Bacula-users

[Bacula-users] Question on retention and overwriting

2012-02-03 06:00:57
Subject: [Bacula-users] Question on retention and overwriting
From: Joe Nyland <joenyland AT me DOT com>
To: Bacula Users <bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Date: Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:56:37 +0000 (GMT)

Hello,

I've currently got a fileset, which is around 1.5 TB in size. I have setup Bacula to backup this fileset, by performing incremental backups every night - SharedData_Inc, differential backups every 2nd-5th Sunday - SharedData_Diff, then a full backup on the first Sunday of the month - SharedData_Full. Each of these pools are set to backup to their own storage device resources, under their respective names.

The server on which this data resides is called FileServer1. This is the client resource from bacula-dir.conf for FileServer1:
    Client {
      Name = FileServer1-fd
      Address = FileServer1
      FDPort = 9102
      Catalog = MyCatalog
      Password =
      File Retention = 3 months
      Job Retention = 3 months
      AutoPrune = yes
      Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 2
    }
    
My problem is that I am using Bacula to backup the SharedData fileset to an external 2TB RAID array, so I am somewhat limited in how much room my backups can take up. As the data within the fileset it relatively static, I would simply like to keep an up to date copy of the data on the external array, and I don't really need any sort of archive for this particular data. However there are other backups on the same client, for example the full system backups, SVN repo's, etc. which I would like to retain some backup history for.

So... I believed that I had overcome this by setting up my pools like this:

    Pool {
      Name = SharedData_Full
      Pool Type = Backup
      Volume Retention = 3 weeks
      Recycle = yes
      AutoPrune = yes
      LabelFormat = SharedData_Full_
      Maximum Volume Bytes = 1G
      Storage = "SharedData_Full"
    }

    Pool {
      Name = SharedData_Inc
      Pool Type = Backup
      Volume Retention = 6 days
      Recycle = yes
      AutoPrune = yes
      LabelFormat = SharedData_Inc_
      Maximum Volume Bytes = 1G
      Storage = "SharedData_Inc"
    }

    Pool {
      Name = SharedData_Diff
      Pool Type = Backup
      Volume Retention = 3 weeks
      Recycle = yes
      AutoPrune = yes
      LabelFormat = SharedData_Diff_
      Maximum Volume Bytes = 1G
      Storage = "SharedData_Diff"
    }
   
And for my other backups, which I want a backup history for (I do a full backup every week for my clients, so there's no diff pool):

    Pool {
      Name = FileServer1_Full
      Pool Type = Backup
      Volume Retention = 1 months
      Recycle = yes
      AutoPrune = yes
      LabelFormat = FileServer1_Full_
      Maximum Volume Bytes = 1G
      Storage = "FileServer1_Full"
      Next Pool = "FileServer1_Full_Copy"
    }

    Pool {
      Name = FileServer1_Inc
      Pool Type = Backup
      Volume Retention = 1 months
      Recycle = yes
      AutoPrune = yes
      LabelFormat = FileServer1_Inc_
      Maximum Volume Bytes = 1G
      Storage = "FileServer1_Inc"
      Next Pool = "FileServer1_Inc_Copy"
    }

However, the more I re-read the Bacula manual and through the list archive, the more I'm concerned that my settings for my SharedData pools may not be setup to give the behaviour that I require, as I am specifying a File and Job retention of 3 months in my client resource but a Volume retention which is much less, to satisfy by space limitation - Does this mean that even though my volume retention is under one month for full backups, my File/Job retention would stop the volumes from being overwritten, and thus fill up my backup array?

Would anyone be able to say whether or not they think the way I have set this up is correct? Or if they have any suggestions on how I could improve this?

I would appreciate any input anyone has on this.

Thanks,

Joe Nyland
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