Projects:
Bacula Projects Roadmap
- 08 November 2005
+ Status updated 15 December 2006
+
+
+Summary:
+Item 1: Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted files
+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 a Migration job type that will move the job
- data from one device to another.
- Origin: Sponsored by Riege Sofware International GmbH. Contact:
- Daniel Holtkamp <holtkamp at riege dot com>
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Status: Partially coded in 1.37 -- much 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: Migration could be triggered by:
- Number of Jobs
- Number of Volumes
- Age of Jobs
- Highwater size (keep total size)
- Lowwater mark
-
-Item 2: Implement extraction of Win32 BackupWrite data.
- Origin: Thorsten Engel <thorsten.engel at matrix-computer dot com>
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Status: Assigned to Thorsten. Implemented in current CVS
+Item 1: Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted files
+ Date: 28 November 2005
+ Origin: Martin Simmons (martin at lispworks dot com)
+ Status: Robert Nelson will implement this
- 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.
+ What: When restoring a fileset for a specified date (including "most
+ recent"), Bacula should give you exactly the files and directories
+ that existed at the time of the last backup prior to that date.
- 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.
+ Currently this only works if the last backup was a Full backup.
+ When the last backup was Incremental/Differential, files and
+ directories that have been renamed or deleted since the last Full
+ backup are not currently restored correctly. Ditto for files with
+ extra/fewer hard links than at the time of the last Full backup.
+ Why: Incremental/Differential would be much more useful if this worked.
-Item 3: Implement a Bacula GUI/management tool using Python
- and Qt.
+ 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.
+ Kern: notes shortened. This can be done without the need for
+ inodes. It is essentially the same as the current Verify job,
+ but one additional database record must be written, which does
+ not need any database change.
+
+ Kern: see if we can correct restoration of directories if
+ replace=ifnewer is set. Currently, if the directory does not
+ exist, a "dummy" directory is created, then when all the files
+ are updated, the dummy directory is newer so the real values
+ are not updated.
+
+Item 2: Implement a Bacula GUI/management tool.
Origin: Kern
Date: 28 October 2005
- Status:
+ Status:
What: Implement a Bacula console, and management tools
- using Python and Qt.
+ 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.
-Item 4: Implement a Python interface to the Bacula catalog.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status:
-
- What: Implement an interface for Python scripts to access
- the catalog through Bacula.
+ 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.
- Why: This will permit users to customize Bacula through
- Python scripts.
-Item 5: Implement more Python events in Bacula.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin:
- Status:
-
- What: Allow Python scripts to be called at more places
- within Bacula and provide additional access to Bacula
- internal variables.
-
- Why: This will permit users to customize Bacula through
- Python scripts.
-
- Notes: Recycle event
- Scratch pool event
- NeedVolume event
-
-
-Item 6: Implement Base jobs.
+Item 3: Implement Base jobs.
Date: 28 October 2005
Origin: Kern
Status:
pulled in where necessary.
Why: This is something none of the competition does, as far as
- we know (except perhpas BackupPC, which is a Perl program that
+ we know (except perhaps 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 7: Add Plug-ins to the FileSet Include statements.
+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 5: Implement creation and maintenance of copy pools
+ Date: 27 November 2005
+ Origin: David Boyes (dboyes at sinenomine dot net)
+ Status:
+
+ What: I would like Bacula to have the capability to write copies
+ of backed-up data on multiple physical volumes selected
+ from different pools without transferring the data
+ multiple times, and to accept any of the copy volumes
+ as valid for restore.
+
+ Why: In many cases, businesses are required to keep offsite
+ copies of backup volumes, or just wish for simple
+ protection against a human operator dropping a storage
+ volume and damaging it. The ability to generate multiple
+ volumes in the course of a single backup job allows
+ customers to simple check out one copy and send it
+ offsite, marking it as out of changer or otherwise
+ unavailable. Currently, the library and magazine
+ management capability in Bacula does not make this process
+ simple.
+
+ Restores would use the copy of the data on the first
+ available volume, in order of copy pool chain definition.
+
+ This is also a major scalability issue -- as the number of
+ clients increases beyond several thousand, and the volume
+ of data increases, transferring the data multiple times to
+ produce additional copies of the backups will become
+ physically impossible due to transfer speed
+ issues. Generating multiple copies at server side will
+ become the only practical option.
+
+ How: I suspect that this will require adding a multiplexing
+ SD that appears to be a SD to a specific FD, but 1-n FDs
+ to the specific back end SDs managing the primary and copy
+ pools. Storage pools will also need to acquire parameters
+ to define the pools to be used for copies.
+
+ Notes: I would commit some of my developers' time if we can agree
+ on the design and behavior.
+
+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) 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.
+ In effect, it is like a restore but to the backup medium.
+
+ For instance, say that last Sunday we made a full backup. Then
+ all week long, we created incremental backups, in order to do
+ them fast. Now comes Sunday again, and we need another full.
+ The merged backup makes it possible to do instead an incremental
+ backup (during the night for instance), and then create a merged
+ backup during the day, by using the full and incrementals from
+ the week. The merged backup will be exactly like a full made
+ Sunday night on the tape, but the production interruption on the
+ Client will be minimal, as the Client will only have to send
+ incrementals.
+
+ In fact, if it's done correctly, you could merge all the
+ Incrementals into single Incremental, or all the Incrementals
+ and the last Differential into a new Differential, or the Full,
+ last differential and all the Incrementals into a new Full
+ backup. And there is no need to involve the Client.
+
+ Why: The benefit is that :
+ - the Client just does an incremental ;
+ - the merged backup on tape is just as a single full backup,
+ and can be restored very fast.
+
+ This is also a way of reducing the backup data since the old
+ data can then be pruned (or not) from the catalog, possibly
+ allowing older volumes to be recycled
+
+Item 8: Deletion of Disk-Based Bacula Volumes
+ Date: Nov 25, 2005
+ Origin: Ross Boylan <RossBoylan at stanfordalumni dot org> (edited
+ by Kern)
+ Status:
+
+ What: Provide a way for Bacula to automatically remove Volumes
+ from the filesystem, or optionally to truncate them.
+ Obviously, the Volume must be pruned prior removal.
+
+ Why: This would allow users more control over their Volumes and
+ prevent disk based volumes from consuming too much space.
+
+ Notes: The following two directives might do the trick:
+
+ Volume Data Retention = <time period>
+ Remove Volume After = <time period>
+
+ The migration project should also remove a Volume that is
+ migrated. This might also work for tape Volumes.
+
+Item 9: Implement a Python interface to the Bacula catalog.
+ Date: 28 October 2005
+ Origin: Kern
+ Status:
+
+ What: Implement an interface for Python scripts to access
+ the catalog through Bacula.
+
+ Why: This will permit users to customize Bacula through
+ Python scripts.
+
+Item 10: Archival (removal) of User Files to Tape
+
+ Date: Nov. 24/2005
+
+ Origin: Ray Pengelly [ray at biomed dot queensu dot ca
+ Status:
+
+ What: The ability to archive data to storage based on certain parameters
+ such as age, size, or location. Once the data has been written to
+ storage and logged it is then pruned from the originating
+ filesystem. Note! We are talking about user's files and not
+ Bacula Volumes.
+
+ Why: This would allow fully automatic storage management which becomes
+ useful for large datastores. It would also allow for auto-staging
+ from one media type to another.
+
+ Example 1) Medical imaging needs to store large amounts of data.
+ They decide to keep data on their servers for 6 months and then put
+ it away for long term storage. The server then finds all files
+ older than 6 months writes them to tape. The files are then removed
+ from the server.
+
+ Example 2) All data that hasn't been accessed in 2 months could be
+ moved from high-cost, fibre-channel disk storage to a low-cost
+ large-capacity SATA disk storage pool which doesn't have as quick of
+ access time. Then after another 6 months (or possibly as one
+ storage pool gets full) data is migrated to Tape.
+
+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 8: Implement huge exclude list support using hashing.
+Item 12: Implement more Python events in Bacula.
+ Date: 28 October 2005
+ Origin: Kern
+ Status:
+
+ What: Allow Python scripts to be called at more places
+ within Bacula and provide additional access to Bacula
+ internal variables.
+
+ Why: This will permit users to customize Bacula through
+ Python scripts.
+
+ Notes: Recycle event
+ Scratch pool event
+ NeedVolume event
+ MediaFull event
+
+ Also add a way to get a listing of currently running
+ jobs (possibly also scheduled jobs).
+
+
+Item 13: Quick release of FD-SD connection after backup.
+ Origin: Frank Volf (frank at deze dot org)
+ Date: 17 November 2005
+ Status:
+
+ What: In the Bacula implementation a backup is finished after all data
+ and attributes are successfully written to storage. When using a
+ tape backup it is very annoying that a backup can take a day,
+ simply because the current tape (or whatever) is full and the
+ administrator has not put a new one in. During that time the
+ system cannot be taken off-line, because there is still an open
+ session between the storage daemon and the file daemon on the
+ client.
+
+ Although this is a very good strategy for making "safe backups"
+ This can be annoying for e.g. laptops, that must remain
+ connected until the backup is completed.
+
+ Using a new feature called "migration" it will be possible to
+ spool first to harddisk (using a special 'spool' migration
+ scheme) and then migrate the backup to tape.
+
+ There is still the problem of getting the attributes committed.
+ If it takes a very long time to do, with the current code, the
+ job has not terminated, and the File daemon is not freed up. The
+ Storage daemon should release the File daemon as soon as all the
+ file data and all the attributes have been sent to it (the SD).
+ Currently the SD waits until everything is on tape and all the
+ attributes are transmitted to the Director before signaling
+ completion to the FD. I don't think I would have any problem
+ changing this. The reason is that even if the FD reports back to
+ the Dir that all is OK, the job will not terminate until the SD
+ 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 faster.
+
+
+
+Item 14: Implement huge exclude list support using hashing.
Date: 28 October 2005
Origin: Kern
Status:
backup set will be *much* smaller.
-Item 9: Implement data encryption (as opposed to communications
- encryption)
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Sponsored by Landon and 13 contributors to EFF.
- Status: Landon Fuller is currently implementing 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.
- 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 10: Permit multiple Media Types in an Autochanger
- Origin:
- Status:
+Item 15: Allow skipping execution of Jobs
+ Date: 29 November 2005
+ Origin: Florian Schnabel <florian.schnabel at docufy dot de>
+ Status:
- 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.
+ What: An easy option to skip a certain job on a certain date.
+ Why: You could then easily skip tape backups on holidays. Especially
+ if you got no autochanger and can only fit one backup on a tape
+ that would be really handy, other jobs could proceed normally
+ and you won't get errors that way.
- Why: This will permit user with several different drive types
- to make full use of their autochangers.
-Item 11: Allow two different autochanger definitions that refer
- to the same autochanger.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status:
+Item 16: 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.
- 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 12: Implement red/black binary tree routines.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status:
+ 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.
+
+
+Item 17: 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.
+
+
+
+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
+ difference in space required between the scheduled level and the next
+ level up is beneath some user-defined critical threshold, the backup
+ level is bumped to the next type. Doing this minimizes the number of
+ 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 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
+ would help those of us who use different storage devices for different
+ backup levels cope with the "auto-upgrade" of a backup.
+
+ Why: Assume I add several new device to be backed up, i.e. several
+ hosts with 1TB RAID. To avoid tape switching hassles, incrementals are
+ stored in a disk set on a 2TB RAID. If you add these devices in the
+ middle of the month, the incrementals are upgraded to "full" backups,
+ but they try to use the same storage device as requested in the
+ incremental job, filling up the RAID holding the differentials. If we
+ could override the Storage parameter for full and/or differential
+ 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:
+
+ 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 21: Include JobID in spool file name
+ Origin: Mark Bergman <mark.bergman@uphs.upenn.edu>
+ Date: Tue Aug 22 17:13:39 EDT 2006
+ Status:
- 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.
+ What: Change the name of the spool file to include the JobID
- Why: Performance enhancement.
+ 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).
-Item 13: Let Bacula log tape usage and handle drive cleaning cycles.
- Date: November 11, 2005
- Origin: Arno Lehmann <al at its-lehmann dot de>
+
+
+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
Status:
- What: Make Bacula manage tape life cycle information and drive
- cleaning cycles.
+ What: The "stat clients" command doesn't include any detail on when
+ the active backup jobs were launched.
+
+ Why: Including the timestamp would make it much easier to decide whether
+ a job is running properly.
- Why: Both parts of this project are important when operating backups.
+ 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 23: Message mailing based on backup types
+Origin: Evan Kaufman <evan.kaufman@gmail.com>
+ Date: January 6, 2006
+Status:
+
+ What: In the "Messages" resource definitions, allowing messages
+ to be mailed based on the type (backup, restore, etc.) and level
+ (full, differential, etc) of job that created the originating
+ message(s).
+
+Why: It would, for example, allow someone's boss to be emailed
+ automatically only when a Full Backup job runs, so he can
+ retrieve the tapes for offsite storage, even if the IT dept.
+ doesn't (or can't) explicitly notify him. At the same time, his
+ mailbox wouldnt be filled by notifications of Verifies, Restores,
+ or Incremental/Differential Backups (which would likely be kept
+ onsite).
+
+Notes: One way this could be done is through additional message types, for example:
+
+ Messages {
+ # email the boss only on full system backups
+ Mail = boss@mycompany.com = full, !incremental, !differential, !restore,
+ !verify, !admin
+ # email us only when something breaks
+ MailOnError = itdept@mycompany.com = all
+ }
+
+
+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:
+
+ What: In the vein of the Wild and Regex directives in a Fileset's
+ Options, it would be helpful to allow a user to include or exclude
+ files and directories by creation or modification times.
+
+ You could factor the Exclude=yes|no option in much the same way it
+ affects the Wild and Regex directives. For example, you could exclude
+ all files modified before a certain date:
+
+ Options {
+ Exclude = yes
+ Modified Before = ####
+ }
+
+ Or you could exclude all files created/modified since a certain date:
+
+ Options {
+ Exclude = yes
+ Created Modified Since = ####
+ }
+
+ The format of the time/date could be done several ways, say the number
+ of seconds since the epoch:
+ 1137008553 = Jan 11 2006, 1:42:33PM # result of `date +%s`
+
+ Or a human readable date in a cryptic form:
+ 20060111134233 = Jan 11 2006, 1:42:33PM # YYYYMMDDhhmmss
+
+ Why: I imagine a feature like this could have many uses. It would
+ allow a user to do a full backup while excluding the base operating
+ system files, so if I installed a Linux snapshot from a CD yesterday,
+ I'll *exclude* all files modified *before* today. If I need to
+ recover the system, I use the CD I already have, plus the tape backup.
+ Or if, say, a Windows client is hit by a particularly corrosive
+ virus, and I need to *exclude* any files created/modified *since* the
+ time of infection.
+
+ Notes: Of course, this feature would work in concert with other
+ in/exclude rules, and wouldnt override them (or each other).
+
+ Notes: The directives I'd imagine would be along the lines of
+ "[Created] [Modified] [Before|Since] = <date>".
+ So one could compare against 'ctime' and/or 'mtime', but ONLY 'before'
+ or 'since'.
+
+
+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. Also, checking drive
- status during operation can prevent some failures (as I had to
- learn the hard way...)
+ (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 Nmber 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. 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 know.
-
- The next step would be implementing 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 assistence loading a cleaning
- tape.
-
- The next step would be to implement TAPEALERT checks not only
- when changing tapes and only sending he information to the
+ 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 know drive
- cleaning state Bacula could automatically schedule later
+ 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 protocoll,
+ 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.
+ 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:
+ - Stacking arbitrary stream filters (eg, encryption, compression,
+ sparse data handling))
+ - Attaching file sinks to terminate stream filters (ie, write out
+ the resultant data to a file)
+ - Refactor the restoration state machine accordingly
+
+Why:
+ The existing stream implementation suffers from the following:
+ - All state (compression, encryption, stream restoration), is
+ global across the entire restore process, for all streams. There are
+ multiple entry and exit points in the restoration state machine, and
+ thus multiple places where state must be allocated, deallocated,
+ initialized, or reinitialized. This results in exceptional complexity
+ for the author of a stream filter.
+ - The developer must enumerate all possible combinations of filters
+ and stream types (ie, win32 data with encryption, without encryption,
+ with encryption AND compression, etc).
+
+Notes:
+ This feature request only covers implementing the stream filters/
+ sinks, and refactoring the file daemon's restoration implementation
+ accordingly. If I have extra time, I will also rewrite the backup
+ implementation. My intent in implementing the restoration first is to
+ solve pressing bugs in the restoration handling, and to ensure that
+ the new restore implementation handles existing backups correctly.
+
+ I do not plan on changing the network or tape data structures to
+ support defining arbitrary stream filters, but supporting that
+ functionality is the ultimate goal.
+
+ Assistance with either code or testing would be fantastic.
+
+Item 28: Allow FD to initiate a backup
+ Origin: Frank Volf (frank at deze dot org)
+ Date: 17 November 2005
+ Status:
-Item 14: Merging of multiple backups into a single one. (Also called Synthetic
- Backup or Consolidation).
+ 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.
- Origin: Marc Cousin and Eric Bollengier
- Date: 15 November 2005
- Status: Depends on first implementing project Item 1 (Migration).
+ Why: Makes backup of laptops much easier.
- 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.
- In effect, it is like a restore but to the backup medium.
+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:
- For instance, say that last sunday we made a full backup. Then
- all week long, we created incremental backups, in order to do
- them fast. Now comes sunday again, and we need another full.
- The merged backup makes it possible to do instead an incremental
- backup (during the night for instance), and then create a merged
- backup during the day, by using the full and incrementals from
- the week. The merged backup will be exactly like a full made
- sunday night on the tape, but the production interruption on the
- Client will be minimal, as the Client will only have to send
- incrementals.
+ 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.
- In fact, if it's done correctly, you could merge all the
- Incrementals into single Incremental, or all the Incrementals
- and the last Differential into a new Differential, or the Full,
- last differential and all the Incrementals into a new Full
- backup. And there is no need to involve the Client.
+ Why: In the case of clustered filesystems (SAN setups, GFS, or OCFS2, etc)
+ multiple machines may have access to the same set of filesystems
- Why: The benefit is that :
- - the Client just does an incremental ;
- - the merged backup on tape is just as a single full backup,
- and can be restored very fast.
+ 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.
- This is also a way of reducing the backup data since the old
- data can then be pruned (or not) from the catalog, possibly
- allowing older volumes to be recycled
+ 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.
+Item 1: Implement a server-side compression feature
+ Date: 18 December 2006
+ Origin: Vadim A. Umanski , e-mail umanski@ext.ru
+ Status:
+ What: The ability to compress backup data on server receiving data
+ instead of doing that on client sending data.
+ Why: The need is practical. I've got some machines that can send
+ data to the network 4 or 5 times faster than compressing
+ them (I've measured that). They're using fast enough SCSI/FC
+ disk subsystems but rather slow CPUs (ex. UltraSPARC II).
+ And the backup server has got a quite fast CPUs (ex. Dual P4
+ Xeons) and quite a low load. When you have 20, 50 or 100 GB
+ of raw data - running a job 4 to 5 times faster - that
+ really matters. On the other hand, the data can be
+ compressed 50% or better - so losing twice more space for
+ disk backup is not good at all. And the network is all mine
+ (I have a dedicated management/provisioning network) and I
+ can get as high bandwidth as I need - 100Mbps, 1000Mbps...
+ That's why the server-side compression feature is needed!
+ Notes:
+
+Item 1: Cause daemons to use a specific IP address to source communications
+ Origin: Bill Moran <wmoran@collaborativefusion.com>
+ Date: 18 Dec 2006
+ Status:
+ What: Cause Bacula daemons (dir, fd, sd) to always use the ip address
+ specified in the [DIR|DF|SD]Addr directive as the source IP
+ for initiating communication.
+ Why: On complex networks, as well as extremely secure networks, it's
+ not unusual to have multiple possible routes through the network.
+ Often, each of these routes is secured by different policies
+ (effectively, firewalls allow or deny different traffic depending
+ on the source address)
+ Unfortunately, it can sometimes be difficult or impossible to
+ represent this in a system routing table, as the result is
+ excessive subnetting that quickly exhausts available IP space.
+ The best available workaround is to provide multiple IPs to
+ a single machine that are all on the same subnet. In order
+ for this to work properly, applications must support the ability
+ to bind outgoing connections to a specified address, otherwise
+ the operating system will always choose the first IP that
+ matches the required route.
+ Notes: Many other programs support this. For example, the following
+ can be configured in BIND:
+ query-source address 10.0.0.1;
+ transfer-source 10.0.0.2;
+ Which means queries from this server will always come from
+ 10.0.0.1 and zone transfers will always originate from
+ 10.0.0.2.
+
+Item n: 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 confiuration option in the job section should be used to
+ enable or disable this feature. The confgutration option could
+ specify the maximum number of threads in the file daemon.
+
+ If the theads 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.
-============= Empty RFC form ===========
-Item n: One line summary ...
+============= Empty Feature Request form ===========
+Item n: One line summary ...
Date: Date submitted
Origin: Name and email of originator.
Status:
Why: Why it is important ...
Notes: Additional notes or features (omit if not used)
-============== End RFC form ==============
-
-
-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 (done in 1.37)
-#- Built in support for communications encryption (TLS)
- done by Landon Fuller.
-# Support for Unicode characters
- (via UTF-8) on Win32 machines thanks to Thorsten Engel.
-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 3: Write the bscan program -- also write a bcopy program (done).
-Item 5: Implement Label templates (done).
-Item 6: Write a regression script (done)
-Item 9: Add SSL to daemon communications (done by Landon Fuller)
-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).
+============== End Feature Request form ==============
projects / bacula / bacula / blobdiff