On Fri, Sep 16, 2011 at 7:20 PM, Eric Sisolak <haldir.junk AT gmail DOT com> wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I am looking for a way to limit the amount of space taken up by
> backups by truncating/deleting volumes whose files and jobs have been
> pruned according to retention periods with Bacula 5.0.3.
>
> ActionOnPurge=Truncate looks like it could do what I want, but it
> seemed like there many people had issues with it.
>
> Has anyone else implemented this? How did you do it?
>
> --Eric

I am doing something like this, but not using ActionOnPurge.

I'm using vchanger as a VTL and initializing X number of volumes.
Lets say X = 80.  I tell Bacula to limit the volume size to 5GB
meaning I'm now only using 400GB of disk space for backups.  I also
tell Bacula to use a volume retention period of one day and to recycle
the oldest volume.  Bacula will not use these settings unless it runs
out of volumes so your data will be retained in older volumes until
you run out of space in the pool.  But, once you've filled up your
80th volume in this scenario, it will look at the volume with the
oldest last written timedate stamp in the pool and see if the volume
is past its retention period.  If it is, it will purge the jobs and
files and re-use the volume.  The net result is that Bacula is now set
to use 400GB of storage space and never exceed it.  It will
automatically cannibalize the oldest volumes and purge records
associated with those volumes as needed.

If you are a little queasy about a 1 day volume retention, you can set
this to something higher like one month to insure you always have at
least one month's worth of backups.  Just be aware that any jobs
attempting to use storage when all 400GB are allocated will hang
waiting for volumes if there are no volumes past their volume
retention period.  You must make sure that you have enough storage to
handle the actual retention period you want.

This also makes the names of the volumes generic, so your volume names
will no longer be indicative of their contents.  I find that using
volume names tied to their jobs and pools or whatnot to be useless for
me.  So using generic names for the volumes results in no loss, but I
gain the ease of use of vchanger.

Here are the relevant config sections I'm using to accomplish this:

--------------
bacula-sd.conf
--------------

Device {
 Name = PrimaryVTLDevice
 DriveIndex = 0
 Autochanger = yes
 Media Type = File
 Device Type = File
 Archive Device = /var/lib/bacula/PrimaryVTL/0/drive0
 Random Access = yes
 RemovableMedia = yes
 LabelMedia = yes
}

Autochanger {
 Name = PrimaryVTLAutoChanger
 Device = PrimaryVTLDevice
 ChangerDevice = /etc/bacula/PrimaryVTL.conf
 ChangerCommand = "/opt/bacula/bin/vchanger %c %o %S %a %d"
}

---------------
bacula-dir.conf
---------------

Storage {
 Name = PrimaryVTLStorage
 Address = "enter.your.bacula-sd.hostname.here"
 SDPort = 9103
 Password = "XXXXXXXX"
 Device = PrimaryVTLAutoChanger
 Media Type = File
 Autochanger = yes
}

Pool {
 Name = PrimaryVTLPool
 PoolType = Backup
 Storage = PrimaryVTLStorage
 AutoPrune = yes
 VolumeRetention = 1 day
 MaximumVolumes = 80
 MaximumVolumeBytes = 5368709120
 RecycleOldestVolume = yes
}

---------------
PrimaryVTL.conf
---------------

changer_name = PrimaryVTL
work_dir = /var/lib/bacula/PrimaryVTL
virtual_drives = 1
slots_per_magazine = 80
magazine_bays = 1
magazine = "/var/backups/PrimaryVTL"

------------------------------------------------------

Hope that helps!

Eric