225 on as the postgres user, or by using su to become root and then using
226 su - postgres to become postgres. Add a password to the bacula
227 database for the bacula user using:
232 bacula=# alter user bacula with password 'secret';
238 You'll have to add this password to two locations in the
239 bacula-dir.conf file: once to the Catalog resource and once to the
240 RunBeforeJob entry in the BackupCatalog Job resource. With the
241 password in place, these two lines should look something like:
245 dbname = bacula; user = bacula; password = "secret"
247 # WARNING!!! Passing the password via the command line is insecure.
248 # see comments in make_catalog_backup for details.
249 RunBeforeJob = "/etc/make_catalog_backup bacula bacula secret"
253 Naturally, you should choose your own significantly more random
254 password, and ensure that the bacula-dir.conf file containing this
255 password is readable only by the root.
257 Even with the files containing the database password properly
258 restricted, there is still a security problem with this approach: on
259 some platforms, the environment variable that is used to supply the
260 password to Postgres is available to all users of the
261 local system. To eliminate this problem, the Postgres team have
262 deprecated the use of the environment variable password-passing
263 mechanism and recommend the use of a .pgpass file instead. To use
264 this mechanism, create a file named .pgpass containing the single
269 localhost:5432:bacula:bacula:secret
273 This file should be copied into the home directory of all accounts
274 that will need to gain access to the database: typically, root,
275 bacula, and any users who will make use of any of the console
276 programs. The files must then have the owner and group set to match
277 the user (so root:root for the copy in ~root, and so on), and the mode
278 set to 600, limiting access to the owner of the file.
280 \section{Re-initializing the Catalog Database}
281 \index[general]{Database!Re-initializing the Catalog }
282 \index[general]{Re-initializing the Catalog Database }
284 After you have done some initial testing with {\bf Bacula}, you will probably
285 want to re-initialize the catalog database and throw away all the test Jobs
286 that you ran. To do so, you can do the following:
290 cd <install-directory>
293 ./grant_bacula_privileges
297 Please note that all information in the database will be lost and you will be
298 starting from scratch. If you have written on any Volumes, you must write an
299 end of file mark on the volume so that Bacula can reuse it. Do so with:
303 (stop Bacula or unmount the drive)
304 mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
309 Where you should replace {\bf /dev/nst0} with the appropriate tape drive
310 device name for your machine.
312 \section{Installing PostgreSQL from RPMs}
313 \index[general]{PostgreSQL!Installing from RPMs}
314 \index[general]{Installing PostgreSQL from RPMs}
315 If you are installing PostgreSQL from RPMs, you will need to install
316 both the PostgreSQL binaries and the client libraries. The client
317 libraries are usually found in a devel package, so you must
329 These will be similar with most other package managers too. After
330 installing from rpms, you will still need to run the scripts that set up
331 the database and create the tables as described above.
334 \section{Converting from MySQL to PostgreSQL}
335 \index[general]{PostgreSQL!Converting from MySQL to }
336 \index[general]{Converting from MySQL to PostgreSQL }
338 The conversion procedure presented here was worked out by Norm Dressler
339 \lt{}ndressler at dinmar dot com\gt{}
341 This process was tested using the following software versions:
344 \item Linux Mandrake 10/Kernel 2.4.22-10 SMP
345 \item Mysql Ver 12.21 Distrib 4.0.15, for mandrake-linux-gnu (i586)
346 \item PostgreSQL 7.3.4
350 WARNING: Always as a precaution, take a complete backup of your databases
351 before proceeding with this process!
354 \item Shutdown bacula (cd /etc/bacula;./bacula stop)
355 \item Run the following command to dump your Mysql database:
359 mysqldump -f -t -n >bacula-backup.dmp
364 \item Make a backup of your /etc/bacula directory (but leave the original in
366 \item Go to your Bacula source directory and rebuild it to include PostgreSQL
367 support rather then Mysql support. Check the config.log file for your
368 original configure command and replace enable-mysql with enable-postgresql.
369 \item Recompile Bacula with a make and if everything compiles completely,
370 perform a make install.
371 \item Shutdown Mysql.
372 \item Start PostgreSQL on your system.
373 \item Create a bacula user in Postgres with the createuser command. Depending on
374 your Postgres install, you may have to SU to the user who has privileges to
376 \item Verify your pg\_hba.conf file contains sufficient permissions to allow
377 bacula to access the server. Mine has the following since it's on a secure
384 host all all 127.0.0.1 255.255.255.255 trust
386 NOTE: you should restart your postgres server if you
392 \item Change into the /etc/bacula directory and prepare the database and
393 tables with the following commands:
397 ./create_postgresql_database
399 ./make_postgresql_tables
401 ./grant_postgresql_privileges
406 \item Verify you have access to the database:
416 You should not get any errors.
417 \item Load your database from the Mysql database dump with:
421 psql -Ubacula bacula <bacula-backup.dmp>
426 \item Resequence your tables with the following commands:
432 SELECT SETVAL('basefiles_baseid_seq', (SELECT
433 MAX(baseid) FROM basefiles));
434 SELECT SETVAL('client_clientid_seq', (SELECT
435 MAX(clientid) FROM client));
436 SELECT SETVAL('file_fileid_seq', (SELECT MAX(fileid)
438 SELECT SETVAL('filename_filenameid_seq', (SELECT
439 MAX(filenameid) FROM filename));
441 SELECT SETVAL('fileset_filesetid_seq', (SELECT
442 MAX(filesetid) FROM fileset));
444 SELECT SETVAL('job_jobid_seq', (SELECT MAX(jobid) FROM job));
445 SELECT SETVAL('jobmedia_jobmediaid_seq', (SELECT
446 MAX(jobmediaid) FROM jobmedia));
447 SELECT SETVAL('media_mediaid_seq', (SELECT MAX(mediaid) FROM media));
448 SELECT SETVAL('path_pathid_seq', (SELECT MAX(pathid) FROM path));
450 SELECT SETVAL('pool_poolid_seq', (SELECT MAX(poolid) FROM pool));
455 \item At this point, start up Bacula, verify your volume library and perform
456 a test backup to make sure everything is working properly.
459 \section{Upgrading PostgreSQL}
460 \index[general]{Upgrading PostgreSQL }
461 \index[general]{Upgrading!PostgreSQL }
462 \index[general]{Upgrading}
463 If you upgrade PostgreSQL, you must reconfigure, rebuild, and re-install
464 Bacula otherwise you are likely to get bizarre failures. If you
465 to modify the bacula.spec file to account for the new PostgreSQL version.
466 You can do so by rebuilding from the source rpm. To do so, you may need
467 install from rpms and you upgrade PostgreSQL, you must also rebuild Bacula.
469 \section{Tuning PostgreSQL}
470 \index[general]{Tuning}
472 If you despool attributes for many jobs at the same time, you can tune the
473 sequence object for the \texttt{FileId} field.
477 ALTER SEQUENCE file_fileid_seq CACHE 1000;
481 \index[general]{Credits }
482 Many thanks to Dan Langille for writing the PostgreSQL driver. This will
483 surely become the most popular database that Bacula supports.