Bacula-users

Re: [Bacula-users] [Bacula-devel] Copy jobs in Bacula version 3.0.0

2008-12-16 05:43:48
Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] [Bacula-devel] Copy jobs in Bacula version 3.0.0
From: Pasi Kärkkäinen <pasik AT iki DOT fi>
To: Kern Sibbald <kern AT sibbald DOT com>
Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:41:18 +0200
On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 09:52:39PM +0100, Kern Sibbald wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I've been discussing with Eric how we might handle Copy jobs in our 
> development version.  Currently, Copy jobs are implemented, and they work 
> much like Migration jobs (share 99% of the code).  The difference is that 
> Migration jobs purge the original backup job and keep only the Migrated data. 
>  
> With a Copy Job, the original backup job remains and there is a 
> second "identical" job that contains the copied data.  The only difference 
> between the original and the Copy job is that they will be in different 
> Pools.
> 
> Now this poses a few problems for doing restores such as:
> 
> 1. It is possible that a simple restore will choose JobIds from both the 
> original and the Copy Job.
> 
> 2. There is no easy mechanism for the user to select whether he/she wants to 
> restore from the original backup or the Copy (or Copies).
> 
> So for the moment, the situation is not really satisfactory (one of the 
> reasons the code is not yet released).
> 
> We have a number of ideas for different ways to solve the above problems, 
> many 
> have already been discussed on the mailing lists, and we will probably 
> implement a number of the ideas put forward, either before or after the 
> release (depending on the time we have and the complexity of the proposal -- 
> e.g. using the Location table and Costs ...).
> 
> A few things seem obvious:
> 
> 1. Any restore where Bacula automatically selects the jobs to be restored 
> (e.g. a restore to the current state -- #5 on the restore prompt menu) should 
> be done by default using the original backups.
>

.. if they're still available. 

I'm using Bacula to backup to disk, and then after the backup-to-disk job I 
copy from disk
volumes to tapes. 

Backups are stored on disk volumes for X days, and after that disk volumes are 
recycled/reused.
Backups are stored on tapes for much longer time before they're recycled.

> 2. If a job has been copied, Bacula should probably display an information 
> message during the restore that indicates that the JobIds to be used have 
> Copies.
>

Yep.
 
> 3. The restore command should allow the user to select any Copy job or jobs.
> 

Definitely.

> 
> I propose that we modify the Jobs to look like the following:
> 
> +-------+--------------+---------------------+------+-------+----------+-----------+-----------+
> | JobId | Name         | StartTime           | Type | Level | JobFiles | 
> +-------+--------------+---------------------+------+-------+----------+-----------+-----------+
> | 1     | CopyJobSave  | 2008-12-15 20:38:28 | B    | F     | 7020     | 
> | 5     | CopyJobSave  | 2008-12-15 20:38:28 | C    | F     | 7020     | 
> | 2     | CopyJobSave  | 2008-12-15 20:38:32 | B    | I      | 999     | 
> | 6     | CopyJobSave  | 2008-12-15 20:38:32 | C    | I      | 999     | 
> | 3     | copy-job     | 2008-12-15 20:41:05 | c    | F     | 0        | 
> | 4     | copy-job     | 2008-12-15 20:41:50 | c    | F     | 0        | 
> | 8     | RestoreFiles | 2008-12-15 20:42:39 | R    | F     | 7020     | 
> +-------+--------------+---------------------+------+-------+----------+-----------+-----------+
> 
> Now here, JobIds 5 and 6 no longer appear to Bacula like they are Backup 
> jobs, 
> rather they are marked as Type=C (i.e. a Copy job), and so they will never be 
> considered for restoration by default.  I've give the Copy control jobs the 
> Type 'c' to distinguish them from the real copy -- they exist just to record 
> the actual time the copy was made.
> 

Looks good.

> Now by modifying the restore code in Bacula, we should be able to provide 
> features that allow the user to know that there is a Copy of JobId 1 (i.e. 5) 
> and a copy of JobId 2 (i.e. 6) and allow him/her to choose which copy to use.
> 
> In my opinion, this would simplify future handling of Copy jobs allowing a 
> lot 
> more flexibility and avoiding confusion.  However, it will cause some minor 
> changes (nothing serious, I believe) for users already using the new code.
> 

That's not a problem.. something we need to deal with.. being beta-testers:)

> 
> Note, instead of selecting pairs (original Job, Copy), since all the jobids 
> are unique, you could simply just type in the desired jobids.  For the above 
> example: 7,6,3,4. 
> 
> Any comments?
> 

Thanks for working with this!

-- Pasi

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