Projects:
Bacula Projects Roadmap
- 05 April 2004
+ 22 July 2005
+
+The following major projects are scheduled for 1.37:
-Item 1: Implement Base jobs.
+Below, you will find more information on those projects as
+well of other projects planned at a future time.
+
+Item 1: Implement Base jobs.
+ Status: Voted by users not to be implemented in 1.37
+
What: A base job is sort of like a Full save except that you
will want the FileSet to contain only files that are
unlikely to change in the future (i.e. a snapshot of
pulled in where necessary.
Why: This is something none of the competition does, as far as
- we know (except BackupPC, which is a Perl program that
+ we know (except perhpas BackupPC, which is a Perl program that
saves to disk only). It is big win for the user, it
makes Bacula stand out as offering a unique
optimization that immediately saves time and money.
FD a list of files/attribs, and the FD must search the
list and compare it for each file to be saved.
+Item 2: Add Plug-ins to the FileSet Include statements.
+ Status: In progress in 1.37 using Python scripting.
-Item 2: Job Data Spooling.
-Implemented in 1.34
-
- What: Make the Storage daemon use intermediate file storage to
-buffer
- the data to disk before writing it to the tape.
-
- Why: This would be a nice project and is the most requested
- feature. Even though you may finish a client job
- quicker by spooling to disk, you still have to
- eventually get it onto tape. If intermediate disk
- buffering allows us to improve write bandwidth to tape,
- it may make sense. In addition, you can run multiple
- simultaneous jobs all spool to disk, then the data can
- be written one job at a time to the tape at full tape
- speed. This keeps the tape running smoothly and
- prevents blocks from different simultaneous jobs from
- being intermixed on the tape, which is very inefficient
- for restores.
-
- Notes: Need multiple spool directories. Should possibly be
- able to spool by Job type, ... Possibly need high and
- low spool data levels.
-
-
-Item 3: GUI for interactive restore
-Partially Implemented in 1.34
-Item 4: GUI for interactive backup
-
- What: The current interactive restore is implemented with a tty
- interface. It would be much nicer to be able to "see" the
- list of files backed up in typical GUI tree format.
- The same mechanism could also be used for creating
- ad-hoc backup FileSets (item 8).
-
- Why: Ease of use -- especially for the end user.
-
- Notes: Rather than implementing in Gtk, we probably should go
- directly for a Browser implementation, even if doing so
- meant the capability wouldn't be available until much
- later. Not only is there the question of Windows
- sites, most Solaris/HP/IRIX, etc, shops can't currently
- run Gtk programs without installing lots of stuff
- admins are very wary about. Most sysadmins will always
- use the command line anyway, and the user who's doing
- an interactive restore or backup of his own files will
- in most cases be on a Windows machine running Exploder.
+ What: Allow users to specify wild-card and/or regular
+ expressions to be matched in both the Include and
+ Exclude directives in a FileSet. At the same time,
+ allow users to define plug-ins to be called (based on
+ regular expression/wild-card matching).
+ Why: This would give the users the ultimate ability to control
+ how files are backed up/restored. A user could write a
+ plug-in knows how to backup his Oracle database without
+ stopping/starting it, for example.
-Item 5: Implement a Migration job type that will move the job
+Item 3: Implement a Migration job type that will move the job
data from one device to another.
+ Status: Partially coded in 1.37 -- much more to do.
What: The ability to copy, move, or archive data that is on a
device to another device is very important.
Highwater size (keep total size)
Lowwater mark
-
-Item 6: Embedded Perl Scripting (precursor to 7).
-
- What: On a configuration parameter, embed the Perl language in
- Bacula.
-
- Why: The embedded Perl scripting can be called to implement
- Events such as "Volume Name needed", "End of Tape",
- "Tape at x% of rated capacity", "Job started",
- "Job Ended", "Job error", ...
-
- Notes: This needs Events.
-
-
-Item 7: Implement Events
-
- What: When a particular user defined Event occurs, call the
- embedded Perl interpreter.
-
- Why: This will provide the ultimate in user customization for
- Bacula. Almost anything imaginable can be done if Events
- are called at the appropriate place.
-
- Notes: There is a certain amount of work to be done on how
- the user defines or "registers" events.
-
-
-Item 8: Multiple Storage Devices for a Single Job
-
- What: Allow any Job to use more than one Storage device.
-
- Why: With two devices, for example, the second device could
- have the next backup tape pre-mounted reducing operator
- intervention in the middle of the night.
-
-
-Item 9: Backup a Single Job Simultaneously to Multiple Storage
- Devices
-
- What: Make two copies of the backup data at the same time.
-
- Why: Large shops typically do this and then take one set of
- backups off-site. Some design work it needed in how to
- specify the type of backup (backup, archive, ...) for
- each Device.
-
-
-Item 10: Break the one-to-one Relationship between a Job and a
- Specific Storage Device (or Devices if #10 is implemented).
-
- What: Allow a Job to simply specify one or more MediaType, and
- the Storage daemon will select a device for it. In
- fact, the user should be able to specify one or more
- MediaType, Storage daemon, and/or device to be used.
-
- Why: To allow more flexibility in large shops that have multiple
- drives and/or multiple drives of different types.
-
-
-Item 11: Add Regular Expression Matching and Plug-ins to the
- FileSet Include statements.
-
- What: Allow users to specify wild-card and/or regular
- expressions to be matched in both the Include and
- Exclude directives in a FileSet. At the same time,
- allow users to define plug-ins to be called (based on
- regular expression/wild-card matching).
-
- Why: This would give the users the ultimate ability to control
- how files are backed up/restored. A user could write a
- plug-in knows how to backup his Oracle database without
- stopping/starting it, for example.
-
-
-Item 12: Implement data encryption (as opposed to communications
+Item 9: Implement data encryption (as opposed to communications
encryption)
-
+ Status: Landon Fuller has agreed to work on this.
+
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. Note, communications
- encryption encrypts the data when leaving the File daemon,
- then decrypts the data on entry to the Storage daemon.
+ 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.
- Notes: The only algorithm that is needed is AES.
- http://csrc.nist.gov/CryptoToolkit/aes/
-
-
-Item 13: New daemon communication protocol.
-
- What: The current daemon to daemon protocol is basically an ASCII
- printf() and sending the buffer. On the receiving end, the
- buffer is sscanf()ed to unpack it. The new scheme would
- retain the current ASCII sending, but would add an
- argc, argv like table driven scanner to replace sscanf.
-
- Why: Named fields will permit error checking to ensure that
- what is sent is what the receiver really wants. The
- fields can be in any order and additional fields can be
- ignored allowing better upward compatibility. Much
- better checking of the types and values passed can be
- done.
-
- Notes: These are internal improvements in the interest of the
- long-term stability and evolution of the program. On
- the one hand, the sooner they're done, the less code we
- have to rip up when the time comes to install them. On
- the other hand, they don't bring an immediately
- perceptible benefit to potential users.
+Items completed for release 1.38.0:
+#4 Embedded Python Scripting (implemented in all Daemons)
+#5 Events that call a Python program (Implemented in all
+ daemons, but more cleanup work to be done).
+#6 Select one from among Multiple Storage Devices for Job.
+ This is already implemented in 1.37.
+#7 Single Job Writing to Multiple Storage Devices. This is
+ currently implemented with a Clone feature.
+#- Full multiple drive Autochanger support (mostly implemented).
+#- We will have built in support for communications
+ encryption (TLS) done by Landon Fuller.
+# We will most likely have support for Unicode characters
+ (via UTF-8) on Win32 machines thanks to Thorsten Engle.
+Item 8: Break the one-to-one Relationship between a Job and a
+ Specific Storage Device (or Devices if #10 is implemented).
Completed items from last year's list:
Item 1: Multiple simultaneous Jobs. (done)
Item 5: Implement Label templates (done).
Item 6: Write a regression script (done)
Item 9: Add SSL to daemon communications (For now, implement with
-stunnel)
+ stunnel)
Item 10: Define definitive tape format (done)
+Item 3: GUI for interactive restore. Partially Implemented in 1.34
+ Note, there is now a complete Webmin plugin, a partial
+ GNOME console, and an excellent wx-console GUI.
+Item 4: GUI for interactive backup
+Item 2: Job Data Spooling.
+ Done: Regular expression matching.
+Item 10: New daemon communication protocol (this has been dropped).
projects / bacula / bacula / blobdiff