Bacula-users

Re: [Bacula-users] amazing backup size

2011-12-18 10:31:28
Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] amazing backup size
From: Pablo Marques <pmarques AT miamilinux DOT net>
To: John Drescher <drescherjm AT gmail DOT com>
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2011 10:29:36 -0500 (EST)
From FAQ Bacula Wiki:

Why is my backup larger than my disk space usage?

The most common culprit of this is having one or more sparse files.

A sparse file is one with large blocks of nothing but zeroes that the operating 
system has optimized. Instead of actually storing disk blocks of nothing but 
zeroes, the filesystem simply contains a note that from point A to point B, the 
file is nothing but zeroes. Only blocks that contain non-zero data are 
allocated physical disk blocks.

The single biggest culprit seems to be the contents of /var/log/lastlog on 64 
bit systems. Since the lastlog file is extended to preallocate space for all 
UIDs, the switch from a 32 bit UID space to a 64 bit UID increases the full 
size to over 1TB.

Luckily the fix is simple - turn on sparse file support in the FileSet, will 
detect sparse files and not store the zerofill blocks.

Another possible cause is that your fileset accidentally includes some folders 
twice. Taken from the manual:

    Take special care not to include a directory twice or Bacula will backup 
the same files two times wasting a lot of space on your archive device. 
Including a directory twice is very easy to do. For example:

    Include {
      File = /
      File = /usr
      Options { compression=GZIP }
    }

    on a Unix system where /usr is a subdirectory (rather than a mounted 
filesystem) will cause /usr to be backed up twice.


----- Original Message -----
From: "John Drescher" <drescherjm AT gmail DOT com>
To: "Tilman Schmidt" <t.schmidt AT phoenixsoftware DOT de>
Cc: "bacula-users" <bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2011 10:21:58 AM
Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] amazing backup size

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 9:09 AM, Tilman Schmidt
<t.schmidt AT phoenixsoftware DOT de> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> A newly installed CentOS 6 / Bacula 5 backup server is reporting
> this when backing itself up:
>
>  FD Bytes Written:       53,655,908,904 (53.65 GB)
>  SD Bytes Written:       53,664,006,577 (53.66 GB)
>  Last Volume Bytes:      53,705,852,928 (53.70 GB)
>
> Which is truly amazing because the actual amount of data stored
> on this system is far less than that:
>
> [r2d2@backup ~]$ LANG=C df -h
> Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> /dev/mapper/vg_backup-lv_root
>                       50G  2.2G   45G   5% /
> tmpfs                 1.9G     0  1.9G   0% /dev/shm
> /dev/sda1             485M   47M  413M  11% /boot
> /dev/mapper/vg_backup-lv_home
>                      174G  2.4G  163G   2% /home
>
> Any explanations for that discrepancy?
>

No, I have never seen anything like this. And this is from a bacula
user for 8+ years who has run tens of thousands of backups for a
department with 50+ machines and 30 to 50TB on tape. I suggest you
examine what bacula has saved in the backup. The simplest way is to
use the bat version browser or the new restore viewer if you have
bacula-5.2.X.

John

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Learn Windows Azure Live!  Tuesday, Dec 13, 2011
Microsoft is holding a special Learn Windows Azure training event for 
developers. It will provide a great way to learn Windows Azure and what it 
provides. You can attend the event by watching it streamed LIVE online.  
Learn more at http://p.sf.net/sfu/ms-windowsazure
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