ebl Add a note on truncate log for exchange backup

[bacula/docs] / docs / manuals / en / concepts / newfeatures.tex

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\chapter{New Features}
\label{NewFeaturesChapter}
\index[general]{New Features}

This chapter presents the new features added to the development 2.5.x
versions to be released as Bacula version 3.0.0 sometime in April 2009.

\section{Accurate Backup}
\index[general]{Accurate Backup}

As with most other backup programs, by default Bacula decides what files to
backup for Incremental and Differental backup by comparing the change
(st\_ctime) and modification (st\_mtime) times of the file to the time the last
backup completed.  If one of those two times is later than the last backup
time, then the file will be backed up.  This does not, however, permit tracking
what files have been deleted and will miss any file with an old time that may
have been restored to or moved onto the client filesystem.

\subsection{Accurate = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
If the {\bf Accurate = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}} directive is enabled (default no) in
the Job resource, the job will be run as an Accurate Job. For a {\bf Full}
backup, there is no difference, but for {\bf Differential} and {\bf
  Incremental} backups, the Director will send a list of all previous files
backed up, and the File daemon will use that list to determine if any new files
have been added or or moved and if any files have been deleted. This allows
Bacula to make an accurate backup of your system to that point in time so that
if you do a restore, it will restore your system exactly.  One note of caution
about using Accurate backup is that it requires more resources (CPU and memory)
on both the Director and the Client machines to create the list of previous
files backed up, to send that list to the File daemon, for the File daemon to
keep the list (possibly very big) in memory, and for the File daemon to do
comparisons between every file in the FileSet and the list.

Accurate must not be enabled when backing up with a plugin that is not
specially designed to work with Accurate. If you enable it, your restores
will probably not work correctly.
                                       


\section{Copy Jobs}
\index[general]{Copy Jobs}

A new {\bf Copy} job type 'C' has been implemented. It is similar to the
existing Migration feature with the exception that the Job that is copied is
left unchanged.  This essentially creates two identical copies of the same
backup. However, the copy is treated as a copy rather than a backup job, and
hence is not directly available for restore.  The {\bf restore} command lists
copy jobs and allows selection of copies by using \texttt{jobid=}
option. If the keyword {\bf copies} is present on the command line, Bacula will
display the list of all copies for selected jobs.

\begin{verbatim}
* restore copies
[...]
These JobIds have copies as follows:
+-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
| JobId | Job                                | CopyJobId | MediaType        |
+-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
| 2     | CopyJobSave.2009-02-17_16.31.00.11 | 7         | DiskChangerMedia |
+-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
+-------+-------+----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+
| JobId | Level | JobFiles | JobBytes | StartTime           | VolumeName       |
+-------+-------+----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+
| 19    | F     | 6274     | 76565018 | 2009-02-17 16:30:45 | ChangerVolume002 |
| 2     | I     | 1        | 5        | 2009-02-17 16:30:51 | FileVolume001    |
+-------+-------+----------+----------+---------------------+------------------+
You have selected the following JobIds: 19,2

Building directory tree for JobId(s) 19,2 ...  ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
5,611 files inserted into the tree.
...
\end{verbatim}


The Copy Job runs without using the File daemon by copying the data from the
old backup Volume to a different Volume in a different Pool. See the Migration
documentation for additional details. For copy Jobs there is a new selection
criterium named PoolUncopiedJobs which copies all jobs from a pool to an other
pool which were not copied before. Next to that the client, volume, job or sql
query are possible ways of selecting jobs which should be copied.  Selection
types like smallestvolume, oldestvolume, pooloccupancy and pooltime are
probably more suited for migration jobs only. But we could imagine some people
have a valid use for those kind of copy jobs too.

If bacula founds a copy when a job record is purged (deleted) from the catalog,
it will promote the copy as \textsl{real} backup and will make it available for
automatic restore. If more than one copy is available, it will promote the copy
with the smallest jobid.

A nice solution which can be build with the new copy jobs is what is
called the disk-to-disk-to-tape backup (DTDTT). A sample config could
look somethings like the one below:

\begin{verbatim}
Pool {
  Name = FullBackupsVirtualPool
  Pool Type = Backup
  Purge Oldest Volume = Yes
  Storage = vtl
  NextPool = FullBackupsTapePool
}

Pool {
  Name = FullBackupsTapePool
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = Yes
  AutoPrune = Yes
  Volume Retention = 365 days
  Storage = superloader
}

#
# Fake fileset for copy jobs
#
Fileset {
  Name = None
  Include {
    Options {
      signature = MD5
    }
  }
}

#
# Fake client for copy jobs
#
Client {
  Name = None
  Address = localhost
  Password = "NoNe"
  Catalog = MyCatalog
}

#
# Default template for a CopyDiskToTape Job
#
JobDefs {
  Name = CopyDiskToTape
  Type = Copy
  Messages = StandardCopy
  Client = None
  FileSet = None
  Selection Type = PoolUncopiedJobs
  Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 10
  SpoolData = No
  Allow Duplicate Jobs = Yes
  Allow Higher Duplicates = No
  Cancel Queued Duplicates = No
  Cancel Running Duplicates = No
  Priority = 13
}

Schedule {
   Name = DaySchedule7:00
   Run = Level=Full daily at 7:00
}

Job {
  Name = CopyDiskToTapeFullBackups
  Enabled = Yes
  Schedule = DaySchedule7:00
  Pool = FullBackupsVirtualPool
  JobDefs = CopyDiskToTape
}
\end{verbatim}

The example above had 2 pool which are copied using the PoolUncopiedJobs
selection criteria. Normal Full backups go to the Virtual pool and are copied
to the Tape pool the next morning.

The command \texttt{list copies [jobid=x,y,z]} lists copies for a given
\textbf{jobid}.

\begin{verbatim}
*list copies
+-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
| JobId | Job                                | CopyJobId | MediaType        |
+-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
|     9 | CopyJobSave.2008-12-20_22.26.49.05 |        11 | DiskChangerMedia |
+-------+------------------------------------+-----------+------------------+
\end{verbatim}

\section{ACL Updates}
The whole ACL code had been overhauled and in this version each platforms has
different streams for each type of acl available on such an platform. As ACLs
between platforms tend to be not that portable (most implement POSIX acls but
some use an other draft or a completely different format) we currently only
allow certain platform specific ACL streams to be decoded and restored on the
same platform that they were created on.  The old code allowed to restore ACL
cross platform but the comments already mention that not being to wise. For
backward compatability the new code will accept the two old ACL streams and
handle those with the platform specific handler. But for all new backups it
will save the ACLs using the new streams.

Currently the following platforms support ACLs:

\begin{itemize}
 \item {\bf AIX}
 \item {\bf Darwin/OSX}
 \item {\bf FreeBSD}
 \item {\bf HPUX}
 \item {\bf IRIX}
 \item {\bf Linux}
 \item {\bf Tru64}
 \item {\bf Solaris}
\end{itemize}

Currently we support the following ACL types (these ACL streams use a reserved
part of the stream numbers):

\begin{itemize}
\item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_AIX\_TEXT} 1000 AIX specific string representation from
  acl\_get
 \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_DARWIN\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1001 Darwin (OSX) specific acl\_t
   string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl)
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_FREEBSD\_DEFAULT\_ACL} 1002 FreeBSD specific acl\_t
    string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_FREEBSD\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1003 FreeBSD specific acl\_t
    string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for access acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_HPUX\_ACL\_ENTRY} 1004 HPUX specific acl\_entry
    string representation from acltostr (POSIX acl)
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_IRIX\_DEFAULT\_ACL} 1005 IRIX specific acl\_t string
    representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_IRIX\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1006 IRIX specific acl\_t string
    representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for access acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_LINUX\_DEFAULT\_ACL} 1007 Linux specific acl\_t
    string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_LINUX\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1008 Linux specific acl\_t string
    representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for access acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_TRU64\_DEFAULT\_ACL} 1009 Tru64 specific acl\_t
    string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_TRU64\_DEFAULT\_DIR\_ACL} 1010 Tru64 specific acl\_t
    string representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for default acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_TRU64\_ACCESS\_ACL} 1011 Tru64 specific acl\_t string
    representation from acl\_to\_text (POSIX acl) for access acls.
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_SOLARIS\_ACLENT} 1012 Solaris specific aclent\_t
    string representation from acltotext or acl\_totext (POSIX acl)
  \item {\bf STREAM\_ACL\_SOLARIS\_ACE} 1013 Solaris specific ace\_t string
    representation from from acl\_totext (NFSv4 or ZFS acl)
\end{itemize}

In future versions we might support conversion functions from one type of acl
into an other for types that are either the same or easily convertable. For now
the streams are seperate and restoring them on a platform that doesn't
recognize them will give you a warning.

\section{Extended Attributes}
Something that was on the project list for some time is now implemented for
platforms that support a similar kind of interface. Its the support for backup
and restore of so called extended attributes. As extended attributes are so
platform specific these attributes are saved in seperate streams for each
platform. Restores can only be performed on the same platform the backup was
done. There is support for all types of extended attributes, but restoring from
one type of filesystem onto an other type of filesystem on the same platform
may lead to supprises. As extended attributes can contain any type of data they
are stored as a series of so called value-pairs. This data must be seen as
mostly binary and is stored as such. As security labels from selinux are also
extended attributes this option also stores those labels and no specific code
is enabled for handling selinux security labels.

Currently the following platforms support extended attributes:
\begin{itemize}
 \item {\bf Darwin/OSX}
 \item {\bf FreeBSD}
 \item {\bf Linux}
 \item {\bf NetBSD}
\end{itemize}

On linux acls are also extended attributes, as such when you enable ACLs on a
Linux platform it will NOT save the same data twice e.g. it will save the ACLs
and not the same exteneded attribute.

To enable the backup of extended attributes please add the following to your
fileset definition.
\begin{verbatim}
  FileSet {
    Name = "MyFileSet"
    Include {
      Options {
        signature = MD5
        xattrsupport = yes
      }
      File = ...
    }
  }
\end{verbatim}

\section{Shared objects}
A default build of Bacula will now create the libraries as shared objects
(.so) rather than static libraries as was previously the case.  
The shared libraries are built using {\bf libtool} so it should be quite
portable.

An important advantage of using shared objects is that on a machine with the
Directory, File daemon, the Storage daemon, and a console, you will have only
one copy of the code in memory rather than four copies.  Also the total size of
the binary release is smaller since the library code appears only once rather
than once for every program that uses it; this results in significant reduction
in the size of the binaries particularly for the utility tools.
 
In order for the system loader to find the shared objects when loading the
Bacula binaries, the Bacula shared objects must either be in a shared object
directory known to the loader (typically /usr/lib) or they must be in the
directory that may be specified on the {\bf ./configure} line using the {\bf
  {-}{-}libdir} option as:

\begin{verbatim}
  ./configure --libdir=/full-path/dir
\end{verbatim}

the default is /usr/lib. If {-}{-}libdir is specified, there should be
no need to modify your loader configuration provided that
the shared objects are installed in that directory (Bacula
does this with the make install command). The shared objects
that Bacula references are:

\begin{verbatim}
libbaccfg.so
libbacfind.so
libbacpy.so
libbac.so
\end{verbatim}

These files are symbolically linked to the real shared object file,
which has a version number to permit running multiple versions of
the libraries if desired (not normally the case).

If you have problems with libtool or you wish to use the old
way of building static libraries, you can do so by disabling
libtool on the configure command line with:

\begin{verbatim}
  ./configure --disable-libtool
\end{verbatim}


\section{Virtual Backup (Vbackup)}
\index[general]{Virtual Backup}
\index[general]{Vbackup}

Bacula's virtual backup feature is often called Synthetic Backup or
Consolidation in other backup products.  It permits you to consolidate
the previous Full backup plus the most recent Differential backup and any
subsequent Incremental backups into a new Full backup. This is accomplished
without contacting the client by reading the previous backup data and 
writing it to a volume in a different pool.  

In some respects the Vbackup feature works similar to a Migration job, in
that Bacula normally reads the data from the pool specified in the 
Job resource, and writes it to the {\bf Next Pool} specified in the 
Job resource. Note, this means that usually the output from the Virtual
Backup is written into a different pool from where your prior backups
are saved. Doing it this way guarantees that you will not get a deadlock
situation attempting to read and write to the same volume in the Storage
daemon. If you then want to do subsequent backups, you may need to
move the Virtual Full Volume back to your normal backup pool.
Alternatively, you can set your {\bf Next Pool} to point to the current
pool.  This will cause Bacula to read and write to Volumes in the
current pool. In general, this will work, but doing the Virtual Full
requires reading more than one Volume, this procedure may cause a 
deadlock where Bacula is writing on a Volume that is later needed 
for reading.

The Vbackup is enabled on a Job by Job in the Job resource by specifying
a level of {\bf VirtualFull}.

A typical Job resource definition might look like the following:

\begin{verbatim}
Job {
  Name = "MyBackup"
  Type = Backup
  Client=localhost-fd
  FileSet = "Full Set"
  Storage = File
  Messages = Standard
  Pool = Default
  SpoolData = yes
}

# Default pool definition
Pool {
  Name = Default
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = yes            # Automatically recycle Volumes
  AutoPrune = yes          # Prune expired volumes
  Volume Retention = 365d  # one year
  NextPool = Full
  Storage = File
}

Pool {
  Name = Full
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = yes            # Automatically recycle Volumes
  AutoPrune = yes          # Prune expired volumes
  Volume Retention = 365d  # one year
  Storage = DiskChanger
}

# Definition of file storage device
Storage {
  Name = File
  Address = localhost
  Password = "xxx"
  Device = FileStorage
  Media Type = File
  Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 5
}

# Definition of DDS Virtual tape disk storage device
Storage {
  Name = DiskChanger
  Address = localhost  # N.B. Use a fully qualified name here
  Password = "yyy"
  Device = DiskChanger
  Media Type = DiskChangerMedia
  Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 4
  Autochanger = yes
}
\end{verbatim}

Then in bconsole or via a Run schedule, you would run the job as:

\begin{verbatim}
run job=MyBackup level=Full
run job=MyBackup level=Incremental
run job=MyBackup level=Differential
run job=MyBackup level=Incremental
run job=MyBackup level=Incremental
\end{verbatim}

So providing there were changes between each of those jobs, you would end up
with a Full backup, a Differential, which includes the first Incremental
backup, then two Incremental backups.  All the above jobs would be written to
the {\bf Default} pool.

To consolidate those backups into a new Full backup, you would run the
following:

\begin{verbatim}
run job=MyBackup level=VirtualFull
\end{verbatim}

And it would produce a new Full backup without using the client, and the output
would be written to the {\bf Full} Pool which uses the Diskchanger Storage.

If the Virtual Full is run, and there are no prior Jobs, the Virtual Full will
fail with an error.

Note, the Start and End time of the Virtual Full backup is set to the
values for the last job included in the Virtual Full (in the above example,
it is an Increment). This is so that if another incremental is done, which
will be based on the Virtual Full, it will backup all files from the
last Job included in the Virtual Full rather than from the time the Virtual
Full was actually run.



\section{Catalog Format}
Bacula 3.0 comes with some changes on the catalog format.  The upgrade
operation will convert an essential field of the File table that permits to
handle more than 4 billion objects over the time, and this operation will take
TIME and will likely DOUBLE THE SIZE of your catalog during the conversion.
You won't be able to run jobs during this period.  For example, a 3 million
files catalog will take 2 minutes to upgrade on a normal machine.  Please don't
forget to make a valid backup of your database before executing the upgrade
script.

\section{Duplicate Job Control}
\index[general]{Duplicate Jobs}
The new version of Bacula provides four new directives that
give additional control over what Bacula does if duplicate jobs 
are started.  A duplicate job in the sense we use it here means
a second or subsequent job with the same name starts.  This
happens most frequently when the first job runs longer than expected because no 
tapes are available.

The four directives each take as an argument a {\bf yes} or {\bf no} value and
are specified in the Job resource.

They are:

\subsection{Allow Duplicate Jobs = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
  If this directive is enabled duplicate jobs will be run.  If
  the directive is set to {\bf no} (default) then only one job of a given name
  may run at one time, and the action that Bacula takes to ensure only
  one job runs is determined by the other directives (see below).

\subsection{Allow Higher Duplicates = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
  If this directive is set to {\bf yes} (default) the job with a higher
  priority (lower priority number) will be permitted to run.  If the
  priorities of the two jobs are the same, the outcome is determined by
  other directives (see below).

\subsection{Cancel Queued Duplicates = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
  If this directive is set to {\bf yes} (default) any job that is
  already queued to run but not yet running will be canceled.

\subsection{Cancel Running Duplicates = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
  If this directive is set to {\bf yes} any job that is already running
  will be canceled.  The default is {\bf no}.


\section{TLS Authentication}
\index[general]{TLS Authentication}
In Bacula version 2.5.x and later, in addition to the normal Bacula
CRAM-MD5 authentication that is used to authenticate each Bacula
connection, you can specify that you want TLS Authentication as well,
which will provide more secure authentication.

This new feature uses Bacula's existing TLS code (normally used for
communications encryption) to do authentication.  To use it, you must
specify all the TLS directives normally used to enable communications
encryption (TLS Enable, TLS Verify Peer, TLS Certificate, ...) and
a new directive:

\subsection{TLS Authenticate = yes}
\begin{verbatim}
TLS Authenticate = yes
\end{verbatim}

in the main daemon configuration resource (Director for the Director,
Client for the File daemon, and Storage for the Storage daemon).

When {\bf TLS Authenticate} is enabled, after doing the CRAM-MD5
authentication, Bacula will do the normal TLS authentication, then TLS 
encryption will be turned off.

If you want to encrypt communications data, do not turn on {\bf TLS
Authenticate}.

\section{bextract non-portable Win32 data}
\index[general]{bextract handles Win32 non-portable data}
{\bf bextract} has been enhanced to be able to restore
non-portable Win32 data to any OS.  Previous versions were 
unable to restore non-portable Win32 data to machines that
did not have the Win32 BackupRead and BackupWrite API calls.

\section{State File updated at Job Termination}
\index[general]{State File}
In previous versions of Bacula, the state file, which provides a
summary of previous jobs run in the {\bf status} command output was
updated only when Bacula terminated, thus if the daemon crashed, the
state file might not contain all the run data.  This version of
the Bacula daemons updates the state file on each job termination.

\section{MaxFullInterval = \lt{}time-interval\gt{}}
\index[general]{MaxFullInterval}
The new Job resource directive {\bf Max Full Interval = \lt{}time-interval\gt{}}
can be used to specify the maximum time interval between {\bf Full} backup
jobs. When a job starts, if the time since the last Full backup is
greater than the specified interval, and the job would normally be an
{\bf Incremental} or {\bf Differential}, it will be automatically
upgraded to a {\bf Full} backup.

\section{MaxDiffInterval = \lt{}time-interval\gt{}}
\index[general]{MaxDiffInterval}
The new Job resource directive {\bf Max Diff Interval = \lt{}time-interval\gt{}}
can be used to specify the maximum time interval between {\bf Differential} backup
jobs. When a job starts, if the time since the last Differential backup is
greater than the specified interval, and the job would normally be an
{\bf Incremental}, it will be automatically
upgraded to a {\bf Differential} backup.

\section{Honor No Dump Flag = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
\index[general]{MaxDiffInterval}
On FreeBSD systems, each file has a {\bf no dump flag} that can be set
by the user, and when it is set it is an indication to backup programs
to not backup that particular file.  This version of Bacula contains a
new Options directive within a FileSet resource, which instructs Bacula to
obey this flag.  The new directive is:

\begin{verbatim}
  Honor No Dump Flag = yes|no
\end{verbatim}

The default value is {\bf no}.


\section{Exclude Dirs Containing = \lt{}filename-string\gt{}}
\index[general]{IgnoreDir}
The {\bf ExcludeDirsContaining = \lt{}filename\gt{}} is a new directive that
can be added to the Include section of the FileSet resource.  If the specified
filename ({\bf filename-string}) is found on the Client in any directory to be
backed up, the whole directory will be ignored (not backed up).  For example:

\begin{verbatim}
  # List of files to be backed up
  FileSet {
    Name = "MyFileSet"
    Include {
      Options {
        signature = MD5
      }
      File = /home
      Exclude Dirs Containing = .excludeme
    }
  }
\end{verbatim}

But in /home, there may be hundreds of directories of users and some
people want to indicate that they don't want to have certain
directories backed up. For example, with the above FileSet, if
the user or sysadmin creates a file named {\bf .excludeme} in 
specific directories, such as

\begin{verbatim}
   /home/user/www/cache/.excludeme
   /home/user/temp/.excludeme
\end{verbatim}

then Bacula will not backup the two directories named:

\begin{verbatim}
   /home/user/www/cache
   /home/user/temp
\end{verbatim}

NOTE: subdirectories will not be backed up.  That is, the directive
applies to the two directories in question and any children (be they
files, directories, etc).



\section{Bacula Plugins}
\index[general]{Plugin}
Support for shared object plugins has been implemented in the Linux, Unix
and Win32 File daemons. The API will be documented separately in
the Developer's Guide or in a new document.  For the moment, there is
a single plugin named {\bf bpipe} that allows an external program to
get control to backup and restore a file.

Plugins are also planned (partially implemented) in the Director and the
Storage daemon.  

\subsection{Plugin Directory}
Each daemon (DIR, FD, SD) has a new {\bf Plugin Directory} directive that may
be added to the daemon definition resource. The directory takes a quoted 
string argument, which is the name of the directory in which the daemon can
find the Bacula plugins. If this directive is not specified, Bacula will not
load any plugins. Since each plugin has a distinctive name, all the daemons
can share the same plugin directory. 

\subsection{Plugin Options}
The {\bf Plugin Options} directive takes a quoted string
arguement (after the equal sign) and may be specified in the
Job resource.  The options specified will be passed to all plugins
when they are run.  This each plugin must know what it is looking
for. The value defined in the Job resource can be modified
by the user when he runs a Job via the {\bf bconsole} command line 
prompts.

Note: this directive may be specified, and there is code to modify
the string in the run command, but the plugin options are not yet passed to
the plugin (i.e. not fully implemented).

\subsection{Plugin Options ACL}
The {\bf Plugin Options ACL} directive may be specified in the
Director's Console resource. It functions as all the other ACL commands
do by permitting users running restricted consoles to specify a 
{\bf Plugin Options} that overrides the one specified in the Job
definition. Without this directive restricted consoles may not modify
the Plugin Options.

\subsection{Plugin = \lt{}plugin-command-string\gt{}}
The {\bf Plugin} directive is specified in the Include section of
a FileSet resource where you put your {\bf File = xxx} directives.
For example:

\begin{verbatim}
  FileSet {
    Name = "MyFileSet"
    Include {
      Options {
        signature = MD5
      }
      File = /home
      Plugin = "bpipe:..."
    }
  }
\end{verbatim}

In the above example, when the File daemon is processing the directives
in the Include section, it will first backup all the files in {\bf /home}
then it will load the plugin named {\bf bpipe} (actually bpipe-dir.so) from
the Plugin Directory.  The syntax and semantics of the Plugin directive
require the first part of the string up to the colon (:) to be the name
of the plugin. Everything after the first colon is ignored by the File daemon but
is passed to the plugin. Thus the plugin writer may define the meaning of the
rest of the string as he wishes.

Please see the next section for information about the {\bf bpipe} Bacula
plugin.

\section{The bpipe Plugin}
The {\bf bpipe} plugin is provided in the directory src/plugins/fd/bpipe-fd.c of
the Bacula source distribution. When the plugin is compiled and linking into
the resulting dynamic shared object (DSO), it will have the name {\bf bpipe-fd.so}.

The purpose of the plugin is to provide an interface to any system program for
backup and restore. As specified above the {\bf bpipe} plugin is specified in
the Include section of your Job's FileSet resource.  The full syntax of the
plugin directive as interpreted by the {\bf bpipe} plugin (each plugin is free
to specify the sytax as it wishes) is:

\begin{verbatim}
  Plugin = "<field1>:<field2>:<field3>:<field4>"
\end{verbatim}

where
\begin{description}
\item {\bf field1} is the name of the plugin with the trailing {\bf -fd.so}
stripped off, so in this case, we would put {\bf bpipe} in this field.

\item {\bf field2} specifies the namespace, which for {\bf bpipe} is the
pseudo path and filename under which the backup will be saved. This pseudo
path and filename will be seen by the user in the restore file tree.
For example, if the value is {\bf /MYSQL/regress.sql}, the data
backed up by the plugin will be put under that "pseudo" path and filename.
You must be careful to choose a naming convention that is unique to avoid
a conflict with a path and filename that actually exists on your system.

\item {\bf field3} for the {\bf bpipe} plugin 
specifies the "reader" program that is called by the plugin during
backup to read the data. {\bf bpipe} will call this program by doing a
{\bf popen} on it.

\item {\bf field4} for the {\bf bpipe} plugin
specifies the "writer" program that is called by the plugin during
restore to write the data back to the filesystem.  
\end{description}

Putting it all together, the full plugin directive line might look
like the following:

\begin{verbatim}
Plugin = "bpipe:/MYSQL/regress.sql:mysqldump -f 
          --opt --databases bacula:mysql"
\end{verbatim}

The directive has been split into two lines, but within the {\bf bacula-dir.conf} file
would be written on a single line.

This causes the File daemon to call the {\bf bpipe} plugin, which will write
its data into the "pseudo" file {\bf /MYSQL/regress.sql} by calling the 
program {\bf mysqldump -f --opt --database bacula} to read the data during
backup. The mysqldump command outputs all the data for the database named
{\bf bacula}, which will be read by the plugin and stored in the backup.
During restore, the data that was backed up will be sent to the program
specified in the last field, which in this case is {\bf mysql}.  When
{\bf mysql} is called, it will read the data sent to it by the plugn
then write it back to the same database from which it came ({\bf bacula}
in this case).

The {\bf bpipe} plugin is a generic pipe program, that simply transmits 
the data from a specified program to Bacula for backup, and then from Bacula to 
a specified program for restore.

By using different command lines to {\bf bpipe},
you can backup any kind of data (ASCII or binary) depending
on the program called.

\section{Microsoft Exchange Server 2003/2007 Plugin}

\subsection{Concepts}
Although it is possible to backup Exchange using Bacula VSS the Exchange 
plugin adds a good deal of functionality, because while Bacula VSS
completes a full backup (snapshot) of Exchange, it does
not support Incremental or Differential backups, restoring is more
complicated, and a single database restore is not possible.

Microsoft Exchange organises its storage into Storage Groups with
Databases inside them. A default installation of Exchange will have a
single Storage Group called 'First Storage Group', with two Databases
inside it, "Mailbox Store (SERVER NAME)" and 
"Public Folder Store (SERVER NAME)", 
which hold user email and public folders respectively.

In the default configuration, Exchange logs everything that happens to
log files, such that if you have a backup, and all the log files since,
you can restore to the present time. Each Storage Group has its own set
of log files and operates independently of any other Storage Groups. At
the Storage Group level, the logging can be turned off by enabling a
function called "Enable circular logging". At this time the Exchange
plugin will not function if this option is enabled.

The plugin allows backing up of entire storage groups, and the restoring
of entire storage groups or individual databases. Backing up and
restoring at the individual mailbox or email item is not supported but
can be simulated by use of the "Recovery" Storage Group (see below).

\subsection{Installing}
The Exchange plugin requires a DLL that is shipped with Microsoft
Exchanger Server called {\bf esebcli2.dll}. Assuming Exchange is installed
correctly the Exchange plugin should find this automatically and run
without any additional installation.

If the DLL can not be found automatically it will need to be copied into
the Bacula installation
directory (eg C:\verb+\+Program Files\verb+\+Bacula\verb+\+bin). The Exchange API DLL is
named esebcli2.dll and is found in C:\verb+\+Program Files\verb+\+Exchsrvr\verb+\+bin on a
default Exchange installation.

\subsection{Backup up}
To back up an Exchange server the Fileset definition must contain at
least {\bf Plugin = "exchange:/@EXCHANGE/Microsoft Information Store"} for
the backup to work correctly. The 'exchange:' bit tells Bacula to look
for the exchange plugin, the '@EXCHANGE' bit makes sure all the backed
up files are prefixed with something that isn't going to share a name
with something outside the plugin, and the 'Microsoft Information Store'
bit is required also. It is also possible to add the name of a storage
group to the "Plugin =" line, eg \\
{\bf Plugin = "exchange:/@EXCHANGE/Microsoft Information Store/First Storage Group"} \\
if you want only a single storage group backed up.

Additionally, you can suffix the 'Plugin =' directive with
":notrunconfull" which will tell the plugin not to truncate the Exchange
database at the end of a full backup.

An Incremental or Differential backup will backup only the database logs
for each Storage Group by inspecting the "modified date" on each
physical log file. Because of the way the Exchange API works, the last
logfile backed up on each backup will always be backed up by the next
Incremental or Differential backup too. This adds 5MB to each
Incremental or Differential backup size but otherwise does not cause any
problems.

By default, a normal VSS fileset containing all the drive letters will
also back up the Exchange databases using VSS. This will interfere with
the plugin and Exchange's shared ideas of when the last full backup was
done, and may also truncate log files incorrectly. It is important,
therefore, that the Exchange database files be excluded from the backup,
although the folders the files are in should be included, or they will
have to be recreated manually if a baremetal restore is done.

\begin{verbatim}
FileSet {
   Include {
      File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata
      Plugin = "exchange:..."
   }
   Exclude {
      File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E00.chk
      File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E00.log
      File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E000000F.log
      File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E0000010.log
      File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E0000011.log
      File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/E00tmp.log
      File = C:/Program Files/Exchsrvr/mdbdata/priv1.edb
   }
}
\end{verbatim}

The advantage of excluding the above files is that you can significantly
reduce the size of your backup since all the important Exchange files
will be properly saved by the Plugin.


\subsection{Restoring}

The restore operation is much the same as a normal Bacula restore, with
the following provisos:

\begin{itemize}
\item  The {\bf Where} restore option must not be specified
\item Each Database directory must be marked as a whole. You cannot just
     select (say) the .edb file and not the others.
\item If a Storage Group is restored, the directory of the Storage Group
     must be marked too.
\item  It is possible to restore only a subset of the available log files,
     but they {\bf must} be contiguous. Exchange will fail to restore correctly
     if a log file is missing from the sequence of log files
\item Each database to be restored must be dismounted and marked as "Can be
    overwritten by restore"
\item If an entire Storage Group is to be restored (eg all databases and
   logs in the Storage Group), then it is best to manually delete the
   database files from the server (eg C:\verb+\+Program Files\verb+\+Exchsrvr\verb+\+mdbdata\verb+\+*)
   as Exchange can get confused by stray log files lying around.
\end{itemize}

\subsection{Restoring to the Recovery Storage Group}

The concept of the Recovery Storage Group is well documented by
Microsoft 
\elink{http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824126}{http://support.microsoft.com/kb/824126}, 
but to briefly summarize...

Microsoft Exchange allows the creation of an additional Storage Group
called the Recovery Storage Group, which is used to restore an older
copy of a database (e.g. before a mailbox was deleted) into without
messing with the current live data. This is required as the Standard and
Small Business Server versions of Exchange can not ordinarily have more
than one Storage Group.

To create the Recovery Storage Group, drill down to the Server in Exchange
System Manager, right click, and select
{\bf "New -> Recovery Storage Group..."}.  Accept or change the file
locations and click OK. On the Recovery Storage Group, right click and
select {\bf "Add Database to Recover..."} and select the database you will
be restoring.

Restore only the single database nominated as the database in the
Recovery Storage Group. Exchange will redirect the restore to the
Recovery Storage Group automatically.
Then run the restore.

\subsection{Restoring on Microsoft Server 2007}
Apparently the {\bf Exmerge} program no longer exists in Microsoft Server
2007, and henc you use a new proceedure for recovering a single mail box.
This procedure is ducomented by Microsoft at:
\elink{http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694.aspx}{http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa997694.aspx},
and involves using the {\bf Restore-Mailbox} and {\bf
Get-MailboxStatistics} shell commands.

\subsection{Caveats}
This plugin is still being developed, so you should consider it
currently in BETA test, and thus use in a production environment
should be done only after very careful testing.

When doing a full backup, the Exchange database logs are truncated by
Exchange as soon as the plugin has completed the backup. If the data
never makes it to the backup medium (eg because of spooling) then the
logs will still be truncated, but they will also not have been backed
up. A solution to this is being worked on. You will have to schedule a
new Full backup to ensure that your backup is usable.

The "Enable Circular Logging" option cannot be enabled or the plugin
will fail.

Exchange insists that a successful Full backup must have taken place if
an Incremental or Differential backup is desired, and the plugin will
fail if this is not the case. If a restore is done, Exchange will
require that a Full backup be done before an Incremental or Differential
backup is done.

The plugin will most likely not work well if another backup application
(eg NTBACKUP) is backing up the Exchange database, especially if the
other backup application is truncating the log files.

The Exchange plugin has not been tested with the {\bf Accurate} option, so
we recommend either carefully testing or that you avoid this option for
the current time.

The Exchange plugin is not called during processing the bconsole {\bf
estimate} command, and so anything that would be backed up by the plugin
will not be added to the estimate total that is displayed.


\section{libdbi Framework}
As a general guideline, Bacula has support for a few catalog database drivers
(MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite)
coded natively by the Bacula team.  With the libdbi implementation, which is a
Bacula driver that uses libdbi to access the catalog, we have an open field to
use many different kinds database engines following the needs of users.

The according to libdbi (http://libdbi.sourceforge.net/) project: libdbi
implements a database-independent abstraction layer in C, similar to the
DBI/DBD layer in Perl. Writing one generic set of code, programmers can
leverage the power of multiple databases and multiple simultaneous database
connections by using this framework.

Currently the libdbi driver in Bacula project only supports the same drivers
natively coded in Bacula.  However the libdbi project has support for many
others database engines. You can view the list at
http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net/. In the future all those drivers can be
supported by Bacula, however, they must be tested properly by the Bacula team.

Some of benefits of using libdbi are:
\begin{itemize}
\item The possibility to use proprietary databases engines in which your
  proprietary licenses prevent the Bacula team from developing the driver.
 \item The possibility to use the drivers written for the libdbi project.
 \item The possibility to use other database engines without recompiling Bacula
   to use them.  Just change one line in bacula-dir.conf
 \item Abstract Database access, this is, unique point to code and profiling
   catalog database access.
 \end{itemize}
 
 The following drivers have been tested:
 \begin{itemize}
 \item PostgreSQL, with and without batch insert
 \item Mysql, with and without batch insert
 \item SQLite
 \item SQLite3
 \end{itemize}

 In the future, we will test and approve to use others databases engines
 (proprietary or not) like DB2, Oracle, Microsoft SQL.

 To compile Bacula to support libdbi we need to configure the code with the
 --with-dbi and --with-dbi-driver=[database] ./configure options, where
 [database] is the database engine to be used with Bacula (of course we can
 change the driver in file bacula-dir.conf, see below).  We must configure the
 access port of the database engine with the option --with-db-port, because the
 libdbi framework doesn't know the default access port of each database.

The next phase is checking (or configuring) the bacula-dir.conf, example:
\begin{verbatim}
Catalog {
  Name = MyCatalog
  dbdriver = dbi:mysql; dbaddress = 127.0.0.1; dbport = 3306
  dbname = regress; user = regress; password = ""
}
\end{verbatim}

The parameter {\bf dbdriver} indicates that we will use the driver dbi with a
mysql database.  Currently the drivers supported by Bacula are: postgresql,
mysql, sqlite, sqlite3; these are the names that may be added to string "dbi:".

The following limitations apply when Bacula is set to use the libdbi framework:
 - Not tested on the Win32 platform
 - A little performance is lost if comparing with native database driver. 
   The reason is bound with the database driver provided by libdbi and the 
   simple fact that one more layer of code was added.

It is important to remember, when compiling Bacula with libdbi, the
following packages are needed:
 \begin{itemize}
  \item libdbi version 1.0.0, http://libdbi.sourceforge.net/
  \item libdbi-drivers 1.0.0, http://libdbi-drivers.sourceforge.net/
 \end{itemize}
 
 You can download them and compile them on your system or install the packages
 from your OS distribution.

\section{Console Command Additions and Enhancements}

\subsection{Display Autochanger Content}
\index[general]{StatusSlots}

The {\bf status slots storage=\lt{}storage-name\gt{}} command displays
autochanger content.

\footnotesize
\begin{verbatim}
 Slot |  Volume Name  |  Status  |  Media Type       |   Pool     |
------+---------------+----------+-------------------+------------|
    1 |         00001 |   Append |  DiskChangerMedia |    Default |
    2 |         00002 |   Append |  DiskChangerMedia |    Default |
    3*|         00003 |   Append |  DiskChangerMedia |    Scratch |
    4 |               |          |                   |            |
\end{verbatim}
\normalsize

If you an asterisk ({\bf *}) appears after the slot number, you must run an
{\bf update slots} command to synchronize autochanger content with your
catalog.

\subsection{list joblog job=xxx or jobid=nnn}
A new list command has been added that allows you to list the contents
of the Job Log stored in the catalog for either a Job Name (fully qualified)
or for a particular JobId.  The {\bf llist} command will include a line with
the time and date of the entry.

Note for the catalog to have Job Log entries, you must have a directive 
such as:

\begin{verbatim}
  catalog = all
\end{verbatim}

In your Director's {\bf Messages} resource.

\subsection{Use separator for multiple commands}
  When using bconsole with readline, you can set the command separator to one
  of those characters to write commands who require multiple input in one line.
\begin{verbatim}
  !$%&'()*+,-/:;<>?[]^`{|}~
\end{verbatim}

\section{Miscellaneous}
\index[general]{Misc New Features}

\subsection{Allow Mixed Priority = \lt{}yes|no\gt{}}
   This directive is only implemented in version 2.5 and later.  When
   set to {\bf yes} (default {\bf no}), this job may run even if lower
   priority jobs are already running.  This means a high priority job
   will not have to wait for other jobs to finish before starting.
   The scheduler will only mix priorities when all running jobs have
   this set to true.

   Note that only higher priority jobs will start early.  Suppose the
   director will allow two concurrent jobs, and that two jobs with
   priority 10 are running, with two more in the queue.  If a job with
   priority 5 is added to the queue, it will be run as soon as one of
   the running jobs finishes.  However, new priority 10 jobs will not
   be run until the priority 5 job has finished.

\subsection{Bootstrap File Directive -- FileRegex}
  {\bf FileRegex} is a new command that can be added to the bootstrap
  (.bsr) file.  The value is a regular expression.  When specified, only
  matching filenames will be restored.

  During a restore, if all File records are pruned from the catalog
  for a Job, normally Bacula can restore only all files saved. That
  is there is no way using the catalog to select individual files.
  With this new feature, Bacula will ask if you want to specify a Regex
  expression for extracting only a part of the full backup.

\begin{verbatim}
  Building directory tree for JobId(s) 1,3 ...
  There were no files inserted into the tree, so file selection
  is not possible.Most likely your retention policy pruned the files
  
  Do you want to restore all the files? (yes|no): no
  
  Regexp matching files to restore? (empty to abort): /tmp/regress/(bin|tests)/
  Bootstrap records written to /tmp/regress/working/zog4-dir.restore.1.bsr
\end{verbatim}

\subsection{Bootstrap File Optimization Changes}
In order to permit proper seeking on disk files, we have extended the bootstrap
file format to include a {\bf VolStartAddr} and {\bf VolEndAddr} records. Each
takes a 64 bit unsigned integer range (i.e. nnn-mmm) which defines the start
address range and end address range respectively.  These two directives replace
the {\bf VolStartFile}, {\bf VolEndFile}, {\bf VolStartBlock} and {\bf
  VolEndBlock} directives.  Bootstrap files containing the old directives will
still work, but will not properly take advantage of proper disk seeking, and
may read completely to the end of a disk volume during a restore.  With the new
format (automatically generated by the new Director), restores will seek
properly and stop reading the volume when all the files have been restored.

\subsection{Solaris ZFS/NFSv4 ACLs}
This is an upgrade of the previous Solaris ACL backup code
to the new library format, which will backup both the old
POSIX(UFS) ACLs as well as the ZFS ACLs.

The new code can also restore POSIX(UFS) ACLs to a ZFS filesystem
(it will translate the POSIX(UFS)) ACL into a ZFS/NFSv4 one) it can also
be used to transfer from UFS to ZFS filesystems.


\subsection{Virtual Tape Emulation}
We now have a Virtual Tape emulator that allows us to run though 99.9\% of
the tape code but actually reading and writing to a disk file. Used with the
\textbf{disk-changer} script, you can now emulate an autochanger with 10 drives
and 700 slots. This feature is most useful in testing.  It is enabled
by using {\bf Device Type = vtape} in the Storage daemon's Device
directive. This feature is only implemented on Linux machines.

\subsection{Bat Enhancements}
Bat (the Bacula Administration Tool) GUI program has been significantly
enhanced and stabilized. In particular, there are new table based status 
commands; it can now be easily localized using Qt4 Linguist.

The Bat communications protocol has been significantly enhanced to improve
GUI handling. Note, you {\bf must} use a the bat that is distributed with
the Director you are using otherwise the communications protocol will not
work.

\subsection{RunScript Enhancements}
The {\bf RunScript} resource has been enhanced to permit multiple
commands per RunScript.  Simply specify multiple {\bf Command} directives
in your RunScript.

\begin{verbatim}
Job {
  Name = aJob
  RunScript {
    Command = "/bin/echo test"
    Command = "/bin/echo an other test"
    Command = "/bin/echo 3 commands in the same runscript"
    RunsWhen = Before
  }
 ...
}
\end{verbatim}

A new Client RunScript {\bf RunsWhen} keyword of {\bf AfterVSS} has been
implemented, which runs the command after the Volume Shadow Copy has been made.

Console commands can be specified within a RunScript by using:
{\bf Console = \lt{}command\gt{}}, however, this command has not been 
carefully tested and debugged and is known to easily crash the Director.
We would appreciate feedback.  Due to the recursive nature of this command, we
may remove it before the final release.

\subsection{Status Enhancements}
The bconsole {\bf status dir} output has been enhanced to indicate
Storage daemon job spooling and despooling activity.

\subsection{Connect Timeout}
The default connect timeout to the File
daemon has been set to 3 minutes. Previously it was 30 minutes.

\subsection{ftruncate for NFS Volumes}
If you write to a Volume mounted by NFS (say on a local file server),
in previous Bacula versions, when the Volume was recycled, it was not
properly truncated because NFS does not implement ftruncate (file 
truncate). This is now corrected in the new version because we have
written code (actually a kind user) that deletes and recreates the Volume,
thus accomplishing the same thing as a truncate.

\subsection{Support for Ubuntu}
The new version of Bacula now recognizes the Ubuntu (and Kubuntu)
version of Linux, and thus now provides correct autostart routines.
Since Ubuntu officially supports Bacula, you can also obtain any
recent release of Bacula from the Ubuntu repositories.

\subsection{Recycle Pool = \lt{}pool-name\gt{}}
The new \textbf{RecyclePool} directive defines to which pool the Volume will
be placed (moved) when it is recycled. Without this directive, a Volume will
remain in the same pool when it is recycled. With this directive, it can be
moved automatically to any existing pool during a recycle. This directive is
probably most useful when defined in the Scratch pool, so that volumes will
be recycled back into the Scratch pool.

\subsection{FD Version}
The File daemon to Director protocol now includes a version 
number, which although there is no visible change for users, 
will help us in future versions automatically determine
if a File daemon is not compatible.

\subsection{Max Run Sched Time = \lt{}time-period-in-seconds\gt{}}
The time specifies the maximum allowed time that a job may run, counted from
when the job was scheduled. This can be useful to prevent jobs from running
during working hours. We can see it like \texttt{Max Start Delay + Max Run
  Time}.

\subsection{Max Wait Time = \lt{}time-period-in-seconds\gt{}}

Previous \textbf{MaxWaitTime} directives aren't working as expected, instead
of checking the maximum allowed time that a job may block for a resource,
those directives worked like \textbf{MaxRunTime}. Some users are reporting to
use \textbf{Incr/Diff/Full Max Wait Time} to control the maximum run time of
their job depending on the level. Now, they have to use
\textbf{Incr/Diff/Full Max Run Time}.  \textbf{Incr/Diff/Full Max Wait Time}
directives are now deprecated.

\subsection{Incremental|Differential Max Wait Time = \lt{}time-period-in-seconds\gt{}} 
These directives have been deprecated in favor of
\texttt{Incremental|Differential Max Run Time}.

\subsection{Max Run Time directives}
Using \textbf{Full/Diff/Incr Max Run Time}, it's now possible to specify the
maximum allowed time that a job can run depending on the level.

\addcontentsline{lof}{figure}{Job time control directives}
\includegraphics{\idir different_time.eps}

\subsection{Statistics Enhancements}
If you (or probably your boss) want to have statistics on your backups to
provide some \textit{Service Level Agreement} indicators, you could use a few
SQL queries on the Job table to report how many:

\begin{itemize}
\item jobs have run
\item jobs have been successful
\item files have been backed up
\item ...
\end{itemize}

However, these statistics are accurate only if your job retention is greater
than your statistics period. Ie, if jobs are purged from the catalog, you won't
be able to use them. 

Now, you can use the \textbf{update stats [days=num]} console command to fill
the JobHistory table with new Job records. If you want to be sure to take in
account only \textbf{good jobs}, ie if one of your important job has failed but
you have fixed the problem and restarted it on time, you probably want to
delete the first \textit{bad} job record and keep only the successful one. For
that simply let your staff do the job, and update JobHistory table after two or
three days depending on your organization using the \textbf{[days=num]} option.

These statistics records aren't used for restoring, but mainly for
capacity planning, billings, etc.

The Bweb interface provides a statistics module that can use this feature. You
can also use tools like Talend or extract information by yourself.

The {\textbf Statistics Retention = \lt{}time\gt{}} director directive defines
the length of time that Bacula will keep statistics job records in the Catalog
database after the Job End time. (In \texttt{JobHistory} table) When this time
period expires, and if user runs \texttt{prune stats} command, Bacula will
prune (remove) Job records that are older than the specified period.

You can use the following Job resource in your nightly \textbf{BackupCatalog}
job to maintain statistics.
\begin{verbatim}
Job {
  Name = BackupCatalog
  ...
  RunScript {
    Console = "update stats days=3"
    Console = "prune stats yes"
    RunsWhen = After
    RunsOnClient = no
  }
}
\end{verbatim}

\subsection{ScratchPool = \lt{}pool-resource-name\gt{}}
This directive permits to specify a specific \textsl{Scratch} pool for the
current pool. This is useful when using multiple storage sharing the same
mediatype or when you want to dedicate volumes to a particular set of pool.

\subsection{Enhanced Attribute Despooling}
If the storage daemon and the Director are on the same machine, the spool file
that contains attributes is read directly by the Director instead of being
transmitted across the network. That should reduce load and speedup insertion.

\subsection{SpoolSize = \lt{}size-specification-in-bytes\gt{}}
A new Job directive permits to specify the spool size per job. This is used
in advanced job tunning. {\bf SpoolSize={\it bytes}}

\subsection{MaxConsoleConnections = \lt{}number\gt{}}
A new director directive permits to specify the maximum number of Console
Connections that could run concurrently. The default is set to 20, but you may
set it to a larger number.

\subsection{dbcheck enhancements}
If you are using Mysql, dbcheck will now ask you if you want to create
temporary indexes to speed up orphaned Path and Filename elimination. 

A new \texttt{-B} option allows you to print catalog information in a simple
text based format. This is useful to backup it in a secure way.

\begin{verbatim}
 $ dbcheck -B 
 catalog=MyCatalog
 db_type=SQLite
 db_name=regress
 db_driver=
 db_user=regress
 db_password=
 db_address=
 db_port=0
 db_socket=
\end{verbatim} %$

You can now specify the database connection port in the command line.

\section{Building Bacula Plugins}
There is currently one sample program {\bf example-plugin-fd.c} and
one working plugin {\bf bpipe-fd.c} that can be found in the Bacula
{\bf src/plugins/fd} directory.  Both are built with the following:

\begin{verbatim}
 cd <bacula-source>
 ./configure <your-options>
 make
 ...
 cd src/plugins/fd
 make
 make test
\end{verbatim}

After building Bacula and changing into the src/plugins/fd directory,
the {\bf make} command will build the {\bf bpipe-fd.so} plugin, which 
is a very useful and working program.

The {\bf make test} command will build the {\bf example-plugin-fd.so}
plugin and a binary named {\bf main}, which is build from the source
code located in {\bf src/filed/fd\_plugins.c}. 

If you execute {\bf ./main}, it will load and run the example-plugin-fd
plugin simulating a small number of the calling sequences that Bacula uses
in calling a real plugin.  This allows you to do initial testing of 
your plugin prior to trying it with Bacula.

You can get a good idea of how to write your own plugin by first 
studying the example-plugin-fd, and actually running it.  Then
it can also be instructive to read the bpipe-fd.c code as it is 
a real plugin, which is still rather simple and small.

When actually writing your own plugin, you may use the example-plugin-fd.c
code as a template for your code.