[bacula/bacula] / bacula / kernstodo

                    Kern's ToDo List
                     17 July 2009

Rescue:
Add to USB key:
  gftp sshfs kile kate lsssci m4 mtx nfs-common nfs-server
  patch squashfs-tools strace sg3-utils screen scsiadd
  system-tools-backend telnet dpkg traceroute urar usbutils
  whois apt-file autofs busybox chkrootkit clamav dmidecode
  manpages-dev manpages-posix manpages-posix-dev


Document:
- package sg3-utils, program sg_map
- !!! Cannot restore two jobs a the same time that were
  written simultaneously unless they were totally spooled.
- Document cleaning up the spool files:
  db, pid, state, bsr, mail, conmsg, spool
- Document the multiple-drive-changer.txt script.
- Pruning with Admin job.
- Does WildFile match against full name?  Doc.
- %d and %v only valid on Director, not for ClientRunBefore/After.
- During tests with the 260 char fix code, I found one problem:
  if the system "sees" a long path once, it seems to forget it's
  working drive (e.g.  c:\), which will lead to a problem during
  the next job (create bootstrap file will fail).  Here is the
  workaround: specify absolute working and pid directory in
  bacula-fd.conf (e.g.  c:\bacula\working instead of
  \bacula\working).
- Document techniques for restoring large numbers of files.
- Document setting my.cnf to big file usage.
- Correct the Include syntax in the m4.xxx files in examples/conf
- Document all the little details of setting up certificates for
  the Bacula data encryption code.
- Document more precisely how to use master keys -- especially
  for disaster recovery.
 
Priority:
================
- Add external command to lookup hostname (eg nmblookup timmy-win7)
nmblookup gato
querying gato on 127.255.255.255
querying gato on 192.168.1.255
   192.168.1.8 gato<00>
   192.168.1.11 gato<00>
   192.168.1.8 gato<00>
   192.168.1.11 gato<00>
- Possibly allow SD to spool even if a tape is not mounted.
- How to sync remote offices.
- Windows Bare Metal 
- Backup up windows system state 
- Complete Job restart 
- Look at rsysnc for incremental updates and dedupping 
- Implement rwlock() for SD that takes why and can_steal to replace
  existing block/lock mechanism. rlock() would allow multiple readers
  wlock would allow only one writer.
- For Windows disaster recovery see http://unattended.sf.net/
- Add "before=" "olderthan=" to FileSet for doing Base of
  unchanged files.
- Show files/second in client status output.
- Don't attempt to restore from "Disabled" Volumes.
- Have SD compute MD5 or SHA1 and compare to what FD computes.
- Make VolumeToCatalog calculate an MD5 or SHA1 from the 
  actual data on the Volume and compare it.                  
- Remove queue.c code.
- Implement multiple jobid specification for the cancel command,
  similar to what is permitted on the update slots command.
- Ensure that the SD re-reads the Media record if the JobFiles
  does not match -- it may have been updated by another job.
- Add MD5 or SHA1 check in SD for data validation
- When reserving a device to read, check to see if the Volume
  is already in use, if so wait.  Probably will need to pass the
  Volume.  See bug #1313.  Create a regression test to simulate
  this problem and see if VolumePollInterval fixes it. Possibly turn
  it on by default.

- Page hash tables
- Deduplication
- Why no error message if restore has no permission on the where
  directory?
- Possibly allow manual "purge" to purge a Volume that has not
  yet been written (even if FirstWritten time is zero) see ua_purge.c
  is_volume_purged().
- Add disk block detection bsr code (make it work).
- Remove done bsrs.
- Detect deadlocks in reservations.
- Plugins:
  - Add list during dump
  - Add in plugin code flag
  - Add bRC_EndJob -- stops more calls to plugin this job
  - Add bRC_Term (unload plugin)
  - remove time_t from Jmsg and use utime_t?
- Deadlock detection, watchdog sees if counter advances when jobs are
  running.  With debug on, can do a "status" command.
- User options for plugins.
- Pool Storage override precedence over command line.
- Autolabel only if Volume catalog information indicates tape not
  written. This will avoid overwriting a tape that gets an I/O
  error on reading the volume label.
- I/O error, SD thinks it is not the right Volume, should check slot
  then disable volume, but Asks for mount.
- Can be posible modify package to create and use configuration files in 
   the Debian manner? 

   For example:

   /etc/bacula/bacula-dir.conf
   /etc/bacula/conf.d/pools.conf
   /etc/bacula/conf.d/clients.conf
   /etc/bacula/conf.d/storages.conf

   and into bacula-dir.conf file include

   @/etc/bacula/conf.d/pools.conf
   @/etc/bacula/conf.d/clients.conf
   @/etc/bacula/conf.d/storages.conf
- Possibly add an Inconsistent state when a Volume is in error
  for non I/O reasons.
- Fix #ifdefing so that smartalloc can be disabled. Check manual
  -- the default is enabled.
- Dangling softlinks are not restored properly.  For example, take a
  soft link such as src/testprogs/install-sh, which points to /usr/share/autoconf...
  move the directory to another machine where the file /usr/share/autoconf does
  not exist, back it up, then try a full restore.  It fails.
- Softlinks that point to non-existent file are not restored in restore all,
  but are restored if the file is individually selected.  BUG!
- Prune by Job
- Prune by Job Level (Full, Differential, Incremental)
- modify pruning to keep a fixed number of versions of a file, 
  if requested.
- the cd-command should allow complete paths
  i.e. cd /foo/bar/foo/bar
  -> if a customer mails me the path to a certain file,
     its faster to enter the specified directory
- Make tree walk routines like cd, ls, ... more user friendly
  by handling spaces better.
- When doing a restore, if the user does an "update slots"
  after the job started in order to add a restore volume, the
   values prior to the update slots will be put into the catalog.
   Must retrieve catalog record merge it then write it back at the
   end of the restore job, if we want to do this right.
=== rate design
  jcr->last_rate
  jcr->last_runtime
  MA = (last_MA * 3 + rate) / 4
  rate = (bytes - last_bytes) / (runtime - last_runtime)
===
- Add a recursive mark command (rmark) to restore.
- Look at simplifying File exclusions.
- Scripts
- Separate Files and Directories in catalog
- Create FileVersions table
- finish implementation of fdcalled -- see ua_run.c:105
- Fix problem in postgresql.c in my_postgresql_query, where the
  generation of the error message doesn't differentiate result==NULL
  and a bad status from that result.  Not only that, the result is
  cleared on a bail_out without having generated the error message.
- Implement SDErrors (must return from SD)
- Implement continue spooling while despooling.
- Remove all install temp files in Win32 PLUGINSDIR.
- No where in restore causes kaboom.
- Performance: multiple spool files for a single job.
- Performance: despool attributes when despooling data (problem
  multiplexing Dir connection).
- Implement wait_for_sysop() message display in wait_for_device(), which
  now prints warnings too often.
- Ensure that each device in an Autochanger has a different
  Device Index.
- Look at sg_logs -a /dev/sg0 for getting soft errors.
- btape "test" command with Offline on Unmount = yes

   This test is essential to Bacula.

   I'm going to write one record  in file 0,
   two records in file 1,
   and three records in file 2

   02-Feb 11:00 btape: ABORTING due to ERROR in dev.c:715
   dev.c:714 Bad call to rewind. Device "LTO" (/dev/nst0) not open
   02-Feb 11:00 btape: Fatal Error because: Bacula interrupted by signal 11: Segmentation violation
   Kaboom! btape, btape got signal 11. Attempting traceback.

- Encryption -- email from Landon
   > The backup encryption algorithm is currently not configurable, and is  
   > set to AES_128_CBC in src/filed/backup.c. The encryption code  
   > supports a number of different ciphers (as well as adding arbitrary  
   > new ones) -- only a small bit of code would be required to map a  
   > configuration string value to a CRYPTO_CIPHER_* value, if anyone is  
   > interested in implementing this functionality.

- Add the OS version back to the Win32 client info.
- Restarted jobs have a NULL in the from field.
- Modify SD status command to indicate when the SD is writing
  to a DVD (the device is not open -- see bug #732).
- Look at the possibility of adding "SET NAMES UTF8" for MySQL,
  and possibly changing the blobs into varchar.
- Test Volume compatibility between machine architectures
- Encryption documentation

Professional Needs:
- Migration from other vendors
  - Date change
  - Path change
- Filesystem types
- Backup conf/exe (all daemons) 
- Detect state change of system (verify)
- SD to SD
- Novell NSS backup http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tools/18952.html
- Compliance norms that compare restored code hash code.
- David's priorities
   Copypools
   Extract capability (#25)
   Threshold triggered migration jobs (not currently in list, but will be
    needed ASAP)
   Client triggered backups
   Complete rework of the scheduling system (not in list)
   Performance and usage instrumentation (not in list)
   See email of 21Aug2007 for details.
- Look at: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cfg2html
   and http://www.openeyet.nl/scc/ for managing customer changes

Projects:
- Pool enhancements
  - Access Mode = Read-Only, Read-Write, Unavailable, Destroyed, Offsite
  - Pool Type = Copy
  - Maximum number of scratch volumes
  - Maximum File size
  - Next Pool (already have)
  - Reclamation threshold
  - Reclamation Pool
  - Reuse delay (after all files purged from volume before it can be used)
  - Copy Pool = xx, yyy (or multiple lines).
  - Catalog = xxx
  - Allow pool selection during restore.

- Average tape size from Eric
    SELECT COALESCE(media_avg_size.volavg,0) * count(Media.MediaId) AS volmax,                                                              GROUP BY Media.MediaType, Media.PoolId, media_avg_size.volavg
           count(Media.MediaId)  AS volnum,
           sum(Media.VolBytes)   AS voltotal,
           Media.PoolId          AS PoolId,
           Media.MediaType       AS MediaType
    FROM Media
    LEFT JOIN (SELECT avg(Media.VolBytes) AS volavg,
                      Media.MediaType     AS MediaType
               FROM Media
              WHERE Media.VolStatus = 'Full'
              GROUP BY Media.MediaType
               ) AS media_avg_size ON (Media.MediaType = media_avg_size.MediaType)
    GROUP BY Media.MediaType, Media.PoolId, media_avg_size.volavg
- Performance
  - Despool attributes in separate thread
  - Database speedups
  - Embedded MySQL
  - Check why restore repeatedly sends Rechdrs between
    each data chunk -- according to James Harper 9Jan07.
- Features
  - Better scheduling  
  - More intelligent re-run
  - Incremental backup -- rsync, Stow

- Make Bacula by default not backup tmpfs, procfs, sysfs, ...
- Fix hardlinked immutable files when linking a second file, the
  immutable flag must be removed prior to trying to link it.
- Change dbcheck to tell users to use native tools for fixing
  broken databases, and to ensure they have the proper indexes.
- add udev rules for Bacula devices.
- If a job terminates, the DIR connection can close before the
  Volume info is updated, leaving the File count wrong.
- Look at why SIGPIPE during connection can cause seg fault in
  writing the daemon message, when Dir dropped to bacula:bacula
- Look at zlib 32 => 64 problems.
- Fix bextract to restore ACLs, or better yet, use common routines.
- New dot commands from Arno.
  .show device=xxx lists information from one storage device, including 
     devices (I'm not even sure that information exists in the DIR...)
  .move eject device=xxx mostly the same as 'unmount xxx' but perhaps with 
     better machine-readable output like "Ok" or "Error busy"
  .move eject device=xxx toslot=yyy the same as above, but with a new 
     target slot. The catalog should be updated accordingly.
  .move transfer device=xxx fromslot=yyy toslot=zzz

Low priority:
- Article: http://www.heise.de/open/news/meldung/83231
- Article: http://www.golem.de/0701/49756.html
- Article: http://lwn.net/Articles/209809/
- Article: http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2004/01/09/bacula.html
- Article: http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2005/04/07/bacula.html
- Article: http://www.osreviews.net/reviews/admin/bacula
- Article: http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/baculaweb.htm
- Article: 
- Wikis mentioning Bacula
  http://wiki.finkproject.org/index.php/Admin:Backups
  http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Bacula
  http://www.openpkg.org/product/packages/?package=bacula
  http://www.iterating.com/products/Bacula
  http://net-snmp.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Net-snmp_extensions
  http://www.section6.net/wiki/index.php/Using_Bacula_for_Tape_Backups
  http://bacula.darwinports.com/
  http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/Releases/Corporate/Server_4/Notes#Bacula
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacula

- Bacula Wikis
  http://www.devco.net/pubwiki/Bacula/
  http://paramount.ind.wpi.edu/wiki/doku.php
  http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Backup
  http://www.georglutz.de/wiki/Bacula
  http://www.clarkconnect.com/wiki/index.php?title=Modules_-_LAN_Backup/Recovery
  http://linuxwiki.de/Bacula   (in German)

- Figure out how to configure query.sql.  Suggestion to use m4:
    == changequote.m4 ===
    changequote(`[',`]')dnl
    ==== query.sql.in ===
    :List next 20 volumes to expire
    SELECT
        Pool.Name AS PoolName,
        Media.VolumeName,
        Media.VolStatus,
        Media.MediaType,
    ifdef([MySQL],
    [ FROM_UNIXTIME(UNIX_TIMESTAMP(Media.LastWritten) Media.VolRetention) AS Expire, ])dnl
    ifdef([PostgreSQL],
    [ media.lastwritten + interval '1 second' * media.volretention as expire, ])dnl
      Media.LastWritten
      FROM Pool
      LEFT JOIN Media
      ON Media.PoolId=Pool.PoolId
      WHERE Media.LastWritten>0
      ORDER BY Expire
      LIMIT 20;
    ====
    Command: m4 -DmySQL changequote.m4 query.sql.in >query.sql

  The problem is that it requires m4, which is not present on all machines
  at ./configure time.

==== SQL
# get null file
select FilenameId from Filename where Name='';
# Get list of all directories referenced in a Backup.
select Path.Path from Path,File where File.JobId=nnn and
  File.FilenameId=(FilenameId-from-above) and File.PathId=Path.PathId
  order by Path.Path ASC;

- Mount on an Autochanger with no tape in the drive causes:
   Automatically selected Storage: LTO-changer
   Enter autochanger drive[0]: 0
   3301 Issuing autochanger "loaded drive 0" command.
   3302 Autochanger "loaded drive 0", result: nothing loaded.
   3301 Issuing autochanger "loaded drive 0" command.
   3302 Autochanger "loaded drive 0", result: nothing loaded.
   3902 Cannot mount Volume on Storage Device "LTO-Drive1" (/dev/nst0) because:
   Couldn't rewind device "LTO-Drive1" (/dev/nst0): ERR=dev.c:678 Rewind error on "LTO-Drive1" (/dev/nst0). ERR=No medium found.
   3905 Device "LTO-Drive1" (/dev/nst0) open but no Bacula volume is mounted.
   If this is not a blank tape, try unmounting and remounting the Volume.
- If Drive 0 is blocked, and drive 1 is set "Autoselect=no", drive 1 will
  be used.
- Autochanger did not change volumes.  
   select * from Storage;
   +-----------+-------------+-------------+
   | StorageId | Name        | AutoChanger |
   +-----------+-------------+-------------+
   |         1 | LTO-changer |           0 |
   +-----------+-------------+-------------+
   05-May 03:50 roxie-sd: 3302 Autochanger "loaded drive 0", result is Slot 11.
   05-May 03:50 roxie-sd: Tibs.2006-05-05_03.05.02 Warning: Director wanted Volume "LT
    Current Volume "LT0-002" not acceptable because:
    1997 Volume "LT0-002" not in catalog.
   05-May 03:50 roxie-sd: Tibs.2006-05-05_03.05.02 Error: Autochanger Volume "LT0-002"
    Setting InChanger to zero in catalog.
   05-May 03:50 roxie-dir: Tibs.2006-05-05_03.05.02 Error: Unable to get Media record

   05-May 03:50 roxie-sd: Tibs.2006-05-05_03.05.02 Fatal error: Error getting Volume i
   05-May 03:50 roxie-sd: Tibs.2006-05-05_03.05.02 Fatal error: Job 530 canceled.
   05-May 03:50 roxie-sd: Tibs.2006-05-05_03.05.02 Fatal error: spool.c:249 Fatal appe
   05-May 03:49 Tibs: Tibs.2006-05-05_03.05.02 Fatal error: c:\cygwin\home\kern\bacula
   , got
     (missing)
    llist volume=LTO-002
              MediaId: 6
           VolumeName: LTO-002
                 Slot: 0
               PoolId: 1
            MediaType: LTO-2
         FirstWritten: 2006-05-05 03:11:54
          LastWritten: 2006-05-05 03:50:23
            LabelDate: 2005-12-26 16:52:40
              VolJobs: 1
             VolFiles: 0
            VolBlocks: 1
            VolMounts: 0
             VolBytes: 206
            VolErrors: 0
            VolWrites: 0
     VolCapacityBytes: 0
            VolStatus: 
              Recycle: 1
         VolRetention: 31,536,000
       VolUseDuration: 0
           MaxVolJobs: 0
          MaxVolFiles: 0
          MaxVolBytes: 0
            InChanger: 0
              EndFile: 0
             EndBlock: 0
             VolParts: 0
            LabelType: 0
            StorageId: 1

   Note VolStatus is blank!!!!!
   llist volume=LTO-003
             MediaId: 7
          VolumeName: LTO-003
                Slot: 12
              PoolId: 1
           MediaType: LTO-2
        FirstWritten: 0000-00-00 00:00:00
         LastWritten: 0000-00-00 00:00:00
           LabelDate: 2005-12-26 16:52:40
             VolJobs: 0
            VolFiles: 0
           VolBlocks: 0
           VolMounts: 0
            VolBytes: 1
           VolErrors: 0
           VolWrites: 0
    VolCapacityBytes: 0
           VolStatus: Append
             Recycle: 1
        VolRetention: 31,536,000
      VolUseDuration: 0
          MaxVolJobs: 0
         MaxVolFiles: 0
         MaxVolBytes: 0
           InChanger: 0
             EndFile: 0
            EndBlock: 0
            VolParts: 0
           LabelType: 0
           StorageId: 1
===
   mount
   Automatically selected Storage: LTO-changer
   Enter autochanger drive[0]: 0
   3301 Issuing autochanger "loaded drive 0" command.
   3302 Autochanger "loaded drive 0", result: nothing loaded.
   3301 Issuing autochanger "loaded drive 0" command.
   3302 Autochanger "loaded drive 0", result: nothing loaded.
   3902 Cannot mount Volume on Storage Device "LTO-Drive1" (/dev/nst0) because:
   Couldn't rewind device "LTO-Drive1" (/dev/nst0): ERR=dev.c:678 Rewind error on "LTO-Drive1" (/dev/nst0). ERR=No medium found.

   3905 Device "LTO-Drive1" (/dev/nst0) open but no Bacula volume is mounted.
   If this is not a blank tape, try unmounting and remounting the Volume.

- http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/commercial-floss.html
- Add VolumeLock to prevent all but lock holder (SD) from updating
  the Volume data (with the exception of VolumeState).
- The btape fill command does not seem to use the Autochanger
- Make Windows installer default to system disk drive.
- Look at using ioctl(FIOBMAP, ...) on Linux, and 
  DeviceIoControl(...,  FSCTL_QUERY_ALLOCATED_RANGES, ...) on
  Win32 for sparse files.
  http://www.flexhex.com/docs/articles/sparse-files.phtml
  http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~loizides/reiserfs/fibmap.html
- Directive: at <event> "command"
- Command: pycmd "command" generates "command" event.  How to
  attach to a specific job?
- run_cmd() returns int should return JobId_t
- get_next_jobid_from_list() returns int should return JobId_t
- Document export LDFLAGS=-L/usr/lib64
- Network error on Win32 should set Win32 error code.
- What happens when you rename a Disk Volume?
- Job retention period in a Pool (and hence Volume).  The job would
  then be migrated.
- Add Win32 FileSet definition somewhere
- Look at fixing restore status stats in SD.
- Look at using ioctl(FIMAP) and FIGETBSZ for sparse files.
  http://www.informatik.uni-frankfurt.de/~loizides/reiserfs/fibmap.html
- Implement a mode that says when a hard read error is
  encountered, read many times (as it currently does), and if the
  block cannot be read, skip to the next block, and try again.  If
  that fails, skip to the next file and try again, ...
- Add level table:
  create table LevelType (LevelType binary(1), LevelTypeLong tinyblob);
  insert into LevelType (LevelType,LevelTypeLong) values
  ("F","Full"),
  ("D","Diff"),
  ("I","Inc");
- new pool XXX with ScratchPoolId = MyScratchPool's PoolId and
  let it fill itself, and RecyclePoolId = XXX's PoolId so I can
  see if it become stable and I just have to supervise
  MyScratchPool
- If I want to remove this pool, I set RecyclePoolId = MyScratchPool's
  PoolId, and when it is empty remove it.
- Add Volume=SCRTCH
- Allow Check Labels to be used with Bacula labels.
- "Resuming" a failed backup (lost line for example) by using the
  failed backup as a sort of "base" job.
- Look at NDMP
- Email to the user when the tape is about to need changing x
  days before it needs changing.
- Command to show next tape that will be used for a job even
  if the job is not scheduled.
- From: Arunav Mandal <amandal@trolltech.com>
  1. When jobs are running and bacula for some reason crashes or if I do a 
  restart it remembers and jobs it was running before it crashed or restarted 
  as of now I loose all jobs if I restart it.

  2. When spooling and in the midway if client is disconnected for instance a 
  laptop bacula completely discard the spool. It will be nice if it can write 
  that spool to tape so there will be some backups for that client if not all.

  3. We have around 150 clients machines it will be nice to have a option to 
  upgrade all the client machines bacula version automatically.

  4. Atleast one connection should be reserved for the bconsole so at heavy load 
  I should connect to the director via bconsole which at sometimes I can't

  5. Another most important feature that is missing, say at 10am I manually 
  started  backup of client abc and it was a full backup since client abc has 
  no backup history and at 10.30am bacula again automatically started backup of 
  client abc as that was in the schedule. So now we have 2 multiple Full 
  backups of the same client and if we again try to start a full backup of 
  client backup abc bacula won't complain. That should be fixed.

- regardless of the retention period, Bacula will not prune the
  last Full, Diff, or Inc File data until a month after the
  retention period for the last Full backup that was done.
- update volume=xxx --- add status=Full
- Remove old spool files on startup.
- Exclude SD spool/working directory.
- Refuse to prune last valid Full backup. Same goes for Catalog.
- Python:
  - Make a callback when Rerun failed levels is called.
  - Give Python program access to Scheduled jobs.
  - Add setting Volume State via Python.
  - Python script to save with Python, not save, save with Bacula.
  - Python script to do backup.
  - What events?
  - Change the Priority, Client, Storage, JobStatus (error) 
    at the start of a job.
- Why is SpoolDirectory = /home/bacula/spool;  not reported
  as an error when writing a DVD?
- Make bootstrap file handle multiple MediaTypes (SD)
- Remove all old Device resource code in Dir and code to pass it
  back in SD -- better, rework it to pass back device statistics.
- Check locking of resources -- be sure to lock devices where previously
  resources were locked. 
- The last part is left in the spool dir.


- In restore don't compare byte count on a raw device -- directory
  entry does not contain bytes.


- Max Vols limit in Pool off by one?
- Implement Files/Bytes,... stats for restore job.
- Implement Total Bytes Written, ... for restore job.
- Despool attributes simultaneously with data in a separate
  thread, rejoined at end of data spooling.
- 7. Implement new Console commands to allow offlining/reserving drives,
     and possibly manipulating the autochanger (much asked for).
- Add start/end date editing in messages (%t %T, %e?) ...
- Add ClientDefs similar to JobDefs.
- Print more info when bextract -p accepts a bad block.
- Fix FD JobType to be set before RunBeforeJob in FD.
- Look at adding full Volume and Pool information to a Volume 
  label so that bscan can get *all* the info. 
- If the user puts "Purge Oldest Volume = yes" or "Recycle Oldest Volume = yes"
  and there is only one volume in the pool, refuse to do it -- otherwise
  he fills the Volume, then immediately starts reusing it.
- Implement copies and stripes.
- Add history file to console.
- Each file on tape creates a JobMedia record. Peter has 4 million
  files spread over 10000 tape files and four tapes. A restore takes
  16 hours to build the restore list.
- Add and option to check if the file size changed during backup.
- Make sure SD deletes spool files on error exit.
- Delete old spool files when SD starts.
- When labeling tapes, if you enter 000026, Bacula uses
  the tape index rather than the Volume name 000026.
- Add offline tape command to Bacula console.
- Bug: 
  Enter MediaId or Volume name: 32
  Enter new Volume name: DLT-20Dec04
  Automatically selected Pool: Default
  Connecting to Storage daemon DLTDrive at 192.168.68.104:9103 ...
  Sending relabel command from "DLT-28Jun03" to "DLT-20Dec04" ...
  block.c:552 Write error at 0:0 on device /dev/nst0. ERR=Bad file descriptor.
  Error writing final EOF to tape. This tape may not be readable.
  dev.c:1207 ioctl MTWEOF error on /dev/nst0. ERR=Permission denied.
  askdir.c:219 NULL Volume name. This shouldn't happen!!!
  3912 Failed to label Volume: ERR=dev.c:1207 ioctl MTWEOF error on /dev/nst0. ERR=Permission denied.
  Label command failed for Volume DLT-20Dec04.
  Do not forget to mount the drive!!!
- Bug: if a job is manually scheduled to run later, it does not appear
  in any status report and cannot be cancelled.


==== 
From David:
How about introducing a Type = MgmtPolicy job type? That job type would
be responsible for scanning the Bacula environment looking for specific
conditions, and submitting the appropriate jobs for implementing said
policy, eg: 

Job {
   Name = "Migration-Policy"
   Type = MgmtPolicy
   Policy Selection Job Type = Migrate
   Scope = "<keyword> <operator> <regexp>"
   Threshold = "<keyword> <operator> <regexp>"
   Job Template = <template-name>
}

Where <keyword> is any legal job keyword, <operator> is a comparison
operator (=,<,>,!=, logical operators AND/OR/NOT) and <regexp> is a
appropriate regexp. I could see an argument for Scope and Threshold
being SQL queries if we want to support full flexibility. The
Migration-Policy job would then get scheduled as frequently as a site
felt necessary (suggested default: every 15 minutes). 

Example: 

Job {
   Name = "Migration-Policy"
   Type = MgmtPolicy
   Policy Selection Job Type = Migration
   Scope = "Pool=*"
   Threshold = "Migration Selection Type = LowestUtil"
   Job Template = "MigrationTemplate"
}

would select all pools for examination and generate a job based on
MigrationTemplate to automatically select the volume with the lowest
usage and migrate it's contents to the nextpool defined for that pool. 

This policy abstraction would be really handy for adjusting the behavior
of Bacula according to site-selectable criteria (one thing that pops
into mind is Amanda's ability to automatically adjust backup levels
depending on various criteria).


=====

Regression tests:
- Add Pool/Storage override regression test.
- Add delete JobId to regression.
- Add a regression test for dbcheck.  
- New test to add bscan to four-concurrent-jobs regression,
  i.e. after the four-concurrent jobs zap the
  database as is done in the bscan-test, then use bscan to
  restore the database, do a restore and compare with the
  original.
- Add restore of specific JobId to regression (item 3
  on the restore prompt)
- Add IPv6 to regression
- Add database test to regression. Test each function like delete,
  purge, ...

- AntiVir can slow down backups on Win32 systems. 
- Win32 systems with FAT32 can be much slower than NTFS for
  more than 1000 files per directory.


1.37 Possibilities:
- A HOLD command to stop all jobs from starting.
- A PAUSE command to pause all running jobs ==> release the
  drive.
- Media Type = LTO,LTO-2,LTO-3
  Media Type Read = LTO,LTO2,LTO3
  Media Type Write = LTO2, LTO3

=== From Carsten Menke <bootsy52@gmx.net>

Following is a list of what I think in the situations where I'm faced with, 
could be a usefull enhancement to bacula, which I'm certain other users will 
benefit from as well.

1. NextJob/NextJobs Directive within a Job Resource in the form of
    NextJobs = job1,job2.

    Why:
    I currently solved the problem with running multiple jobs each after each
    by setting the Max Wait Time for a job to 8 hours, and give
    the jobs different Priorities. However, there scenarios where
    1 Job is directly depending on another job, so if the former job fails,
    the job after it needn't to be run
    while maybe other jobs should run despite of that

Example:
  A Backup Job and a Verify job, if the backup job fails there is no need to run
  the verify job, as the backup job already failed. However, one may like
  to backup the Catalog to disk despite of that the main backup job failed.

Notes:
  I see that this is related to the Event Handlers which are on the ToDo
  list, also it is maybe a good idea to check for the return value and
  execute different actions based on the return value


3. offline capability to bconsole

    Why:
    Currently I use a script which I execute within the last Job via the
    RunAfterJob Directive, to release and eject the tape.
    So I have to call bconsole "release=Storage-Name" and afterwards
    mt -f /dev/nst0 eject to get the tape out.

    If I have multiple Storage Devices, than these may not be /dev/nst0 and
    I have to modify the script or call it with parameters etc.
    This would actually not be needed, as everything is already defined
    in bacula-sd.conf and if   I can invoke bconsole with the
    storage name via $1 in the script than I'm done and information is
    not duplicated.

4. %s for Storage Name added to the chars being substituted in "RunAfterJob"

    Why:

    For the reason mentioned in 3. to have the ability to call a
    script with /scripts/foobar %s and in the script use $1
    to pass the Storage Name to bconsole

5. Setting Volume State within a Job Resource

    Why:
    Instead of using "Maximum Volume Jobs" in the Pool Resource,
    I would have the possibilty to define
    in a Job Resource that after this certain job is run, the Volume State
    should be set to "Volume State = Used", this give more flexibility (IMHO).

7. OK, this is evil, probably bound to security risks and maybe not possible
    due to the design of bacula.

    Implementation of Backtics ( `command` ) for shell comand execution to
    the "Label Format" Directive.

Why:

    Currently I have defined BACULA_DAY_OF_WEEK="day1|day2..." resulting in
    Label Format = "HolyBackup-${BACULA_DAY_OF_WEEK[${WeekDay}]}". If I could
    use backticks than I could use "Label Format = HolyBackup-`date +%A` to have
    the localized name for the day of the week appended to the
    format string. Then I have the tape labeled automatically with weekday
    name in the correct language.
==========
- Make output from status use html table tags for nicely 
  presenting in a browser.
- Browse generations of files.
- I've seen an error when my catalog's File table fills up.  I
   then have to recreate the File table with a larger maximum row
   size.  Relevant information is at
   http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Full_table.html ; I think the
   "Installing and Configuring MySQL" chapter should talk a bit
   about this potential problem, and recommend a solution.
- Want speed of writing to tape while despooling.
- Supported autochanger:
OS: Linux
Man.: HP
Media: LTO-2
Model: SSL1016
Slots: 16
Cap: 200GB
- Supported drive:
  Wangtek 6525ES (SCSI-1 QIC drive, 525MB), under Linux 2.4.something, 
  bacula 1.36.0/1 works with blocksize 16k INSIDE bacula-sd.conf.
- Add regex from http://www.pcre.org to Bacula for Win32.
- Use only shell tools no make in CDROM package.
- Include within include does it work?
- Implement a Pool of type Cleaning?
- Think about making certain database errors fatal.
- Look at correcting the time jump in the scheduler for daylight
  savings time changes.
- Check dates entered by user for correctness (month/day/... ranges)
- Compress restore Volume listing by date and first file.
- Look at patches/bacula_db.b2z postgresql that loops during restore.
  See Gregory Wright.
- Perhaps add read/write programs and/or plugins to FileSets.
- How to handle backing up portables ...
- Limit bandwidth

Documentation to do: (any release a little bit at a time)
- Doc to do unmount before removing magazine.
- Alternative to static linking "ldd prog" save all binaries listed,
  restore them and point LD_LIBRARY_PATH to them.
- Document add "</dev/null >/dev/null 2>&1" to the bacula-fd command line
- Document query file format.
- Add more documentation for bsr files.
- Document problems with Verify and pruning.
- Document how to use multiple databases.
- VXA drives have a "cleaning required"
  indicator, but Exabyte recommends preventive cleaning after every 75
  hours of operation.
  From Phil:
    In this context, it should be noted that Exabyte has a command-line
    vxatool utility available for free download. (The current version is
    vxatool-3.72.) It can get diagnostic info, read, write and erase tapes,
    test the drive, unload tapes, change drive settings, flash new firmware,
    etc.
    Of particular interest in this context is that vxatool <device> -i will
    report, among other details, the time since last cleaning in tape motion
    minutes. This information can be retrieved (and settings changed, for
    that matter) through the generic-SCSI device even when Bacula has the
    regular tape device locked. (Needless to say, I don't recommend
    changing tape settings while a job is running.)
- Lookup HP cleaning recommendations.
- Lookup HP tape replacement recommendations (see trouble shooting autochanger)
- Document doing table repair


===================================
- Add macro expansions in JobDefs.
  Run Before Job = "SomeFile %{Level} %{Client}"
  Write Bootstrap="/some/dir/%{JobName}_%{Client}.bsr"
- Use non-blocking network I/O but if no data is available, use
  select().
- Use gather write() for network I/O.
- Autorestart on crash.
- Add bandwidth limiting.
- When an error in input occurs and conio beeps, you can back
  up through the prompt.
- Detect fixed tape block mode during positioning by looking at
  block numbers in btape "test".  Possibly adjust in Bacula.
- Fix list volumes to output volume retention in some other
  units, perhaps via a directive.
- If you use restore replace=never, the directory attributes for
  non-existent directories will not be restored properly.

- see lzma401.zip in others directory for new compression
  algorithm/library.
- Allow the user to select JobType for manual pruning/purging.
- bscan does not put first of two volumes back with all info in
  bscan-test.
- Figure out how to make named console messages go only to that
  console and to the non-restricted console (new console class?).
- Make restricted console prompt for password if *ask* is set or
  perhaps if password is undefined.
- Implement "from ISO-date/time every x hours/days/weeks/months" in
  schedules.

==== from Marc Schoechlin
- the help-command should be more verbose
  (it should explain the paramters of the different 
  commands in detail)
  -> its time-comsuming to consult the manual anytime
     you need a special parameter
  -> maybe its more easy to maintain this, if the
     descriptions of that commands are outsourced to
     a ceratin-file
- if the password is not configured in bconsole.conf
  you should be asked for it.
  -> sometimes you like to do restore on a customer-machine
     which shouldnt know the password for bacula.
  -> adding the password to the file favours admins
     to forget to remove the password after usage
  -> security-aspects
     the protection of that file is less important
- long-listed-output of commands should be scrollable
  like the unix more/less-command does
  -> if someone runs 200 and more machines, the lists could
     be a little long and complex
- command-output should be shown column by column
  to reduce scrolling and to increase clarity
  -> see last item
- lsmark should list the selected files with full
  paths
- wildcards for selecting and file and directories would be nice
- any actions should be interuptable with STRG+C
- command-expansion would be pretty cool
====
- When the replace Never option is set, new directory permissions
  are not restored. See bug 213. To fix this requires creating a
  list of newly restored directories so that those directory 
  permissions *can* be restored.
- Add prune all command
- Document fact that purge can destroy a part of a restore by purging
  one volume while others remain valid -- perhaps mark Jobs.
- Add multiple-media-types.txt
- look at mxt-changer.html
- Make ? do a help command (no return needed).
- Implement restore directory.
- Document streams and how to implement them.
- Try not to re-backup a file if a new hard link is added.
- Add feature to backup hard links only, but not the data.
- Fix stream handling to be simpler.
- Add Priority and Bootstrap to Run a Job.
- Eliminate Restore "Run Restore Job" prompt by allowing new "run command
  to be issued"
- Remove View FileSet button from Run a Job dialog.
- Handle prompt for restore job at end of Restore command.
- Add display of total selected files to Restore window.
- Add tree pane to left of window.
- Add progress meter.
- Max wait time or max run time causes seg fault -- see runtime-bug.txt
- Add message to user to check for fixed block size when the forward
  space test fails in btape.
- When unmarking a directory check if all files below are unmarked and
  then remove the + flag -- in the restore tree.
- Possibly implement: Action = Unmount Device="TapeDrive1" in Admin jobs.
- Setup lrrd graphs: (http://www.linpro.no/projects/lrrd/) Mike Acar.
- Revisit the question of multiple Volumes (disk) on a single device.
- Add a block copy option to bcopy.
- Fix "llist jobid=xx" where no fileset or client exists.
- For each job type (Admin, Restore, ...) require only the really necessary
  fields.- Pass Director resource name as an option to the Console.
- Add a "batch" mode to the Console (no unsolicited queries, ...).
- Allow browsing the catalog to see all versions of a file (with 
  stat data on each file).
- Restore attributes of directory if replace=never set but directory
  did not exist.
- Use SHA1 on authentication if possible.
- See comtest-xxx.zip for Windows code to talk to USB.
- Add John's appended files:
   Appended = {     /files/server/logs/http/*log   }
   and such files would be treated as follows.On a FULL backup, they would
   be backed up like any other file.On an INCREMENTAL backup, where a
   previous INCREMENTAL or FULL was already in thecatalogue and the length
   of the file wasgreater than the length of the last backup, only thedata
   added since the last backup will be dumped.On an INCREMENTAL backup, if
   the length of the file is less than thelength of the file with the same
   name last backed up, the completefile is dumped.On Windows systems, with
   creation date of files, we can be evensmarter about this and not count
   entirely upon the length.On a restore, the full and all incrementals
   since it will beapplied in sequence to restore the file.  
- Check new HAVE_WIN32 open bits.    
- Check if the tape has moved before writing.  
- Handling removable disks -- see below:
- Add FromClient and ToClient keywords on restore command (or
  BackupClient RestoreClient).
- Implement a JobSet, which groups any number of jobs. If the
  JobSet is started, all the jobs are started together.
  Allow Pool, Level, and Schedule overrides.
- Look at updating Volume Jobs so that Max Volume Jobs = 1 will work
  correctly for multiple simultaneous jobs.
- Implement the Media record flag that indicates that the Volume does disk 
  addressing.
- Fix fast block rejection (stored/read_record.c:118). It passes a null
  pointer (rec) to try_repositioning().
- Implement RestoreJobRetention? Maybe better "JobRetention" in a Job,
  which would take precidence over the Catalog "JobRetention".
- Implement Label Format in Add and Label console commands.
- Put email tape request delays on one or more variables. User wants
  to cancel the job after a certain time interval.  Maximum Mount Wait?
- Job, Client, Device, Pool, or Volume?
  Is it possible to make this a directive which is *optional* in multiple
  resources, like Level? If so, I think I'd make it an optional directive
  in Job, Client, and Pool, with precedence such that Job overrides Client
  which in turn overrides Pool.

- New Storage specifications:
  - Want to write to multiple storage devices simultaneously
  - Want to write to multiple storage devices sequentially (in one job)
  - Want to read/write simultaneously
  - Key is MediaType -- it must match

  Passed to SD as a sort of BSR record called Storage Specification
    Record or SSR.
    SSR                    
      Next -> Next SSR
      MediaType -> Next MediaType
      Pool -> Next Pool
      Device -> Next Device
  Job Resource
     Allow multiple Storage specifications
     New flags
        One Archive = yes
        One Device = yes
        One Storage = yes
        One MediaType = yes
        One Pool = yes
  Storage
     Allow Multiple Pool specifications (note, Pool currently
       in Job resource).
     Allow Multiple MediaType specifications in Dir conf
     Allow Multiple Device specifications in Dir conf
     Perhaps keep this in a single SSR
  Tie a Volume to a specific device by using a MediaType that 
    is contained in only one device.
  In SD allow Device to have Multiple MediaTypes

- Ideas from Jerry Scharf:
  First let's point out some big pluses that bacula has for this
        it's open source
        more importantly it's active. Thank you so much for that
        even more important, it's not flaky
        it has an open access catalog, opening many possibilities
        it's pushing toward heterogeneous systems capability
  big things:
   Macintosh file client
   working bare iron recovery for windows
   the option for  inc/diff backups not reset on fileset revision
        a) use both change and inode update time against base time
        b) do the full catalog check (expensive but accurate)
   sizing guide (how much system is needed to back up N systems/files)
   consultants on using bacula in building a disaster recovery system
   an integration guide
        or how to get at fancy things that one could do with bacula
   logwatch code for bacula logs (or similar)
   support for Oracle database ??
===
- Look at adding SQL server and Exchange support for Windows. 
- Add progress of files/bytes to SD and FD.
- do a "messages" before the first prompt in Console
- Client does not show busy during Estimate command.
- Implement Console mtx commands.
- Implement a Mount Command and an Unmount Command where
  the users could specify a system command to be performed
  to do the mount, after which Bacula could attempt to
  read the device. This is for Removeable media such as a CDROM.
  - Most likely, this mount command would be invoked explicitly
  by the user using the current Console "mount" and "unmount" 
  commands -- the Storage Daemon would do the right thing 
  depending on the exact nature of the device.
  - As with tape drives, when Bacula wanted a new removable
  disk mounted, it would unmount the old one, and send a message
  to the user, who would then use "mount" as described above 
  once he had actually inserted the disk.
- Implement dump/print label to UA
- Spool to disk only when the tape is full, then when a tape is hung move
  it to tape.
- bextract is sending everything to the log file ****FIXME****
- Allow multiple Storage specifications (or multiple names on
  a single Storage specification) in the Job record. Thus a job 
  can be backed up to a number of storage devices.
- Implement some way for the File daemon to contact the Director 
  to start a job or pass its DHCP obtained IP number.
- Implement a query tape prompt/replace feature for a console
- Make sure that Bacula rechecks the tape after the 20 min wait.
- Set IO_NOWAIT on Bacula TCP/IP packets.
- Try doing a raw partition backup and restore by mounting a
  Windows partition.
- From Lars Kellers:
    Yes, it would allow to highly automatic the request for new tapes. If a 
    tape is empty, bacula reads the barcodes (native or simulated), and if 
    an unused tape is found, it runs the label command with all the 
    necessary parameters.

    By the way can bacula automatically "move" an empty/purged volume say 
    in the "short" pool to the "long" pool if this pool runs out of volume 
    space?
- What to do about "list files job=xxx".
- Look at how fuser works and /proc/PID/fd that is how Nic found the
  file descriptor leak in Bacula.
- Can we dynamically change FileSets?
- If pool specified to label command and Label Format is specified,
  automatically generate the Volume name.
- Add ExhautiveRestoreSearch
- Look at the possibility of loading only the necessary 
  data into the restore tree (i.e. do it one directory at a
  time as the user walks through the tree).
- Possibly use the hash code if the user selects all for a restore command.
- Fix "restore all" to bypass building the tree.
- Prohibit backing up archive device (findlib/find_one.c:128)
- Implement Release Device in the Job resource to unmount a drive.
- Implement Acquire Device in the Job resource to mount a drive,
  be sure this works with admin jobs so that the user can get
  prompted to insert the correct tape.  Possibly some way to say to
  run the job but don't save the files.
- Make things like list where a file is saved case independent for
  Windows.
- Implement a Recycle command
- From Phil Stracchino:
  It would probably be a per-client option, and would be called
  something like, say, "Automatically purge obsoleted jobs".  What it
  would do is, when you successfully complete a Differential backup of a
  client, it would automatically purge all Incremental backups for that
  client that are rendered redundant by that Differential.  Likewise,
  when a Full backup on a client completed, it would automatically purge
  all Differential and Incremental jobs obsoleted by that Full backup.
  This would let people minimize the number of tapes they're keeping on
  hand without having to master the art of retention times.
- When doing a Backup send all attributes back to the Director, who
  would then figure out what files have been deleted.
- Currently in mount.c:236 the SD simply creates a Volume. It should have
  explicit permission to do so.  It should also mark the tape in error
  if there is an error.
- Cancel waiting for Client connect in SD if FD goes away.

- Implement timeout in response() when it should come quickly.
- Implement a Slot priority (loaded/not loaded).
- Implement "vacation" Incremental only saves.
- Implement create "FileSet"?
- Add prefixlinks to where or not where absolute links to FD.
- Issue message to mount a new tape before the rewind.
- Simplified client job initiation for portables.
- If SD cannot open a drive, make it periodically retry.
- Add more of the config info to the tape label.

- Refine SD waiting output:
    Device is being positioned
    >     Device is being positioned for append
    >     Device is being positioned to file x
    > 
- Figure out some way to estimate output size and to avoid splitting
  a backup across two Volumes -- this could be useful for writing CDROMs
  where you really prefer not to have it split -- not serious.
- Make bcopy read through bad tape records.
- Program files (i.e. execute a program to read/write files).
  Pass read date of last backup, size of file last time.
- Add Signature type to File DB record.
- CD into subdirectory when open()ing files for backup to
  speed up things.  Test with testfind().
- Priority job to go to top of list.
- Why are save/restore of device different sizes (sparse?)   Yup! Fix it.
- Implement some way for the Console to dynamically create a job.
- Solaris -I on tar for include list
- Need a verbose mode in restore, perhaps to bsr.
- bscan without -v is too quiet -- perhaps show jobs.
- Add code to reject whole blocks if not wanted on restore.
- Check if we can increase Bacula FD priorty in Win2000
- Check if both CatalogFiles and UseCatalog are set to SD.
- Possibly add email to Watchdog if drive is unmounted too
  long and a job is waiting on the drive.
- After unmount, if restore job started, ask to mount.
- Add UA rc and history files.
- put termcap (used by console) in ./configure and
  allow -with-termcap-dir.
- Fix Autoprune for Volumes to respect need for full save.
- Compare tape to Client files (attributes, or attributes and data) 
- Make all database Ids 64 bit.
- Allow console commands to detach or run in background.
- Add SD message variables to control operator wait time
  - Maximum Operator Wait
  - Minimum Message Interval
  - Maximum Message Interval
- Send Operator message when cannot read tape label.
- Verify level=Volume (scan only), level=Data (compare of data to file).
  Verify level=Catalog, level=InitCatalog
- Events file
- Add keyword search to show command in Console.
- Events : tape has more than xxx bytes.
- Complete code in Bacula Resources -- this will permit
  reading a new config file at any time.
- Handle ctl-c in Console
- Implement script driven addition of File daemon to config files.
- Think about how to make Bacula work better with File (non-tape) archives.
- Write Unix emulator for Windows.
- Make database type selectable by .conf files i.e. at runtime
- Set flag for uname -a.  Add to Volume label.
- Restore files modified after date
- SET LD_RUN_PATH=$HOME/mysql/lib/mysql
- Remove duplicate fields from jcr (e.g. jcr.level and jcr.jr.Level, ...).
- Timout a job or terminate if link goes down, or reopen link and query.
- Concept of precious tapes (cannot be reused).
- Make bcopy copy with a single tape drive.
- Permit changing ownership during restore.

- From Phil:
  > My suggestion:  Add a feature on the systray menu-icon menu to request
  > an immediate backup now.  This would be useful for laptop users who may
  > not be on the network when the regular scheduled backup is run.
  > 
  > My wife's suggestion: Add a setting to the win32 client to allow it to
  > shut down the machine after backup is complete (after, of course,
  > displaying a "System will shut down in one minute, click here to cancel"
  > warning dialog).  This would be useful for sites that want user
  > woorkstations to be shut down overnight to save power.
  > 

- Autolabel should be specified by DIR instead of SD.
- Storage daemon    
  - Add media capacity
  - AutoScan (check checksum of tape)
  - Format command = "format /dev/nst0"
  - MaxRewindTime
  - MinRewindTime
  - MaxBufferSize
  - Seek resolution (usually corresponds to buffer size)
  - EODErrorCode=ENOSPC or code
  - Partial Read error code
  - Partial write error code
  - Nonformatted read error
  - Nonformatted write error
  - WriteProtected error
  - IOTimeout
  - OpenRetries
  - OpenTimeout
  - IgnoreCloseErrors=yes
  - Tape=yes
  - NoRewind=yes
- Pool
  - Maxwrites
  - Recycle period
- Job
  - MaxWarnings
  - MaxErrors (job?)
=====
- Write a Storage daemon that uses pipes and
  standard Unix programs to write to the tape.
  See afbackup.
- Need something that monitors the JCR queue and
  times out jobs by asking the deamons where they are.
- Verify from Volume
- Need report class for messages. Perhaps
  report resource where report=group of messages
- enhance scan_attrib and rename scan_jobtype, and
  fill in code for "since" option 
- Director needs a time after which the report status is sent
  anyway -- or better yet, a retry time for the job.
- Don't reschedule a job if previous incarnation is still running.
- Some way to automatically backup everything is needed????
- Need a structure for pending actions:
  - buffered messages
  - termination status (part of buffered msgs?)
- Drive management
  Read, Write, Clean, Delete
- Login to Bacula; Bacula users with different permissions:
   owner, group, user, quotas
- Store info on each file system type (probably in the job header on tape.
  This could be the output of df; or perhaps some sort of /etc/mtab record.

========= ideas ===============
From: "Jerry K. Schieffer" <jerry@skylinetechnology.com>
To: <kern@sibbald.com>
Subject: RE: [Bacula-users] future large programming jobs
Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 11:34:54 -0600

I noticed the subject thread and thought I would offer the following
merely as sources of ideas, i.e. something to think about, not even as
strong as a request.  In my former life (before retiring) I often
dealt with backups and storage management issues/products as a
developer and as a consultant.  I am currently migrating my personal
network from amanda to bacula specifically because of the ability to
cross media boundaries during storing backups.
Are you familiar with the commercial product called ADSM (I think IBM
now sells it under the Tivoli label)?  It has a couple of interesting
ideas that may apply to the following topics.

1. Migration:  Consider that when you need to restore a system, there
may be pressure to hurry.  If all the information for a single client
can eventually end up on the same media (and in chronological order),
the restore is facillitated by not having to search past information
from other clients.  ADSM has the concept of "client affinity" that
may be associated with it's storage pools.  It seems to me that this
concept (as an optional feature) might fit in your architecture for
migration.

ADSM also has the concept of defining one or more storage pools as
"copy pools" (almost mirrors, but only in the sense of contents).
These pools provide the ability to have duplicte data stored both
onsite and offsite.  The copy process can be scheduled to be handled
by their storage manager during periods when there is no backup
activity.  Again, the migration process might be a place to consider
implementing something like this.

>
> It strikes me that it would be very nice to be able to do things
like
> have the Job(s) backing up the machines run, and once they have all
> completed, start a migration job to copy the data from disks Volumes
to
> a tape library and then to offsite storage. Maybe this can already
be
> done with some careful scheduling and Job prioritzation; the events
> mechanism described below would probably make it very easy.

This is the goal. In the first step (before events), you simply
schedule
the Migration to tape later.

2. Base jobs:  In ADSM, each copy of each stored file is tracked in
the database.  Once a file (unique by path and metadata such as dates,
size, ownership, etc.) is in a copy pool, no more copies are made.  In
other words, when you start ADSM, it begins like your concept of a
base job.  After that it is in the "incremental" mode.  You can
configure the number of "generations" of files to be retained, plus a
retention date after which even old generations are purged.  The
database tracks the contents of media and projects the percentage of
each volume that is valid.  When the valid content of a volume drops
below a configured percentage, the valid data are migrated to another
volume and the old volume is marked as empty.  Note, this requires
ADSM to have an idea of the contents of a client, i.e. marking the
database when an existing file was deleted, but this would solve your
issue of restoring a client without restoring deleted files.

This is pretty far from what bacula now does, but if you are going to
rip things up for Base jobs,.....
Also, the benefits of this are huge for very large shops, especially
with media robots, but are a pain for shops with manual media
mounting.

Regards,
Jerry Schieffer

==============================

Longer term to do:
- Audit M_ error codes to ensure they are correct and consistent.
- Add variable break characters to lex analyzer.
  Either a bit mask or a string of chars so that
  the caller can change the break characters.
- Make a single T_BREAK to replace T_COMMA, etc.
- Ensure that File daemon and Storage daemon can
  continue a save if the Director goes down (this
  is NOT currently the case). Must detect socket error,
  buffer messages for later. 
- Add ability to backup to two Storage devices (two SD sessions) at
  the same time -- e.g. onsite, offsite.

======================================================

====
   Handling removable disks

   From: Karl Cunningham <karlc@keckec.com>

   My backups are only to hard disk these days, in removable bays. This is my
   idea of how a backup to hard disk would work more smoothly. Some of these
   things Bacula does already, but I mention them for completeness. If others
   have better ways to do this, I'd like to hear about it.

   1. Accommodate several disks, rotated similar to how tapes are.  Identified
   by partition volume ID or perhaps by the name of a subdirectory.
   2. Abort & notify the admin if the wrong disk is in the bay.
   3. Write backups to different subdirectories for each machine to be backed
   up.
   4. Volumes (files) get created as needed in the proper subdirectory, one
   for each backup.
   5. When a disk is recycled, remove or zero all old backup files. This is
   important as the disk being recycled may be close to full. This may be
   better done manually since the backup files for many machines may be
   scattered in many subdirectories.
====


=== Done

===
        Base Jobs design
It is somewhat like a Full save becomes an incremental since
the Base job (or jobs) plus other non-base files.
Need:
- A Base backup is same as Full backup, just different type.
- New BaseFiles table that contains:
    BaseId - index
    BaseJobId - Base JobId referenced for this FileId (needed ???)
    JobId - JobId currently running
    FileId - File not backed up, exists in Base Job
    FileIndex - FileIndex from Base Job.
  i.e. for each base file that exists but is not saved because
  it has not changed, the File daemon sends the JobId, BaseId,
  FileId, FileIndex back to the Director who creates the DB entry.
- To initiate a Base save, the Director sends the FD 
  the FileId, and full filename for each file in the Base.
- When the FD finds a Base file, he requests the Director to
  send him the full File entry (stat packet plus MD5), or
  conversely, the FD sends it to the Director and the Director
  says yes or no. This can be quite rapid if the FileId is kept
  by the FD for each Base Filename.          
- It is probably better to have the comparison done by the FD
  despite the fact that the File entry must be sent across the
  network.
- An alternative would be to send the FD the whole File entry
  from the start. The disadvantage is that it requires a lot of
  space. The advantage is that it requires less communications
  during the save.
- The Job record must be updated to indicate that one or more
  Bases were used.
- At end of Job, FD returns:   
   1. Count of base files/bytes not written to tape (i.e. matches)
   2. Count of base file that were saved i.e. had changed.
- No tape record would be written for a Base file that matches, in the
  same way that no tape record is written for Incremental jobs where
  the file is not saved because it is unchanged.
- On a restore, all the Base file records must explicitly be
  found from the BaseFile tape. I.e. for each Full save that is marked
  to have one or more Base Jobs, search the BaseFile for all occurrences
  of JobId.
- An optimization might be to make the BaseFile have:
     JobId
     BaseId
     FileId
  plus
     FileIndex
  This would avoid the need to explicitly fetch each File record for
  the Base job.  The Base Job record will be fetched to get the
  VolSessionId and VolSessionTime.
- Fix bpipe.c so that it does not modify results pointer.
  ***FIXME*** calling sequence should be changed.
- Fix restore of acls and extended attributes to count ERROR
  messages and make errors non-fatal.
- Put save/restore various platform acl/xattrs on a pointer to simplify
  the code.
- Add blast attributes to DIR to SD.
- Implement unmount of USB volumes.
- Look into using Dart for testing
  http://public.kitware.com/Dart/HTML/Index.shtml