Projects:
Bacula Projects Roadmap
- Prioritized by user vote 07 December 2005
- Status updated 30 July 2006
+ Status updated 15 December 2006
+
Summary:
-Item 1: Implement data encryption (as opposed to comm encryption)
-Item 2: Implement Migration that moves Jobs from one Pool to another.
-Item 3: Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted files from
-Item 4: Implement a Bacula GUI/management tool using Python.
-Item 5: Implement Base jobs.
-Item 6: Allow FD to initiate a backup
-Item 7: Improve Bacula's tape and drive usage and cleaning management.
-Item 8: Implement creation and maintenance of copy pools
-Item 9: Implement new {Client}Run{Before|After}Job feature.
-Item 10: Merge multiple backups (Synthetic Backup or Consolidation).
-Item 11: Deletion of Disk-Based Bacula Volumes
-Item 12: Directive/mode to backup only file changes, not entire file
-Item 13: Multiple threads in file daemon for the same job
-Item 14: Implement red/black binary tree routines.
-Item 15: Add support for FileSets in user directories CACHEDIR.TAG
-Item 16: Implement extraction of Win32 BackupWrite data.
-Item 17: Implement a Python interface to the Bacula catalog.
-Item 18: Archival (removal) of User Files to Tape
-Item 19: Add Plug-ins to the FileSet Include statements.
-Item 20: Implement more Python events in Bacula.
-Item 21: Quick release of FD-SD connection after backup.
-Item 22: Permit multiple Media Types in an Autochanger
-Item 23: Allow different autochanger definitions for one autochanger.
-Item 24: Automatic disabling of devices
-Item 25: Implement huge exclude list support using hashing.
+Item 1: Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted files from
+Item 2: Implement a Bacula GUI/management tool.
+Item 3: Implement Base jobs.
+Item 4: Implement from-client and to-client on restore command line.
+Item 5: Implement creation and maintenance of copy pools
+Item 6: Merge multiple backups (Synthetic Backup or Consolidation).
+Item 8: Deletion of Disk-Based Bacula Volumes
+Item 9: Implement a Python interface to the Bacula catalog.
+Item 10: Archival (removal) of User Files to Tape
+Item 11: Add Plug-ins to the FileSet Include statements.
+Item 12: Implement more Python events in Bacula.
+Item 13: Quick release of FD-SD connection after backup.
+Item 14: Implement huge exclude list support using hashing.
+Item 15: Allow skipping execution of Jobs
+Item 16: Tray monitor window cleanups
+Item 17: Split documentation
+Item 18: Automatic promotion of backup levels
+Item 19: Add an override in Schedule for Pools based on backup types.
+Item 20: An option to operate on all pools with update vol parameters
+Item 21: Include JobID in spool file name
+Item 22: Include timestamp of job launch in "stat clients" output
+Item 23: Message mailing based on backup types
+Item 24: Allow inclusion/exclusion of files in a fileset by creation/mod times
+Item 25: Add a scheduling syntax that permits weekly rotations
+Item 26: Improve Bacula's tape and drive usage and cleaning management.
+Item 27: Implement support for stacking arbitrary stream filters, sinks.
+Item 28: Allow FD to initiate a backup
+Item 29: Directive/mode to backup only file changes, not entire file
+Item 30: Automatic disabling of devices
+Item 31: Incorporation of XACML2/SAML2 parsing
+Item 32: Clustered file-daemons
+Item 33: Commercial database support
+Item 34: Archive data
+Item 35: Filesystem watch triggered backup.
+Item 36: Implement multiple numeric backup levels as supported by dump
Below, you will find more information on future projects:
-Item 1: Implement data encryption (as opposed to comm encryption)
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Sponsored by Landon and 13 contributors to EFF.
- Status: Done: Landon Fuller has implemented this in 1.39.x.
-
- What: Currently the data that is stored on the Volume is not
- encrypted. For confidentiality, encryption of data at
- the File daemon level is essential.
- Data encryption encrypts the data in the File daemon and
- decrypts the data in the File daemon during a restore.
-
- Why: Large sites require this.
-
-Item 2: Implement Migration that moves Jobs from one Pool to another.
- Origin: Sponsored by Riege Software International GmbH. Contact:
- Daniel Holtkamp <holtkamp at riege dot com>
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Status: 90% complete: Working in 1.39, more to do. Assigned to
- Kern.
-
- What: The ability to copy, move, or archive data that is on a
- device to another device is very important.
-
- Why: An ISP might want to backup to disk, but after 30 days
- migrate the data to tape backup and delete it from
- disk. Bacula should be able to handle this
- automatically. It needs to know what was put where,
- and when, and what to migrate -- it is a bit like
- retention periods. Doing so would allow space to be
- freed up for current backups while maintaining older
- data on tape drives.
-
- Notes: Riege Software have asked for the following migration
- triggers:
- Age of Job
- Highwater mark (stopped by Lowwater mark?)
-
- Notes: Migration could be additionally triggered by:
- Number of Jobs
- Number of Volumes
-
-Item 3: Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted files from
+Item 1: Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted files from
Incremental/Differential backups
Date: 28 November 2005
Origin: Martin Simmons (martin at lispworks dot com)
Why: Incremental/Differential would be much more useful if this worked.
- Notes: Item 14 (Merging of multiple backups into a single one) seems to
+ Notes: Merging of multiple backups into a single one seems to
rely on this working, otherwise the merged backups will not be
truly equivalent to a Full backup.
are updated, the dummy directory is newer so the real values
are not updated.
-Item 4: Implement a Bacula GUI/management tool using Python.
+Item 2: Implement a Bacula GUI/management tool.
Origin: Kern
Date: 28 October 2005
- Status: Lucus is working on this for Python GTK+.
+ Status:
What: Implement a Bacula console, and management tools
- using Python and Qt or GTK.
+ probably using Qt3 and C++.
Why: Don't we already have a wxWidgets GUI? Yes, but
it is written in C++ and changes to the user interface
Python, which will give many more users easy (or easier)
access to making additions or modifications.
- Notes: This is currently being implemented using Python-GTK by
- Lucas Di Pentima <lucas at lunix dot com dot ar>
+ Notes: There is a partial Python-GTK implementation
+ Lucas Di Pentima <lucas at lunix dot com dot ar> but
+ it is no longer being developed.
-Item 5: Implement Base jobs.
+
+Item 3: Implement Base jobs.
Date: 28 October 2005
Origin: Kern
Status:
FD a list of files/attribs, and the FD must search the
list and compare it for each file to be saved.
-Item 6: Allow FD to initiate a backup
- Origin: Frank Volf (frank at deze dot org)
- Date: 17 November 2005
- Status:
-
- What: Provide some means, possibly by a restricted console that
- allows a FD to initiate a backup, and that uses the connection
- established by the FD to the Director for the backup so that
- a Director that is firewalled can do the backup.
-
- Why: Makes backup of laptops much easier.
-
-Item 7: Improve Bacula's tape and drive usage and cleaning management.
- Date: 8 November 2005, November 11, 2005
- Origin: Adam Thornton <athornton at sinenomine dot net>,
- Arno Lehmann <al at its-lehmann dot de>
- Status:
-
- What: Make Bacula manage tape life cycle information, tape reuse
- times and drive cleaning cycles.
-
- Why: All three parts of this project are important when operating
- backups.
- We need to know which tapes need replacement, and we need to
- make sure the drives are cleaned when necessary. While many
- tape libraries and even autoloaders can handle all this
- automatically, support by Bacula can be helpful for smaller
- (older) libraries and single drives. Limiting the number of
- times a tape is used might prevent tape errors when using
- tapes until the drives can't read it any more. Also, checking
- drive status during operation can prevent some failures (as I
- [Arno] had to learn the hard way...)
-
- Notes: First, Bacula could (and even does, to some limited extent)
- record tape and drive usage. For tapes, the number of mounts,
- the amount of data, and the time the tape has actually been
- running could be recorded. Data fields for Read and Write
- time and Number of mounts already exist in the catalog (I'm
- not sure if VolBytes is the sum of all bytes ever written to
- that volume by Bacula). This information can be important
- when determining which media to replace. The ability to mark
- Volumes as "used up" after a given number of write cycles
- should also be implemented so that a tape is never actually
- worn out. For the tape drives known to Bacula, similar
- information is interesting to determine the device status and
- expected life time: Time it's been Reading and Writing, number
- of tape Loads / Unloads / Errors. This information is not yet
- recorded as far as I [Arno] know. A new volume status would
- be necessary for the new state, like "Used up" or "Worn out".
- Volumes with this state could be used for restores, but not
- for writing. These volumes should be migrated first (assuming
- migration is implemented) and, once they are no longer needed,
- could be moved to a Trash pool.
-
- The next step would be to implement a drive cleaning setup.
- Bacula already has knowledge about cleaning tapes. Once it
- has some information about cleaning cycles (measured in drive
- run time, number of tapes used, or calender days, for example)
- it can automatically execute tape cleaning (with an
- autochanger, obviously) or ask for operator assistance loading
- a cleaning tape.
-
- The final step would be to implement TAPEALERT checks not only
- when changing tapes and only sending the information to the
- administrator, but rather checking after each tape error,
- checking on a regular basis (for example after each tape
- file), and also before unloading and after loading a new tape.
- Then, depending on the drives TAPEALERT state and the known
- drive cleaning state Bacula could automatically schedule later
- cleaning, clean immediately, or inform the operator.
-
- Implementing this would perhaps require another catalog change
- and perhaps major changes in SD code and the DIR-SD protocol,
- so I'd only consider this worth implementing if it would
- actually be used or even needed by many people.
-
- Implementation of these projects could happen in three distinct
- sub-projects: Measuring Tape and Drive usage, retiring
- volumes, and handling drive cleaning and TAPEALERTs.
+Item 4: Implement from-client and to-client on restore command line.
+ Date: 11 December 2006
+ Origin: Discussion on Bacula-users entitled 'Scripted restores to
+ different clients', December 2006
+ Status: New feature request
+
+ What: While using bconsole interactively, you can specify the client
+ that a backup job is to be restored for, and then you can
+ specify later a different client to send the restored files
+ back to. However, using the 'restore' command with all options
+ on the command line, this cannot be done, due to the ambiguous
+ 'client' parameter. Additionally, this parameter means different
+ things depending on if it's specified on the command line or
+ afterwards, in the Modify Job screens.
+
+ Why: This feature would enable restore jobs to be more completely
+ automated, for example by a web or GUI front-end.
+
+ Notes: client can also be implied by specifying the jobid on the command
+ line
-Item 8: Implement creation and maintenance of copy pools
+Item 5: Implement creation and maintenance of copy pools
Date: 27 November 2005
Origin: David Boyes (dboyes at sinenomine dot net)
Status:
Notes: I would commit some of my developers' time if we can agree
on the design and behavior.
-Item 9: Implement new {Client}Run{Before|After}Job feature.
- Date: 26 September 2005
- Origin: Phil Stracchino
- Status: Done. This has been implemented by Eric Bollengier
-
- What: Some time ago, there was a discussion of RunAfterJob and
- ClientRunAfterJob, and the fact that they do not run after failed
- jobs. At the time, there was a suggestion to add a
- RunAfterFailedJob directive (and, presumably, a matching
- ClientRunAfterFailedJob directive), but to my knowledge these
- were never implemented.
-
- The current implementation doesn't permit to add new feature easily.
-
- An alternate way of approaching the problem has just occurred to
- me. Suppose the RunBeforeJob and RunAfterJob directives were
- expanded in a manner like this example:
-
- RunScript {
- Command = "/opt/bacula/etc/checkhost %c"
- RunsOnClient = No # default
- AbortJobOnError = Yes # default
- RunsWhen = Before
- }
- RunScript {
- Command = c:/bacula/systemstate.bat
- RunsOnClient = yes
- AbortJobOnError = No
- RunsWhen = After
- RunsOnFailure = yes
- }
-
- RunScript {
- Command = c:/bacula/deletestatefile.bat
- Target = rico-fd
- RunsWhen = Always
- }
-
- It's now possible to specify more than 1 command per Job.
- (you can stop your database and your webserver without a script)
-
- ex :
- Job {
- Name = "Client1"
- JobDefs = "DefaultJob"
- Write Bootstrap = "/tmp/bacula/var/bacula/working/Client1.bsr"
- FileSet = "Minimal"
-
- RunBeforeJob = "echo test before ; echo test before2"
- RunBeforeJob = "echo test before (2nd time)"
- RunBeforeJob = "echo test before (3rd time)"
- RunAfterJob = "echo test after"
- ClientRunAfterJob = "echo test after client"
-
- RunScript {
- Command = "echo test RunScript in error"
- Runsonclient = yes
- RunsOnSuccess = no
- RunsOnFailure = yes
- RunsWhen = After # never by default
- }
- RunScript {
- Command = "echo test RunScript on success"
- Runsonclient = yes
- RunsOnSuccess = yes # default
- RunsOnFailure = no # default
- RunsWhen = After
- }
- }
-
- Why: It would be a significant change to the structure of the
- directives, but allows for a lot more flexibility, including
- RunAfter commands that will run regardless of whether the job
- succeeds, or RunBefore tasks that still allow the job to run even
- if that specific RunBefore fails.
-
- Notes: (More notes from Phil, Kern, David and Eric)
- I would prefer to have a single new Resource called
- RunScript.
-
- RunsWhen = After|Before|Always
- RunsAtJobLevels = All|Full|Diff|Inc # not yet implemented
-
- The AbortJobOnError, RunsOnSuccess and RunsOnFailure directives
- could be optional, and possibly RunWhen as well.
-
- AbortJobOnError would be ignored unless RunsWhen was set to Before
- and would default to Yes if omitted.
- If AbortJobOnError was set to No, failure of the script
- would still generate a warning.
-
- RunsOnSuccess would be ignored unless RunsWhen was set to After
- (or RunsBeforeJob set to No), and default to Yes.
-
- RunsOnFailure would be ignored unless RunsWhen was set to After,
- and default to No.
-
- Allow having the before/after status on the script command
- line so that the same script can be used both before/after.
-
-Item 10: Merge multiple backups (Synthetic Backup or Consolidation).
+Item 6: Merge multiple backups (Synthetic Backup or Consolidation).
Origin: Marc Cousin and Eric Bollengier
Date: 15 November 2005
Status: Waiting implementation. Depends on first implementing
- project Item 2 (Migration).
+ project Item 2 (Migration) which is now done.
What: A merged backup is a backup made without connecting to the Client.
It would be a Merge of existing backups into a single backup.
data can then be pruned (or not) from the catalog, possibly
allowing older volumes to be recycled
-Item 11: Deletion of Disk-Based Bacula Volumes
+Item 8: Deletion of Disk-Based Bacula Volumes
Date: Nov 25, 2005
Origin: Ross Boylan <RossBoylan at stanfordalumni dot org> (edited
by Kern)
The migration project should also remove a Volume that is
migrated. This might also work for tape Volumes.
-Item 12: Directive/mode to backup only file changes, not entire file
- Date: 11 November 2005
- Origin: Joshua Kugler <joshua dot kugler at uaf dot edu>
- Marek Bajon <mbajon at bimsplus dot com dot pl>
- Status:
-
- What: Currently when a file changes, the entire file will be backed up in
- the next incremental or full backup. To save space on the tapes
- it would be nice to have a mode whereby only the changes to the
- file would be backed up when it is changed.
-
- Why: This would save lots of space when backing up large files such as
- logs, mbox files, Outlook PST files and the like.
-
- Notes: This would require the usage of disk-based volumes as comparing
- files would not be feasible using a tape drive.
-
-Item 13: Multiple threads in file daemon for the same job
- Date: 27 November 2005
- Origin: Ove Risberg (Ove.Risberg at octocode dot com)
- Status:
-
- What: I want the file daemon to start multiple threads for a backup
- job so the fastest possible backup can be made.
-
- The file daemon could parse the FileSet information and start
- one thread for each File entry located on a separate
- filesystem.
-
- A configuration option in the job section should be used to
- enable or disable this feature. The configuration option could
- specify the maximum number of threads in the file daemon.
-
- If the threads could spool the data to separate spool files
- the restore process will not be much slower.
-
- Why: Multiple concurrent backups of a large fileserver with many
- disks and controllers will be much faster.
-
- Notes: I am willing to try to implement this but I will probably
- need some help and advice. (No problem -- Kern)
-
-Item 14: Implement red/black binary tree routines.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status: Class code is complete. Code needs to be integrated into
- restore tree code.
-
- What: Implement a red/black binary tree class. This could
- then replace the current binary insert/search routines
- used in the restore in memory tree. This could significantly
- speed up the creation of the in memory restore tree.
-
- Why: Performance enhancement.
-
-Item 15: Add support for FileSets in user directories CACHEDIR.TAG
- Origin: Norbert Kiesel <nkiesel at tbdnetworks dot com>
- Date: 21 November 2005
- Status: (I think this is better done using a Python event that I
- will implement in version 1.39.x).
-
- What: CACHDIR.TAG is a proposal for identifying directories which
- should be ignored for archiving/backup. It works by ignoring
- directory trees which have a file named CACHEDIR.TAG with a
- specific content. See
- http://www.brynosaurus.com/cachedir/spec.html
- for details.
-
- From Peter Eriksson:
- I suggest that if this is implemented (I've also asked for this
- feature some year ago) that it is made compatible with Legato
- Networkers ".nsr" files where you can specify a lot of options on
- how to handle files/directories (including denying further
- parsing of .nsr files lower down into the directory trees). A
- PDF version of the .nsr man page can be viewed at:
-
- http://www.ifm.liu.se/~peter/nsr.pdf
-
- Why: It's a nice alternative to "exclude" patterns for directories
- which don't have regular pathnames. Also, it allows users to
- control backup for themselves. Implementation should be pretty
- simple. GNU tar >= 1.14 or so supports it, too.
-
- Notes: I envision this as an optional feature to a fileset
- specification.
-
-
-Item 16: Implement extraction of Win32 BackupWrite data.
- Origin: Thorsten Engel <thorsten.engel at matrix-computer dot com>
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Status: Done. Assigned to Thorsten. Implemented in current CVS
-
- What: This provides the Bacula File daemon with code that
- can pick apart the stream output that Microsoft writes
- for BackupWrite data, and thus the data can be read
- and restored on non-Win32 machines.
-
- Why: BackupWrite data is the portable=no option in Win32
- FileSets, and in previous Baculas, this data could
- only be extracted using a Win32 FD. With this new code,
- the Windows data can be extracted and restored on
- any OS.
-
-
-Item 18: Implement a Python interface to the Bacula catalog.
+Item 9: Implement a Python interface to the Bacula catalog.
Date: 28 October 2005
Origin: Kern
Status:
Why: This will permit users to customize Bacula through
Python scripts.
-Item 18: Archival (removal) of User Files to Tape
+Item 10: Archival (removal) of User Files to Tape
Date: Nov. 24/2005
access time. Then after another 6 months (or possibly as one
storage pool gets full) data is migrated to Tape.
-Item 19: Add Plug-ins to the FileSet Include statements.
+Item 11: Add Plug-ins to the FileSet Include statements.
Date: 28 October 2005
Origin:
Status: Partially coded in 1.37 -- much more to do.
plug-in knows how to backup his Oracle database without
stopping/starting it, for example.
-Item 20: Implement more Python events in Bacula.
+Item 12: Implement more Python events in Bacula.
Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin:
+ Origin: Kern
Status:
What: Allow Python scripts to be called at more places
jobs (possibly also scheduled jobs).
-Item 21: Quick release of FD-SD connection after backup.
+Item 13: Quick release of FD-SD connection after backup.
Origin: Frank Volf (frank at deze dot org)
Date: 17 November 2005
Status:
has done the same thing -- so in a way keeping the SD-FD link
open to the very end is not really very productive ...
- Why: Makes backup of laptops much easier.
-
-Item 22: Permit multiple Media Types in an Autochanger
- Origin: Kern
- Status: Done. Implemented in 1.38.9 (I think).
-
- What: Modify the Storage daemon so that multiple Media Types
- can be specified in an autochanger. This would be somewhat
- of a simplistic implementation in that each drive would
- still be allowed to have only one Media Type. However,
- the Storage daemon will ensure that only a drive with
- the Media Type that matches what the Director specifies
- is chosen.
-
- Why: This will permit user with several different drive types
- to make full use of their autochangers.
-
-Item 23: Allow different autochanger definitions for one autochanger.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status:
-
- What: Currently, the autochanger script is locked based on
- the autochanger. That is, if multiple drives are being
- simultaneously used, the Storage daemon ensures that only
- one drive at a time can access the mtx-changer script.
- This change would base the locking on the control device,
- rather than the autochanger. It would then permit two autochanger
- definitions for the same autochanger, but with different
- drives. Logically, the autochanger could then be "partitioned"
- for different jobs, clients, or class of jobs, and if the locking
- is based on the control device (e.g. /dev/sg0) the mtx-changer
- script will be locked appropriately.
-
- Why: This will permit users to partition autochangers for specific
- use. It would also permit implementation of multiple Media
- Types with no changes to the Storage daemon.
-
-Item 24: Automatic disabling of devices
- Date: 2005-11-11
- Origin: Peter Eriksson <peter at ifm.liu dot se>
- Status:
-
- What: After a configurable amount of fatal errors with a tape drive
- Bacula should automatically disable further use of a certain
- tape drive. There should also be "disable"/"enable" commands in
- the "bconsole" tool.
+ Why: Makes backup of laptops much faster.
- Why: On a multi-drive jukebox there is a possibility of tape drives
- going bad during large backups (needing a cleaning tape run,
- tapes getting stuck). It would be advantageous if Bacula would
- automatically disable further use of a problematic tape drive
- after a configurable amount of errors has occurred.
- An example: I have a multi-drive jukebox (6 drives, 380+ slots)
- where tapes occasionally get stuck inside the drive. Bacula will
- notice that the "mtx-changer" command will fail and then fail
- any backup jobs trying to use that drive. However, it will still
- keep on trying to run new jobs using that drive and fail -
- forever, and thus failing lots and lots of jobs... Since we have
- many drives Bacula could have just automatically disabled
- further use of that drive and used one of the other ones
- instead.
-Item 25: Implement huge exclude list support using hashing.
+Item 14: Implement huge exclude list support using hashing.
Date: 28 October 2005
Origin: Kern
Status:
backup set will be *much* smaller.
-============= Empty Feature Request form ===========
-Item n: One line summary ...
- Date: Date submitted
- Origin: Name and email of originator.
- Status:
-
- What: More detailed explanation ...
-
- Why: Why it is important ...
-
- Notes: Additional notes or features (omit if not used)
-============== End Feature Request form ==============
-
-
-===============================================
-Feature requests submitted after cutoff for December 2005 vote
- and not yet discussed.
-===============================================
-Item n: Allow skipping execution of Jobs
+Item 15: Allow skipping execution of Jobs
Date: 29 November 2005
Origin: Florian Schnabel <florian.schnabel at docufy dot de>
Status:
that would be really handy, other jobs could proceed normally
and you won't get errors that way.
-===================================================
-
-Item n: archive data
-
- Origin: calvin streeting calvin at absentdream dot com
- Date: 15/5/2006
-
- What: The abilty to archive to media (dvd/cd) in a uncompressd format
- for dead filing (archiving not backing up)
-
- Why: At my works when jobs are finished and moved off of the main file
- servers (raid based systems) onto a simple linux file server (ide based
- system) so users can find old information without contacting the IT
- dept.
-
- So this data dosn't realy change it only gets added to,
- But it also needs backing up. At the moment it takes
- about 8 hours to back up our servers (working data) so
- rather than add more time to existing backups i am trying
- to implement a system where we backup the acrhive data to
- cd/dvd these disks would only need to be appended to
- (burn only new/changed files to new disks for off site
- storage). basialy understand the differnce between
- achive data and live data.
-
- Notes: scan the data and email me when it needs burning divide
- into predifind chunks keep a recored of what is on what
- disk make me a label (simple php->mysql=>pdf stuff) i
- could do this bit ability to save data uncompresed so
- it can be read in any other system (future proof data)
- save the catalog with the disk as some kind of menu
- system
-Item : Tray monitor window cleanups
+Item 16: Tray monitor window cleanups
Origin: Alan Brown ajb2 at mssl dot ucl dot ac dot uk
Date: 24 July 2006
Status:
window often ends up larger than the available screen, making
the trailing items difficult to read.
- Notes:
- Item : Clustered file-daemons
- Origin: Alan Brown ajb2 at mssl dot ucl dot ac dot uk
- Date: 24 July 2006
+Item 17: Split documentation
+ Origin: Maxx <maxxatworkat gmail dot com>
+ Date: 27th July 2006
Status:
- What: A "virtual" filedaemon, which is actually a cluster of real ones.
- Why: In the case of clustered filesystems (SAN setups, GFS, or OCFS2, etc)
- multiple machines may have access to the same set of filesystems
+ What: Split documentation in several books
- For performance reasons, one may wish to initate backups from
- several of these machines simultaneously, instead of just using
- one backup source for the common clustered filesystem.
+ Why: Bacula manual has now more than 600 pages, and looking for
+ implementation details is getting complicated. I think
+ it would be good to split the single volume in two or
+ maybe three parts:
- For obvious reasons, normally backups of $A-FD/$PATH and
- B-FD/$PATH are treated as different backup sets. In this case
- they are the same communal set.
+ 1) Introduction, requirements and tutorial, typically
+ are useful only until first installation time
- Likewise when restoring, it would be easier to just specify
- one of the cluster machines and let bacula decide which to use.
+ 2) Basic installation and configuration, with all the
+ gory details about the directives supported 3)
+ Advanced Bacula: testing, troubleshooting, GUI and
+ ancillary programs, security managements, scripting,
+ etc.
- This can be faked to some extent using DNS round robin entries
- and a virtual IP address, however it means "status client" will
- always give bogus answers. Additionally there is no way of
- spreading the load evenly among the servers.
- What is required is something similar to the storage daemon
- autochanger directives, so that Bacula can keep track of
- operating backups/restores and direct new jobs to a "free"
- client.
- Notes:
-
-Item : Tray monitor window cleanups
- Origin: Alan Brown ajb2 at mssl dot ucl dot ac dot uk
- Date: 24 July 2006
- Status:
- What: Resizeable and scrollable windows in the tray monitor.
-
- Why: With multiple clients, or with many jobs running, the displayed
- window often ends up larger than the available screen, making
- the trailing items difficult to read.
-
- Notes:
-
-Item: Commercial database support
- Origin: Russell Howe <russell_howe dot wreckage dot org>
- Date: 26 July 2006
- Status:
-
- What: It would be nice for the database backend to support more
- databases. I'm thinking of SQL Server at the moment, but I guess Oracle,
- DB2, MaxDB, etc are all candidates. SQL Server would presumably be
- implemented using FreeTDS or maybe an ODBC library?
-
- Why: We only really have one database server, which is MS SQL Server
- 2000. Maintaining a second one for the backup software (we grew out of
- SQLite, which I liked, but which didn't work so well with our database
- size). We don't really have a machine with the resources to run
- postgres, and would rather only maintain a single DBMS. We're stuck with
- SQL Server because pretty much all the company's custom applications
- (written by consultants) are locked into SQL Server 2000. I can imagine
- this scenario is fairly common, and it would be nice to use the existing
- properly specced database server for storing Bacula's catalog, rather
- than having to run a second DBMS.
-
-
-Item n: Split documentation
- Origin: Maxx <maxxatworkat gmail dot com>
- Date: 27th July 2006
- Status:
-
- What: Split documentation in several books
-
- Why: Bacula manual has now more than 600 pages, and looking for
- implementation details is getting complicated. I think
- it would be good to split the single volume in two or
- maybe three parts:
-
- 1) Introduction, requirements and tutorial, typically
- are useful only until first installation time
-
- 2) Basic installation and configuration, with all the
- gory details about the directives supported 3)
- Advanced Bacula: testing, troubleshooting, GUI and
- ancillary programs, security managements, scripting,
- etc.
-
- Notes:
-
-Item n: Include an option to operate on all pools when doing
- update vol parameters
-
- Origin: Dmitriy Pinchukov <absh@bossdev.kiev.ua>
- Date: 16 August 2006
- Status:
-
- What: When I do update -> Volume parameters -> All Volumes
- from Pool, then I have to select pools one by one. I'd like
- console to have an option like "0: All Pools" in the list of
- defined pools.
-
- Why: I have many pools and therefore unhappy with manually
- updating each of them using update -> Volume parameters -> All
- Volumes from Pool -> pool #.
-
-Item n: Automatic promotion of backup levels
- Date: 19 January 2006
- Origin: Adam Thornton <athornton@sinenomine.net>
- Status: Blue sky
+Item 18: Automatic promotion of backup levels
+ Date: 19 January 2006
+ Origin: Adam Thornton <athornton@sinenomine.net>
+ Status: Blue sky
What: Amanda has a feature whereby it estimates the space that a
differential, incremental, and full backup would take. If the
volumes necessary during a restore, with a fairly minimal cost in
backup media space.
- Why: I know at least one (quite sophisticated and smart) user
- for whom the absence of this feature is a deal-breaker in terms of
- using Bacula; if we had it it would eliminate the one cool thing
- Amanda can do and we can't (at least, the one cool thing I know of).
-
-
-
-
-Item n+1: Incorporation of XACML2/SAML2 parsing
- Date: 19 January 2006
- Origin: Adam Thornton <athornton@sinenomine.net>
- Status: Blue sky
-
- What: XACML is "eXtensible Access Control Markup Language" and
- "SAML is the "Security Assertion Markup Language"--an XML standard
- for making statements about identity and authorization. Having these
- would give us a framework to approach ACLs in a generic manner, and
- in a way flexible enough to support the four major sorts of ACLs I
- see as a concern to Bacula at this point, as well as (probably) to
- deal with new sorts of ACLs that may appear in the future.
-
- Why: Bacula is beginning to need to back up systems with ACLs
- that do not map cleanly onto traditional Unix permissions. I see
- four sets of ACLs--in general, mutually incompatible with one
- another--that we're going to need to deal with. These are: NTFS
- ACLs, POSIX ACLs, NFSv4 ACLS, and AFS ACLS. (Some may question the
- relevance of AFS; AFS is one of Sine Nomine's core consulting
- businesses, and having a reputable file-level backup and restore
- technology for it (as Tivoli is probably going to drop AFS support
- soon since IBM no longer supports AFS) would be of huge benefit to
- our customers; we'd most likely create the AFS support at Sine Nomine
- for inclusion into the Bacula (and perhaps some changes to the
- OpenAFS volserver) core code.)
-
- Now, obviously, Bacula already handles NTFS just fine. However, I
- think there's a lot of value in implementing a generic ACL model, so
- that it's easy to support whatever particular instances of ACLs come
- down the pike: POSIX ACLS (think SELinux) and NFSv4 are the obvious
- things arriving in the Linux world in a big way in the near future.
- XACML, although overcomplicated for our needs, provides this
- framework, and we should be able to leverage other people's
- implementations to minimize the amount of work *we* have to do to get
- a generic ACL framework. Basically, the costs of implementation are
- high, but they're largely both external to Bacula and already sunk.
+ Why: I know at least one (quite sophisticated and smart) user
+ for whom the absence of this feature is a deal-breaker in terms of
+ using Bacula; if we had it it would eliminate the one cool thing
+ Amanda can do and we can't (at least, the one cool thing I know of).
-Item 1: Add an over-ride in the Schedule configuration to use a
- different pool for different backup types.
-Date: 19 Jan 2005
-Origin: Chad Slater <chad.slater@clickfox.com>
+Item 19: Add an override in Schedule for Pools based on backup types.
+Date: 19 Jan 2005
+Origin: Chad Slater <chad.slater@clickfox.com>
Status:
What: Adding a FullStorage=BigTapeLibrary in the Schedule resource
backups, then the Full job would use the proper Storage device, which
has more capacity (i.e. a 8TB tape library.
+Item 20: An option to operate on all pools with update vol parameters
+ Origin: Dmitriy Pinchukov <absh@bossdev.kiev.ua>
+ Date: 16 August 2006
+ Status:
-Item: Implement multiple numeric backup levels as supported by dump
-Date: 3 April 2006
-Origin: Daniel Rich <drich@employees.org>
-Status:
-What: Dump allows specification of backup levels numerically instead of just
- "full", "incr", and "diff". In this system, at any given level, all
- files are backed up that were were modified since the last backup of a
- higher level (with 0 being the highest and 9 being the lowest). A
- level 0 is therefore equivalent to a full, level 9 an incremental, and
- the levels 1 through 8 are varying levels of differentials. For
- bacula's sake, these could be represented as "full", "incr", and
- "diff1", "diff2", etc.
+ What: When I do update -> Volume parameters -> All Volumes
+ from Pool, then I have to select pools one by one. I'd like
+ console to have an option like "0: All Pools" in the list of
+ defined pools.
-Why: Support of multiple backup levels would provide for more advanced backup
- rotation schemes such as "Towers of Hanoi". This would allow better
- flexibility in performing backups, and can lead to shorter recover
- times.
+ Why: I have many pools and therefore unhappy with manually
+ updating each of them using update -> Volume parameters -> All
+ Volumes from Pool -> pool #.
-Notes: Legato Networker supports a similar system with full, incr, and 1-9 as
- levels.
-Kern notes: I think this would add very little functionality, but a *lot* of
- additional overhead to Bacula.
-Item 1: include JobID in spool file name
+Item 21: Include JobID in spool file name
Origin: Mark Bergman <mark.bergman@uphs.upenn.edu>
- Date: Tue Aug 22 17:13:39 EDT 2006
+ Date: Tue Aug 22 17:13:39 EDT 2006
Status:
What: Change the name of the spool file to include the JobID
Why: JobIDs are the common key used to refer to jobs, yet the
- spoolfile name doesn't include that information. The date/time
- stamp is useful (and should be retained).
+ spoolfile name doesn't include that information. The date/time
+ stamp is useful (and should be retained).
-Item 2: include timestamp of job launch in "stat clients" output
+Item 22: Include timestamp of job launch in "stat clients" output
Origin: Mark Bergman <mark.bergman@uphs.upenn.edu>
- Date: Tue Aug 22 17:13:39 EDT 2006
+ Date: Tue Aug 22 17:13:39 EDT 2006
Status:
What: The "stat clients" command doesn't include any detail on when
- the active backup jobs were launched.
+ the active backup jobs were launched.
- Why: Including the timestamp would make it much easier to decide whether
- a job is running properly.
+ Why: Including the timestamp would make it much easier to decide whether
+ a job is running properly.
- Notes: It may be helpful to have the output from "stat clients" formatted
- more like that from "stat dir" (and other commands), in a column
- format. The per-client information that's currently shown (level,
- client name, JobId, Volume, pool, device, Files, etc.) is good, but
- somewhat hard to parse (both programmatically and visually),
- particularly when there are many active clients.
+ Notes: It may be helpful to have the output from "stat clients" formatted
+ more like that from "stat dir" (and other commands), in a column
+ format. The per-client information that's currently shown (level,
+ client name, JobId, Volume, pool, device, Files, etc.) is good, but
+ somewhat hard to parse (both programmatically and visually),
+ particularly when there are many active clients.
-Item 1: Filesystemwatch triggered backup.
- Date: 31 August 2006
- Origin: Jesper Krogh <jesper@krogh.cc>
- Status: Unimplemented, depends probably on "client initiated backups"
- What: With inotify and similar filesystem triggeret notification
- systems is it possible to have the file-daemon to monitor
- filesystem changes and initiate backup.
- Why: There are 2 situations where this is nice to have.
- 1) It is possible to get a much finer-grained backup than
- the fixed schedules used now.. A file created and deleted
- a few hours later, can automatically be caught.
-
- 2) The introduced load on the system will probably be
- distributed more even on the system.
-
- Notes: This can be combined with configration that specifies
- something like: "at most every 15 minutes or when changes
- consumed XX MB".
-
-Item n: Message mailing based on backup types
+Item 23: Message mailing based on backup types
Origin: Evan Kaufman <evan.kaufman@gmail.com>
Date: January 6, 2006
Status:
or Incremental/Differential Backups (which would likely be kept
onsite).
-Notes:
- One way this could be done is through additional message types, for example:
+Notes: One way this could be done is through additional message types, for example:
Messages {
# email the boss only on full system backups
}
-Item n: Allow inclusion/exclusion of files in a fileset by creation/mod times
+Item 24: Allow inclusion/exclusion of files in a fileset by creation/mod times
Origin: Evan Kaufman <evan.kaufman@gmail.com>
Date: January 11, 2006
Status:
or 'since'.
-Item: Implement support for stacking arbitrary stream filters, sinks.
-Date: 23 November 2006
-Origin: Landon Fuller <landonf@threerings.net>
-Status: Planning. Assigned to landonf.
+Item 25: Add a scheduling syntax that permits weekly rotations
+ Date: 15 December 2006
+ Origin: Gregory Brauer (greg at wildbrain dot com)
+ Status:
+
+ What: Currently, Bacula only understands how to deal with weeks of the
+ month or weeks of the year in schedules. This makes it impossible
+ to do a true weekly rotation of tapes. There will always be a
+ discontinuity that will require disruptive manual intervention at
+ least monthly or yearly because week boundaries never align with
+ month or year boundaries.
+
+ A solution would be to add a new syntax that defines (at least)
+ a start timestamp, and repetition period.
+
+ Why: Rotated backups done at weekly intervals are useful, and Bacula
+ cannot currently do them without extensive hacking.
+
+ Notes: Here is an example syntax showing a 3-week rotation where full
+ Backups would be performed every week on Saturday, and an
+ incremental would be performed every week on Tuesday. Each
+ set of tapes could be removed from the loader for the following
+ two cycles before coming back and being reused on the third
+ week. Since the execution times are determined by intervals
+ from a given point in time, there will never be any issues with
+ having to adjust to any sort of arbitrary time boundary. In
+ the example provided, I even define the starting schedule
+ as crossing both a year and a month boundary, but the run times
+ would be based on the "Repeat" value and would therefore happen
+ weekly as desired.
+
+
+ Schedule {
+ Name = "Week 1 Rotation"
+ #Saturday. Would run Dec 30, Jan 20, Feb 10, etc.
+ Run {
+ Options {
+ Type = Full
+ Start = 2006-12-30 01:00
+ Repeat = 3w
+ }
+ }
+ #Tuesday. Would run Jan 2, Jan 23, Feb 13, etc.
+ Run {
+ Options {
+ Type = Incremental
+ Start = 2007-01-02 01:00
+ Repeat = 3w
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+ Schedule {
+ Name = "Week 2 Rotation"
+ #Saturday. Would run Jan 6, Jan 27, Feb 17, etc.
+ Run {
+ Options {
+ Type = Full
+ Start = 2007-01-06 01:00
+ Repeat = 3w
+ }
+ }
+ #Tuesday. Would run Jan 9, Jan 30, Feb 20, etc.
+ Run {
+ Options {
+ Type = Incremental
+ Start = 2007-01-09 01:00
+ Repeat = 3w
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+ Schedule {
+ Name = "Week 3 Rotation"
+ #Saturday. Would run Jan 13, Feb 3, Feb 24, etc.
+ Run {
+ Options {
+ Type = Full
+ Start = 2007-01-13 01:00
+ Repeat = 3w
+ }
+ }
+ #Tuesday. Would run Jan 16, Feb 6, Feb 27, etc.
+ Run {
+ Options {
+ Type = Incremental
+ Start = 2007-01-16 01:00
+ Repeat = 3w
+ }
+ }
+ }
+
+
+Item 26: Improve Bacula's tape and drive usage and cleaning management.
+ Date: 8 November 2005, November 11, 2005
+ Origin: Adam Thornton <athornton at sinenomine dot net>,
+ Arno Lehmann <al at its-lehmann dot de>
+ Status:
+
+ What: Make Bacula manage tape life cycle information, tape reuse
+ times and drive cleaning cycles.
+
+ Why: All three parts of this project are important when operating
+ backups.
+ We need to know which tapes need replacement, and we need to
+ make sure the drives are cleaned when necessary. While many
+ tape libraries and even autoloaders can handle all this
+ automatically, support by Bacula can be helpful for smaller
+ (older) libraries and single drives. Limiting the number of
+ times a tape is used might prevent tape errors when using
+ tapes until the drives can't read it any more. Also, checking
+ drive status during operation can prevent some failures (as I
+ [Arno] had to learn the hard way...)
+
+ Notes: First, Bacula could (and even does, to some limited extent)
+ record tape and drive usage. For tapes, the number of mounts,
+ the amount of data, and the time the tape has actually been
+ running could be recorded. Data fields for Read and Write
+ time and Number of mounts already exist in the catalog (I'm
+ not sure if VolBytes is the sum of all bytes ever written to
+ that volume by Bacula). This information can be important
+ when determining which media to replace. The ability to mark
+ Volumes as "used up" after a given number of write cycles
+ should also be implemented so that a tape is never actually
+ worn out. For the tape drives known to Bacula, similar
+ information is interesting to determine the device status and
+ expected life time: Time it's been Reading and Writing, number
+ of tape Loads / Unloads / Errors. This information is not yet
+ recorded as far as I [Arno] know. A new volume status would
+ be necessary for the new state, like "Used up" or "Worn out".
+ Volumes with this state could be used for restores, but not
+ for writing. These volumes should be migrated first (assuming
+ migration is implemented) and, once they are no longer needed,
+ could be moved to a Trash pool.
+
+ The next step would be to implement a drive cleaning setup.
+ Bacula already has knowledge about cleaning tapes. Once it
+ has some information about cleaning cycles (measured in drive
+ run time, number of tapes used, or calender days, for example)
+ it can automatically execute tape cleaning (with an
+ autochanger, obviously) or ask for operator assistance loading
+ a cleaning tape.
+
+ The final step would be to implement TAPEALERT checks not only
+ when changing tapes and only sending the information to the
+ administrator, but rather checking after each tape error,
+ checking on a regular basis (for example after each tape
+ file), and also before unloading and after loading a new tape.
+ Then, depending on the drives TAPEALERT state and the known
+ drive cleaning state Bacula could automatically schedule later
+ cleaning, clean immediately, or inform the operator.
+
+ Implementing this would perhaps require another catalog change
+ and perhaps major changes in SD code and the DIR-SD protocol,
+ so I'd only consider this worth implementing if it would
+ actually be used or even needed by many people.
+
+ Implementation of these projects could happen in three distinct
+ sub-projects: Measuring Tape and Drive usage, retiring
+ volumes, and handling drive cleaning and TAPEALERTs.
+
+Item 27: Implement support for stacking arbitrary stream filters, sinks.
+Date: 23 November 2006
+Origin: Landon Fuller <landonf@threerings.net>
+Status: Planning. Assigned to landonf.
What:
Implement support for the following:
Assistance with either code or testing would be fantastic.
-Item 1: On the bconsole "restore" command line, implement separate
- option for specifying the host to restore from, and the
- host to restore to.
-
- Date: 11 December 2006
-
- Origin: Discussion on Bacula-users entitled 'Scripted restores to
- different clients', December 2006
-
- Status: New feature request
-
- What: While using bconsole interactively, you can specify the client
- that a backup job is to be restored for, and then you can
- specify later a different client to send the restored files
- back to. However, using the 'restore' command with all options
- on the command line, this cannot be done, due to the ambiguous
- 'client' parameter. Additionally, this parameter means different
- things depending on if it's specified on the command line or
- afterwards, in the Modify Job screens.
-
- Why: This feature would enable restore jobs to be more completely
- automated, for example by a web or GUI front-end.
-
- Notes: client can also be implied by specifying the jobid on the command
- line
+Item 28: Allow FD to initiate a backup
+ Origin: Frank Volf (frank at deze dot org)
+ Date: 17 November 2005
+ Status:
+
+ What: Provide some means, possibly by a restricted console that
+ allows a FD to initiate a backup, and that uses the connection
+ established by the FD to the Director for the backup so that
+ a Director that is firewalled can do the backup.
+
+ Why: Makes backup of laptops much easier.
+
+Item 29: Directive/mode to backup only file changes, not entire file
+ Date: 11 November 2005
+ Origin: Joshua Kugler <joshua dot kugler at uaf dot edu>
+ Marek Bajon <mbajon at bimsplus dot com dot pl>
+ Status:
+
+ What: Currently when a file changes, the entire file will be backed up in
+ the next incremental or full backup. To save space on the tapes
+ it would be nice to have a mode whereby only the changes to the
+ file would be backed up when it is changed.
+
+ Why: This would save lots of space when backing up large files such as
+ logs, mbox files, Outlook PST files and the like.
+
+ Notes: This would require the usage of disk-based volumes as comparing
+ files would not be feasible using a tape drive.
+
+Item 30: Automatic disabling of devices
+ Date: 2005-11-11
+ Origin: Peter Eriksson <peter at ifm.liu dot se>
+ Status:
+
+ What: After a configurable amount of fatal errors with a tape drive
+ Bacula should automatically disable further use of a certain
+ tape drive. There should also be "disable"/"enable" commands in
+ the "bconsole" tool.
+
+ Why: On a multi-drive jukebox there is a possibility of tape drives
+ going bad during large backups (needing a cleaning tape run,
+ tapes getting stuck). It would be advantageous if Bacula would
+ automatically disable further use of a problematic tape drive
+ after a configurable amount of errors has occurred.
+
+ An example: I have a multi-drive jukebox (6 drives, 380+ slots)
+ where tapes occasionally get stuck inside the drive. Bacula will
+ notice that the "mtx-changer" command will fail and then fail
+ any backup jobs trying to use that drive. However, it will still
+ keep on trying to run new jobs using that drive and fail -
+ forever, and thus failing lots and lots of jobs... Since we have
+ many drives Bacula could have just automatically disabled
+ further use of that drive and used one of the other ones
+ instead.
+
+Item 31: Incorporation of XACML2/SAML2 parsing
+ Date: 19 January 2006
+ Origin: Adam Thornton <athornton@sinenomine.net>
+ Status: Blue sky
+
+ What: XACML is "eXtensible Access Control Markup Language" and
+ "SAML is the "Security Assertion Markup Language"--an XML standard
+ for making statements about identity and authorization. Having these
+ would give us a framework to approach ACLs in a generic manner, and
+ in a way flexible enough to support the four major sorts of ACLs I
+ see as a concern to Bacula at this point, as well as (probably) to
+ deal with new sorts of ACLs that may appear in the future.
+
+ Why: Bacula is beginning to need to back up systems with ACLs
+ that do not map cleanly onto traditional Unix permissions. I see
+ four sets of ACLs--in general, mutually incompatible with one
+ another--that we're going to need to deal with. These are: NTFS
+ ACLs, POSIX ACLs, NFSv4 ACLS, and AFS ACLS. (Some may question the
+ relevance of AFS; AFS is one of Sine Nomine's core consulting
+ businesses, and having a reputable file-level backup and restore
+ technology for it (as Tivoli is probably going to drop AFS support
+ soon since IBM no longer supports AFS) would be of huge benefit to
+ our customers; we'd most likely create the AFS support at Sine Nomine
+ for inclusion into the Bacula (and perhaps some changes to the
+ OpenAFS volserver) core code.)
+
+ Now, obviously, Bacula already handles NTFS just fine. However, I
+ think there's a lot of value in implementing a generic ACL model, so
+ that it's easy to support whatever particular instances of ACLs come
+ down the pike: POSIX ACLS (think SELinux) and NFSv4 are the obvious
+ things arriving in the Linux world in a big way in the near future.
+ XACML, although overcomplicated for our needs, provides this
+ framework, and we should be able to leverage other people's
+ implementations to minimize the amount of work *we* have to do to get
+ a generic ACL framework. Basically, the costs of implementation are
+ high, but they're largely both external to Bacula and already sunk.
+
+
+Item 32: Clustered file-daemons
+ Origin: Alan Brown ajb2 at mssl dot ucl dot ac dot uk
+ Date: 24 July 2006
+ Status:
+ What: A "virtual" filedaemon, which is actually a cluster of real ones.
+
+ Why: In the case of clustered filesystems (SAN setups, GFS, or OCFS2, etc)
+ multiple machines may have access to the same set of filesystems
+
+ For performance reasons, one may wish to initate backups from
+ several of these machines simultaneously, instead of just using
+ one backup source for the common clustered filesystem.
+
+ For obvious reasons, normally backups of $A-FD/$PATH and
+ B-FD/$PATH are treated as different backup sets. In this case
+ they are the same communal set.
+
+ Likewise when restoring, it would be easier to just specify
+ one of the cluster machines and let bacula decide which to use.
+
+ This can be faked to some extent using DNS round robin entries
+ and a virtual IP address, however it means "status client" will
+ always give bogus answers. Additionally there is no way of
+ spreading the load evenly among the servers.
+
+ What is required is something similar to the storage daemon
+ autochanger directives, so that Bacula can keep track of
+ operating backups/restores and direct new jobs to a "free"
+ client.
+
+ Notes:
+
+Item 33: Commercial database support
+ Origin: Russell Howe <russell_howe dot wreckage dot org>
+ Date: 26 July 2006
+ Status:
+
+ What: It would be nice for the database backend to support more
+ databases. I'm thinking of SQL Server at the moment, but I guess Oracle,
+ DB2, MaxDB, etc are all candidates. SQL Server would presumably be
+ implemented using FreeTDS or maybe an ODBC library?
+
+ Why: We only really have one database server, which is MS SQL Server
+ 2000. Maintaining a second one for the backup software (we grew out of
+ SQLite, which I liked, but which didn't work so well with our database
+ size). We don't really have a machine with the resources to run
+ postgres, and would rather only maintain a single DBMS. We're stuck with
+ SQL Server because pretty much all the company's custom applications
+ (written by consultants) are locked into SQL Server 2000. I can imagine
+ this scenario is fairly common, and it would be nice to use the existing
+ properly specced database server for storing Bacula's catalog, rather
+ than having to run a second DBMS.
+
+
+Item 34: Archive data
+ Date: 15/5/2006
+ Origin: calvin streeting calvin at absentdream dot com
+ Status:
+
+ What: The abilty to archive to media (dvd/cd) in a uncompressed format
+ for dead filing (archiving not backing up)
+
+ Why: At my works when jobs are finished and moved off of the main file
+ servers (raid based systems) onto a simple linux file server (ide based
+ system) so users can find old information without contacting the IT
+ dept.
+
+ So this data dosn't realy change it only gets added to,
+ But it also needs backing up. At the moment it takes
+ about 8 hours to back up our servers (working data) so
+ rather than add more time to existing backups i am trying
+ to implement a system where we backup the acrhive data to
+ cd/dvd these disks would only need to be appended to
+ (burn only new/changed files to new disks for off site
+ storage). basialy understand the differnce between
+ achive data and live data.
+
+ Notes: Scan the data and email me when it needs burning divide
+ into predifind chunks keep a recored of what is on what
+ disk make me a label (simple php->mysql=>pdf stuff) i
+ could do this bit ability to save data uncompresed so
+ it can be read in any other system (future proof data)
+ save the catalog with the disk as some kind of menu
+ system
+
+Item 35: Filesystem watch triggered backup.
+ Date: 31 August 2006
+ Origin: Jesper Krogh <jesper@krogh.cc>
+ Status: Unimplemented, depends probably on "client initiated backups"
+
+ What: With inotify and similar filesystem triggeret notification
+ systems is it possible to have the file-daemon to monitor
+ filesystem changes and initiate backup.
+
+ Why: There are 2 situations where this is nice to have.
+ 1) It is possible to get a much finer-grained backup than
+ the fixed schedules used now.. A file created and deleted
+ a few hours later, can automatically be caught.
+
+ 2) The introduced load on the system will probably be
+ distributed more even on the system.
+
+ Notes: This can be combined with configration that specifies
+ something like: "at most every 15 minutes or when changes
+ consumed XX MB".
+
+Kern Notes: I would rather see this implemented by an external program
+ that monitors the Filesystem changes, then uses the console
+ to start the appropriate job.
+
+Item 36: Implement multiple numeric backup levels as supported by dump
+Date: 3 April 2006
+Origin: Daniel Rich <drich@employees.org>
+Status:
+What: Dump allows specification of backup levels numerically instead of just
+ "full", "incr", and "diff". In this system, at any given level, all
+ files are backed up that were were modified since the last backup of a
+ higher level (with 0 being the highest and 9 being the lowest). A
+ level 0 is therefore equivalent to a full, level 9 an incremental, and
+ the levels 1 through 8 are varying levels of differentials. For
+ bacula's sake, these could be represented as "full", "incr", and
+ "diff1", "diff2", etc.
+
+Why: Support of multiple backup levels would provide for more advanced backup
+ rotation schemes such as "Towers of Hanoi". This would allow better
+ flexibility in performing backups, and can lead to shorter recover
+ times.
+
+Notes: Legato Networker supports a similar system with full, incr, and 1-9 as
+ levels.
+
+Kern notes: I think this would add very little functionality, but a *lot* of
+ additional overhead to Bacula.
+
+
+
+============= Empty Feature Request form ===========
+Item n: One line summary ...
+ Date: Date submitted
+ Origin: Name and email of originator.
+ Status:
+
+ What: More detailed explanation ...
+
+ Why: Why it is important ...
+
+ Notes: Additional notes or features (omit if not used)
+============== End Feature Request form ==============
projects / bacula / bacula / blobdiff