[CentOS] Bacula backup system

Mon May 11 21:20:45 UTC 2015
Leon Fauster <leonfauster at googlemail.com>

Am 11.05.2015 um 20:49 schrieb Alessandro Baggi <alessandro.baggi at gmail.com>:
> Hi there,
> In my last request I have asked info about backuppc and other backup
> solutions. After some test I have choosen bacula. Many people said it's too
> complex and try to make it works is a challenge. I've tested backuppc and I
> don't like it for a stupid reason... I must install on centos external
> software, configure a web server with cgi with suid enabled (apache does
> not have mod_perl) I must exchange ssh key or configure smb shares. On
> backuppc site is reported that there is no database because it is another
> point of failure. But to make backup pc working I need different softwares
> to make it work. With bacula I need pgsql (installed with 3 step) install
> bacula with yum and configure bacula. Bacula is amazing in it's
> configurantion...you must spend time for studying it but it is solid and
> powerfull. This is my choice and this not mean that backuppc is bad.
> 
> Then after this...I'm new to bacula.
> 
> On different sites, on bacula docs and on sample files, there is specified
> a job related to database (catalog) backup.
> The catalog is used to restore a backup.


> What do you think about backupping  catalog on the same backup server?


The scenario is a baremetal recovery for example. For this the 
"volumes" (e.g .tapes, hdd) should be at hand, and to help the 
restore process also the "catalog" ...



> If the backup server dies, how I can restore catalog(s)?


the catalog is just a db dump ... so restoring a catalog 
implies setting a db service up. This helps to browse the
meta data and to find the right volume for restoring data. 



> If server dies, I can restore without reinstall bacula?


its possible to "manually" dump your files from your volumes
but that is less flexible. We use a process for baremetal restores
where we boot a live-system with an "bacula" service enabled and 
import then the newest catalog.


> What solution do you use?

Check your use cases. In any case, the catalog helps to restore files.
Therefore after "all" bacula jobs we have a catalog job to make sure 
that we have a current catalog on the volumes, additionally we store
the catalog dump outside of the volumes (RunAfterJob).


--
LF