Projects:
Bacula Projects Roadmap
- 07 December 2005
- (prioritized by user vote)
+ Status updated 26 August 2008
+
+Items Completed:
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.
-
-
-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: 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 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: 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: 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
- Incremental/Differential backups
+Item 1: Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted files
+Item 2: Allow FD to initiate a backup
+Item 3: Merge multiple backups (Synthetic Backup or Consolidation)
+Item 4: Implement Catalog directive for Pool resource in Director
+Item 5: Add an item to the restore option where you can select a Pool
+Item 6: Deletion of disk Volumes when pruned
+Item 7: Implement Base jobs
+Item 8: Implement Copy pools
+Item 9: Scheduling syntax that permits more flexibility and options
+Item 10: Message mailing based on backup types
+Item 11: Cause daemons to use a specific IP address to source communications
+Item 12: Add Plug-ins to the FileSet Include statements.
+Item 13: Restore only file attributes (permissions, ACL, owner, group...)
+Item 14: Add an override in Schedule for Pools based on backup types
+Item 15: Implement more Python events and functions
+Item 16: Allow inclusion/exclusion of files in a fileset by creation/mod times
+Item 17: Automatic promotion of backup levels based on backup size
+Item 18: Better control over Job execution
+Item 19: Automatic disabling of devices
+Item 20: An option to operate on all pools with update vol parameters
+Item 21: Include timestamp of job launch in "stat clients" output
+Item 22: Implement Storage daemon compression
+Item 23: Improve Bacula's tape and drive usage and cleaning management
+Item 24: Multiple threads in file daemon for the same job
+Item 25: Archival (removal) of User Files to Tape
+
+
+Item 1: Accurate restoration of renamed/deleted files
Date: 28 November 2005
Origin: Martin Simmons (martin at lispworks dot com)
- Status:
+ Status:
What: When restoring a fileset for a specified date (including "most
recent"), Bacula should give you exactly the files and directories
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.
- Kern: notes shortened. This can be done without the need for
+ Note: 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.
-Item 4: Implement a Bacula GUI/management tool using Python.
- Origin: Kern
- Date: 28 October 2005
+ Notes: 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: 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 3: Merge multiple backups (Synthetic Backup or Consolidation)
+ Origin: Marc Cousin and Eric Bollengier
+ Date: 15 November 2005
Status:
- What: Implement a Bacula console, and management tools
- using Python and Qt or GTK.
+ 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 4: Implement Catalog directive for Pool resource in Director
+ Origin: Alan Davis adavis@ruckus.com
+ Date: 6 March 2007
+ Status: Submitted
+
+ What: The current behavior is for the director to create all pools
+ found in the configuration file in all catalogs. Add a
+ Catalog directive to the Pool resource to specify which
+ catalog to use for each pool definition.
+
+ Why: This allows different catalogs to have different pool
+ attributes and eliminates the side-effect of adding
+ pools to catalogs that don't need/use them.
+
+ Notes: Kern: I think this is relatively easy to do, and it is really
+ a pre-requisite to a number of the Copy pool, ... projects
+ that are listed here.
+
+Item 5: Add an item to the restore option where you can select a Pool
+ Origin: kshatriyak at gmail dot com
+ Date: 1/1/2006
+ Status:
- Why: Don't we already have a wxWidgets GUI? Yes, but
- it is written in C++ and changes to the user interface
- must be hand tailored using C++ code. By developing
- the user interface using Qt designer, the interface
- can be very easily updated and most of the new Python
- code will be automatically created. The user interface
- changes become very simple, and only the new features
- must be implement. In addition, the code will be in
- Python, which will give many more users easy (or easier)
- access to making additions or modifications.
+ What: In the restore option (Select the most recent backup for a
+ client) it would be useful to add an option where you can limit
+ the selection to a certain pool.
- Notes: This is currently being implemented using Python-GTK by
- Lucas Di Pentima <lucas at lunix dot com dot ar>
+ Why: When using cloned jobs, most of the time you have 2 pools - a
+ disk pool and a tape pool. People who have 2 pools would like to
+ select the most recent backup from disk, not from tape (tape
+ would be only needed in emergency). However, the most recent
+ backup (which may just differ a second from the disk backup) may
+ be on tape and would be selected. The problem becomes bigger if
+ you have a full and differential - the most "recent" full backup
+ may be on disk, while the most recent differential may be on tape
+ (though the differential on disk may differ even only a second or
+ so). Bacula will complain that the backups reside on different
+ media then. For now the only solution now when restoring things
+ when you have 2 pools is to manually search for the right
+ job-id's and enter them by hand, which is a bit fault tolerant.
-Item 5: Implement Base jobs.
+ Notes: Kern: This is a nice idea. It could also be the way to support
+ Jobs that have been Copied (similar to migration, but not yet
+ implemented).
+
+
+
+Item 6: Deletion of disk Volumes when pruned
+ 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 7: 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 8: Implement creation and maintenance of copy pools
+Item 8: Implement Copy pools
Date: 27 November 2005
Origin: David Boyes (dboyes at sinenomine dot net)
Status:
simple.
Restores would use the copy of the data on the first
- available volume, in order of copy pool chain definition.
+ 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
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 <phil.stracchino at speakeasy dot net>
- Status:
-
- 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.
-
- An alternate way of approaching the problem has just occurred to
- me. Suppose the RunBeforeJob and RunAfterJob directives were
- expanded in a manner something like this example:
-
- RunBeforeJob {
- Command = "/opt/bacula/etc/checkhost %c"
- RunsOnClient = No
- RunsAtJobLevels = All # All, Full, Diff, Inc
- AbortJobOnError = Yes
- }
- RunBeforeJob {
- Command = c:/bacula/systemstate.bat
- RunsOnClient = yes
- RunsAtJobLevels = All # All, Full, Diff, Inc
- AbortJobOnError = No
+ Notes: Additional notes from David:
+ I think there's two areas where new configuration would be needed.
+
+ 1) Identify a "SD mux" SD (specify it in the config just like a
+ normal SD. The SD configuration would need something like a
+ "Daemon Type = Normal/Mux" keyword to identify it as a
+ multiplexor. (The director code would need modification to add
+ the ability to do the multiple session setup, but the impact of
+ the change would be new code that was invoked only when a SDmux is
+ needed).
+
+ 2) Additional keywords in the Pool definition to identify the need
+ to create copies. Each pool would acquire a Copypool= attribute
+ (may be repeated to generate more than one copy. 3 is about the
+ practical limit, but no point in hardcoding that).
+
+ Example:
+ Pool {
+ Name = Primary
+ Pool Type = Backup
+ Copypool = Copy1
+ Copypool = OffsiteCopy2
}
- RunAfterJob {
- Command = c:/bacula/deletestatefile.bat
- RunsOnClient = Yes
- RunsAtJobLevels = All # All, Full, Diff, Inc
- RunsOnSuccess = Yes
- RunsOnFailure = Yes
- }
- RunAfterJob {
- Command = c:/bacula/somethingelse.bat
- RunsOnClient = Yes
- RunsAtJobLevels = All
- RunsOnSuccess = No
- RunsOnFailure = Yes
- }
- RunAfterJob {
- Command = "/opt/bacula/etc/checkhost -v %c"
- RunsOnClient = No
- RunsAtJobLevels = All
- RunsOnSuccess = No
- RunsOnFailure = Yes
- }
+ where Copy1 and OffsiteCopy2 are valid pools.
+
+ In terms of function (shorthand): Backup job X is defined
+ normally, specifying pool Primary as the pool to use. Job gets
+ scheduled, and Bacula starts scheduling resources. Scheduler
+ looks at pool definition for Primary, sees that there are a
+ non-zero number of copypool keywords. The director then connects
+ to an available SDmux, passes it the pool ids for Primary, Copy1,
+ and OffsiteCopy2 and waits. SDmux then goes out and reserves
+ devices and volumes in the normal SDs that serve Primary, Copy1
+ and OffsiteCopy2. When all are ready, the SDmux signals ready
+ back to the director, and the FD is given the address of the SDmux
+ as the SD to communicate with. Backup proceeds normally, with the
+ SDmux duplicating blocks to each connected normal SD, and
+ returning ready when all defined copies have been written. At
+ EOJ, FD shuts down connection with SDmux, which closes down the
+ normal SD connections and goes back to an idle state. SDmux does
+ not update database; normal SDs do (noting that file is present on
+ each volume it has been written to).
+
+ On restore, director looks for the volume containing the file in
+ pool Primary first, then Copy1, then OffsiteCopy2. If the volume
+ holding the file in pool Primary is missing or busy (being written
+ in another job, etc), or one of the volumes from the copypool list
+ that have the file in question is already mounted and ready for
+ some reason, use it to do the restore, else mount one of the
+ copypool volumes and proceed.
+
+
+Item 9: Scheduling syntax that permits more flexibility and options
+ Date: 15 December 2006
+ Origin: Gregory Brauer (greg at wildbrain dot com) and
+ Florian Schnabel <florian.schnabel at docufy dot de>
+ 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.
+
+ An easy option to skip a certain job on a certain date.
+
+
+ Why: Rotated backups done at weekly intervals are useful, and Bacula
+ cannot currently do them without extensive hacking.
+
+ 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.
+
+
+ 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
+ }
+ }
+ }
- 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.
+ 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
+ }
+ }
+ }
- Notes: By Kern: I would prefer to have a single new Resource called
- RunScript. More notes from Phil:
+ 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
+ }
+ }
+ }
- RunBeforeJob = yes|no
- RunAfterJob = yes|no
- RunsAtJobLevels = All|Full|Diff|Inc
+ Notes: Kern: I have merged the previously separate project of skipping
+ jobs (via Schedule syntax) into this.
+
+
+Item 10: 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
+ }
+
+ Notes: Kern: This should be rather trivial to implement.
+
+
+Item 11: 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 12: Add Plug-ins to the FileSet Include statements.
+ Date: 28 October 2005
+ Origin: Kern
+ Status: Partially coded in 1.37 -- much more to do.
- The AbortJobOnError, RunsOnSuccess and RunsOnFailure directives
- could be optional, and possibly RunsWhen as well.
+ 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).
- AbortJobOnError would be ignored unless RunsWhen was set to Before
- (or RunsBefore Job set to Yes), and would default to Yes if
- omitted. If AbortJobOnError was set to No, failure of the script
- would still generate a warning.
+ 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.
- 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.
+Item 13: Restore only file attributes (permissions, ACL, owner, group...)
+ Origin: Eric Bollengier
+ Date: 30/12/2006
+ Status: Implemented by Eric, see project-restore-attributes-only.patch
+
+ What: The goal of this project is to be able to restore only rights
+ and attributes of files without crushing them.
+
+ Why: Who have never had to repair a chmod -R 777, or a wild update
+ of recursive right under Windows? At this time, you must have
+ enough space to restore data, dump attributes (easy with acl,
+ more complex with unix/windows rights) and apply them to your
+ broken tree. With this options, it will be very easy to compare
+ right or ACL over the time.
+
+ Notes: If the file is here, we skip restore and we change rights.
+ If the file isn't here, we can create an empty one and apply
+ rights or do nothing.
+
+ This will not work with win32 stream, because it seems that we
+ can't split the WriteBackup stream to get only ACL and ownerchip.
+
+Item 14: 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 devices 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 15: Implement more Python events and functions
+ Date: 28 October 2005
+ Origin: Kern
+ Status:
- Allow having the before/after status on the script command
- line so that the same script can be used both before/after.
- David Boyes.
+ What: Allow Python scripts to be called at more places
+ within Bacula and provide additional access to Bacula
+ internal variables.
-Item 10: Merge multiple backups (Synthetic Backup or Consolidation).
- Origin: Marc Cousin and Eric Bollengier
- Date: 15 November 2005
- Status: Depends on first implementing project Item 1 (Migration).
+ Implement an interface for Python scripts to access the
+ catalog through Bacula.
- 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.
+ Why: This will permit users to customize Bacula through
+ Python scripts.
- 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.
+ 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).
- 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.
+ to start the appropriate job.
- 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 11: Deletion of Disk-Based Bacula Volumes
- Date: Nov 25, 2005
- Origin: Ross Boylan <RossBoylan at stanfordalumni dot org> (edited
- by Kern)
- Status:
+Item 16: 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: 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.
+ 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 17: Automatic promotion of backup levels based on backup size
+ Date: 19 January 2006
+ Origin: Adam Thornton <athornton@sinenomine.net>
+ Status:
- Why: This would allow users more control over their Volumes and
- prevent disk based volumes from consuming too much space.
+ 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.
- Notes: The following two directives might do the trick:
+ 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).
- 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 18: Better control over Job execution
+ Date: 18 August 2007
+ Origin: Kern
+ Status:
-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: RFC
+ What: Bacula needs a few extra features for better Job execution:
+ 1. A way to prevent multiple Jobs of the same name from
+ being scheduled at the same time (ususally happens when
+ a job is missed because a client is down).
+ 2. Directives that permit easier upgrading of Job types
+ based on a period of time. I.e. "do a Full at least
+ once every 2 weeks", or "do a differential at least
+ once a week". If a lower level job is scheduled when
+ it begins to run it will be upgraded depending on
+ the specified criteria.
+
+ Why: Obvious.
+
+
+Item 19: Automatic disabling of devices
+ Date: 2005-11-11
+ Origin: Peter Eriksson <peter at ifm.liu dot se>
+ 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.
+ 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: This would save lots of space when backing up large files such as
- logs, mbox files, Outlook PST files and the like.
+ 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.
- Notes: This would require the usage of disk-based volumes as comparing
- files would not be feasible using a tape drive.
+ 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 13: Multiple threads in file daemon for the same job
- Date: 27 November 2005
- Origin: Ove Risberg (Ove.Risberg at octocode dot com)
- Status:
+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: Patch made by Nigel Stepp
- What: I want the file daemon to start multiple threads for a backup
- job so the fastest possible backup can be made.
+ 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.
- The file daemon could parse the FileSet information and start
- one thread for each File entry located on a separate
- filesystem.
+ Why: I have many pools and therefore unhappy with manually
+ updating each of them using update -> Volume parameters -> All
+ Volumes from Pool -> pool #.
- 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 theads could spool the data to separate spool files
- the restore process will not be much slower.
+Item 21: 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:
- Why: Multiple concurrent backups of a large fileserver with many
- disks and controllers will be much faster.
+ What: The "stat clients" command doesn't include any detail on when
+ the active backup jobs were launched.
- Notes: I am willing to try to implement this but I will probably
- need some help and advice. (No problem -- Kern)
+ Why: Including the timestamp would make it much easier to decide whether
+ a job is running properly.
-Item 14: Implement red/black binary tree routines.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status:
+ 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.
- 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
+Item 22: Implement Storage daemon compression
+ Date: 18 December 2006
+ Origin: Vadim A. Umanski , e-mail umanski@ext.ru
+ Status:
+ What: The ability to compress backup data on the SD 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 23: 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: 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:
+ What: Make Bacula manage tape life cycle information, tape reuse
+ times and drive cleaning cycles.
- http://www.ifm.liu.se/~peter/nsr.pdf
+ 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...)
- 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: 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.
- Notes: I envision this as an optional feature to a fileset
- specification.
+ 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.
-Item 16: 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
+ 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.
- 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.
+ Implementation of these projects could happen in three distinct
+ sub-projects: Measuring Tape and Drive usage, retiring
+ volumes, and handling drive cleaning and TAPEALERTs.
- 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 24: 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.
-Item 18: Implement a Python interface to the Bacula catalog.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status:
+ The file daemon could parse the FileSet information and start
+ one thread for each File entry located on a separate
+ filesystem.
- What: Implement an interface for Python scripts to access
- the catalog through Bacula.
+ 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.
- Why: This will permit users to customize Bacula through
- Python scripts.
+ If the theads could spool the data to separate spool files
+ the restore process will not be much slower.
-Item 18: Archival (removal) of User Files to Tape
+ Why: Multiple concurrent backups of a large fileserver with many
+ disks and controllers will be much faster.
+Item 25: Archival (removal) of User Files to Tape
Date: Nov. 24/2005
-
Origin: Ray Pengelly [ray at biomed dot queensu dot ca
Status:
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.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin:
- Status: Partially coded in 1.37 -- much more to do.
- 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 20: 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.
+========= Added since the last vote =================
- Why: This will permit users to customize Bacula through
- Python scripts.
+Item 1: Implement an interface between Bacula and Amazon's S3.
+ Date: 25 August 2008
+ Origin: Soren Hansen <soren@ubuntu.com>
+ Status: Not started.
+ What: Enable the storage daemon to store backup data on Amazon's
+ S3 service.
- 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).
+ Why: Amazon's S3 is a cheap way to store data off-site. Current
+ ways to integrate Bacula and S3 involve storing all the data
+ locally and syncing them to S3, and manually fetching them
+ again when they're needed. This is very cumbersome.
+Item: Store and restore extended attributes, especially selinux file contexts
+ Date: 28 December 2007
+ Origin: Frank Sweetser <fs@wpi.edu>
+ What: The ability to store and restore extended attributes on
+ filesystems that support them, such as ext3.
-Item 21: Quick release of FD-SD connection after backup.
- Origin: Frank Volf (frank at deze dot org)
- Date: 17 November 2005
- Status:
+ Why: Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) enabled systems make extensive
+ use of extended attributes. In addition to the standard user,
+ group, and permission, each file has an associated SELinux context
+ stored as an extended attribute. This context is used to define
+ which operations a given program is permitted to perform on that
+ file. Storing contexts on an SELinux system is as critical as
+ storing ownership and permissions. In the case of a full system
+ restore, the system will not even be able to boot until all
+ critical system files have been properly relabeled.
- 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.
+ Notes: Fedora ships with a version of tar that has been patched to handle
+ extended attributes. The patch has not been integrated upstream
+ yet, so could serve as a good starting point.
- 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 ...
+ http://linux.die.net/man/2/getxattr
+ http://linux.die.net/man/2/setxattr
+ http://linux.die.net/man/2/listxattr
+ ===
+ http://linux.die.net/man/3/getfilecon
+ http://linux.die.net/man/3/setfilecon
- Why: Makes backup of laptops much easier.
+Item 1: enable/disable compression depending on storage device (disk/tape)
+ Origin: Ralf Gross ralf-lists@ralfgross.de
+ Date: 2008-01-11
+ Status: Initial Request
-Item 22: Permit multiple Media Types in an Autochanger
- Origin: Kern
- Status: Now implemented
+ What: Add a new option to the storage resource of the director. Depending
+ on this option, compression will be enabled/disabled for a device.
- 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: If different devices (disks/tapes) are used for full/diff/incr
+ backups, software compression will be enabled for all backups
+ because of the FileSet compression option. For backup to tapes
+ wich are able to do hardware compression this is not desired.
+
- Why: This will permit user with several different drive types
- to make full use of their autochangers.
+ Notes:
+ http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.sysutils.backup.bacula.devel/cutoff=11124
+ It must be clear to the user, that the FileSet compression option
+ must still be enabled use compression for a backup job at all.
+ Thus a name for the new option in the director must be
+ well-defined.
-Item 23: Allow different autochanger definitions for one autochanger.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status:
+ Notes: KES I think the Storage definition should probably override what
+ is in the Job definition or vice-versa, but in any case, it must
+ be well defined.
- 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.
+Item 1: Backup and Restore of Windows Encrypted Files through raw encryption
+ functions
- 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.
+ Origin: Michael Mohr, SAG Mohr.External@infineon.com
+
+ Date: 22 February 2008
+
+ Status:
- 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.
+ What: Make it possible to backup and restore Encypted Files from and to
+ Windows systems without the need to decrypt it by using the raw
+ encryption functions API (see:
+ http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363783.aspx)
-Item 25: Implement huge exclude list support using hashing.
- Date: 28 October 2005
- Origin: Kern
- Status:
+ that is provided for that reason by Microsoft.
+ If a file ist encrypted could be examined by evaluating the
+ FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ENCRYTED flag of the GetFileAttributes
+ function.
- What: Allow users to specify very large exclude list (currently
- more than about 1000 files is too many).
-
- Why: This would give the users the ability to exclude all
- files that are loaded with the OS (e.g. using rpms
- or debs). If the user can restore the base OS from
- CDs, there is no need to backup all those files. A
- complete restore would be to restore the base OS, then
- do a Bacula restore. By excluding the base OS files, the
- backup set will be *much* smaller.
-
-===============================================
-Not in Dec 2005 Vote:
-Item n: Allow skipping execution of Jobs
- Date: 29 November 2005
- Origin: Florian Schnabel <florian.schnabel at docufy dot de>
- Status:
+ Why: Without the usage of this interface the fd-daemon running
+ under the system account can't read encypted Files because
+ the key needed for the decrytion is missed by them. As a result
+ actually encrypted files are not backed up
+ by bacula and also no error is shown while missing these files.
- 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.
+ Notes: ./.
+
+ Item 1: Possibilty to schedule Jobs on last Friday of the month
+ Origin: Carsten Menke <bootsy52 at gmx dot net>
+ Date: 02 March 2008
+ Status:
+
+ What: Currently if you want to run your monthly Backups on the last
+ Friday of each month this is only possible with workarounds (e.g
+ scripting) (As some months got 4 Fridays and some got 5 Fridays)
+ The same is true if you plan to run your yearly Backups on the
+ last Friday of the year. It would be nice to have the ability to
+ use the builtin scheduler for this.
+
+ Why: In many companies the last working day of the week is Friday (or
+ Saturday), so to get the most data of the month onto the monthly
+ tape, the employees are advised to insert the tape for the
+ monthly backups on the last friday of the month.
+
+ Notes: To give this a complete functionality it would be nice if the
+ "first" and "last" Keywords could be implemented in the
+ scheduler, so it is also possible to run monthy backups at the
+ first friday of the month and many things more. So if the syntax
+ would expand to this {first|last} {Month|Week|Day|Mo-Fri} of the
+ {Year|Month|Week} you would be able to run really flexible jobs.
+
+ To got a certain Job run on the last Friday of the Month for example one could
+ then write
+
+ Run = pool=Monthly last Fri of the Month at 23:50
+
+ ## Yearly Backup
+
+ Run = pool=Yearly last Fri of the Year at 23:50
+
+ ## Certain Jobs the last Week of a Month
+
+ Run = pool=LastWeek last Week of the Month at 23:50
+
+ ## Monthly Backup on the last day of the month
+
+ Run = pool=Monthly last Day of the Month at 23:50
+
+ Date: 20 March 2008
+
+ Origin: Frank Sweetser <fs@wpi.edu>
+
+ What: Add a new SD directive, "minimum spool size" (or similar). This
+ directive would specify a minimum level of free space available for
+ spooling. If the unused spool space is less than this level, any
+ new spooling requests would be blocked as if the "maximum spool
+ size" threshold had bee reached. Already spooling jobs would be
+ unaffected by this directive.
+
+ Why: I've been bitten by this scenario a couple of times:
+
+ Assume a maximum spool size of 100M. Two concurrent jobs, A and B,
+ are both running. Due to timing quirks and previously running jobs,
+ job A has used 99.9M of space in the spool directory. While A is
+ busy despooling to disk, B is happily using the remaining 0.1M of
+ spool space. This ends up in a spool/despool sequence every 0.1M of
+ data. In addition to fragmenting the data on the volume far more
+ than was necessary, in larger data sets (ie, tens or hundreds of
+ gigabytes) it can easily produce multi-megabyte report emails!
+
+ Item n?: Expand the Verify Job capability to verify Jobs older than the
+ last one. For VolumeToCatalog Jobs
+ Date: 17 Januar 2008
+ Origin: portrix.net Hamburg, Germany.
+ Contact: Christian Sabelmann
+ Status: 70% of the required Code is part of the Verify function since v. 2.x
+
+ What:
+ The ability to tell Bacula which Job should verify instead of
+ automatically verify just the last one.
+
+ Why:
+ It is sad that such a powerfull feature like Verify Jobs
+ (VolumeToCatalog) is restricted to be used only with the last backup Job
+ of a client. Actual users who have to do daily Backups are forced to
+ also do daily Verify Jobs in order to take advantage of this useful
+ feature. This Daily Verify after Backup conduct is not always desired
+ and Verify Jobs have to be sometimes scheduled. (Not necessarily
+ scheduled in Bacula). With this feature Admins can verify Jobs once a
+ Week or less per month, selecting the Jobs they want to verify. This
+ feature is also not to difficult to implement taking in account older bug
+ reports about this feature and the selection of the Job to be verified.
+
+ Notes: For the verify Job, the user could select the Job to be verified
+ from a List of the latest Jobs of a client. It would also be possible to
+ verify a certain volume. All of these would naturaly apply only for
+ Jobs whose file information are still in the catalog.
+
+Item X: Add EFS support on Windows
+ Origin: Alex Ehrlich (Alex.Ehrlich-at-mail.ee)
+ Date: 05 August 2008
+ Status:
+
+ What: For each file backed up or restored by FD on Windows, check if
+ the file is encrypted; if so then use OpenEncryptedFileRaw,
+ ReadEncryptedFileRaw, WriteEncryptedFileRaw,
+ CloseEncryptedFileRaw instead of BackupRead and BackupWrite
+ API calls.
+
+ Why: Many laptop users utilize the EFS functionality today; so do.
+ some non-laptop ones, too.
+ Currently files encrypted by means of EFS cannot be backed up.
+ It means a Windows boutique cannot rely on Bacula as its
+ backup solution, at least when using Windows 2K, XPP,
+ "better" Vista etc on workstations, unless EFS is
+ forbidden by policies.
+ The current situation might result into "false sense of
+ security" among the end-users.
+
+ Notes: Using xxxEncryptedFileRaw API would allow to backup and
+ restore EFS-encrypted files without decrypting their data.
+ Note that such files cannot be restored "portably" (at least,
+ easily) but they would be restoreable to a different (or
+ reinstalled) Win32 machine; the restore would require setup
+ of a EFS recovery agent in advance, of course, and this shall
+ be clearly reflected in the documentation, but this is the
+ normal Windows SysAdmin's business.
+ When "portable" backup is requested the EFS-encrypted files
+ shall be clearly reported as errors.
+ See MSDN on the "Backup and Restore of Encrypted Files" topic:
+ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363783.aspx
+ Maybe the EFS support requires a new flag in the database for
+ each file, too?
+ Unfortunately, the implementation is not as straightforward as
+ 1-to-1 replacement of BackupRead with ReadEncryptedFileRaw,
+ requiring some FD code rewrite to work with
+ encrypted-file-related callback functions.
+
+ encrypted-file-related callback functions.
+========== Already implemented ================================
+
+Item n: make changing "spooldata=yes|no" possible for
+ manual/interactive jobs
+ Origin: Marc Schiffbauer <marc@schiffbauer.net>
+ Date: 12 April 2007)
+ Status:
+
+ What: Make it possible to modify the spooldata option
+ for a job when being run from within the console.
+ Currently it is possible to modify the backup level
+ and the spooldata setting in a Schedule resource.
+ It is also possible to modify the backup level when using
+ the "run" command in the console.
+ But it is currently not possible to to the same
+ with "spooldata=yes|no" like:
+
+ run job=MyJob level=incremental spooldata=yes
+
+ Why: In some situations it would be handy to be able to switch
+ spooldata on or off for interactive/manual jobs based on
+ which data the admin expects or how fast the LAN/WAN
+ connection currently is.
+
+ Notes: ./.
+
+Item 1: Implement an option to modify the last written date for volumes
+Date: 16 September 2008
+Origin: Franck (xeoslaenor at gmail dot com)
+Status: Proposing
+What: The ability to modify the last written date for a volume
+Why: It's sometime necessary to jump a volume when you have a pool of volume
+ which recycles the oldest volume at each backup.
+ Sometime, it needs to cancel a set of backup (one day
+ backup, completely) and we want to avoid that bacula
+ choose the volume (which is not written at all) from
+ the cancelled backup (It has to jump to next volume).
+ in this case, we just need to update the written date
+ manually to avoir the "oldest volume" purge.
+Notes: An option can be add to "update volume" command (like 'written date'
+ choice for example)
============= Empty Feature Request form ===========
-Item n: One line summary ...
+Item n: One line summary ...
Date: Date submitted
Origin: Name and email of originator.
Status:
Notes: Additional notes or features (omit if not used)
============== End Feature Request form ==============
+
+========== Items on put hold by Kern ============================
+
+Item h1: Split documentation
+ Origin: Maxx <maxxatworkat gmail dot com>
+ Date: 27th July 2006
+ Status: Approved, awaiting implementation
+
+ 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: This is a project that needs to be done, and will be implemented,
+ but it is really a developer issue of timing, and does not
+ needed to be included in the voting.
+
+
+Item h2: 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.
+
+ Notes: Kern: this project has a lot of merit, and we need to do it, but
+ it is really an issue for developers rather than a new feature
+ for users, so I have removed it from the voting list, but kept it
+ here, but at some point, it will be implemented.
+
+Item h3: Filesystem watch triggered backup.
+ Date: 31 August 2006
+ Origin: Jesper Krogh <jesper@krogh.cc>
+ Status:
+
+ 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
+
+
+Item h4: 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.
+
+ Notes: Kern: I don't know how to implement this. Put on hold until someone
+ provides a detailed implementation plan.
+
+
+Item h5: 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.
+
+Notes: Kern: I don't see the utility of this, and it would be a *huge*
+ modification to existing code.
+
+Item h6: Implement NDMP protocol support
+ Origin: Alan Davis
+ Date: 06 March 2007
+ Status:
+
+ What: Network Data Management Protocol is implemented by a number of
+ NAS filer vendors to enable backups using third-party
+ software.
+
+ Why: This would allow NAS filer backups in Bacula without incurring
+ the overhead of NFS or SBM/CIFS.
+
+ Notes: Further information is available:
+ http://www.ndmp.org
+ http://www.ndmp.org/wp/wp.shtml
+ http://www.traakan.com/ndmjob/index.html
+
+ There are currently no viable open-source NDMP
+ implementations. There is a reference SDK and example
+ app available from ndmp.org but it has problems
+ compiling on recent Linux and Solaris OS'. The ndmjob
+ reference implementation from Traakan is known to
+ compile on Solaris 10.
+
+ Notes: Kern: I am not at all in favor of this until NDMP becomes
+ an Open Standard or until there are Open Source libraries
+ that interface to it.
+
+Item h7: 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.
+
+ Notes: This might be nice, but someone other than me will probably need to
+ implement it, and at the moment, proprietary code cannot legally
+ be mixed with Bacula GPLed code. This would be possible only
+ providing the vendors provide GPLed (or OpenSource) interface
+ code.
+
+Item h8: 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.
+
+ Notes: As you indicate this is a bit of "blue sky" or in other words,
+ at the moment, it is a bit esoteric to consider for Bacula.
+
+Item h9: 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 work 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 predefined 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
+
+ Notes: Kern: I don't understand this item, and in any case, if it
+ is specific to DVD/CDs, which we do not recommend using,
+ it is unlikely to be implemented except as a user
+ submitted patch.
+
+
+Item h10: 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: Kern: I don't understand the request enough to be able to
+ implement it. A lot more design detail should be presented
+ before voting on this project.
projects / bacula / bacula / blobdiff