Ever since those early days working as an operator, my least favourite job was changing the daily backup tape. Oh sure, if your company has loads of cash you could shell out for an autochanger, but none of the organisations I worked for were ever prepared to pony up the dosh for one of those when they had a tape-monkey to do it for them!<\/p>\n
With the cost per GB of storage dropping, backup up to disk was more of a reality and in looking around for something that could (a) Backup to disk (b) across the network and (c) was automated, I discovered “Bacula”.<\/p>\n
So out comes the Ubuntu 10.04 server install disk and away we go…<\/p>\n
The neat thing with bacula is that there are a many different scenarios you can cater for. I’m not a Bacula master, nor do I profess to know all the ins-and-outs of its configuration files. No. I started this with a plan, a plan to meet a requirement… so the configuration detailed below is what worked for me, to meet my needs. Its online more as a journal (so I can refer back to it if I ever need to rebuild it) than a claimed definitive HOWTO!!<\/p>\n
The “so called” plan is build a Bacula server than will backup remote clients, initially to storage local to the server, but later pointing it to my FreeNAS server.<\/p>\n
In this “journal” I’ll follow the following steps\/stages:<\/p>\n
The Bacula Home Page<\/a> contains the latest Bacula news and developments, or for more Bacula configuration options refer to the Bacula User’s Manual<\/a><\/p>\n The base install of Ubuntu server 10.04 took about 30mins, with standard configuration and stopping “network auto-discovery” to declare a static IP. Once the install was completed I checked for any updates…<\/p>\n First we install MySQL which will be the database engine used to store the catalog information.<\/p>\n During the install you will be prompted for a password for the MySQL “root” user.<\/p>\n Add SSH server to allow telnet remote access.<\/p>\n Next we install Apache web server which will be used by “BWeb” for remote administration (see later sections).<\/p>\n Last but not least… Bacula.<\/p>\n “Postfix” will be installed as one of the packages and you will be asked to select a configuration type. I just selected “Local only<\/strong>” and left the server name as the hostname of the machine. Next you will be asked to “Configure database for bacula-director-mysql with dbconfig-common<\/em>” – select “Yes<\/strong>” then supply credentials for the database administrator followed by a new password for the bacula database user. The “database administrator” will need to have the appropriate rights to create a database.<\/p>\n Bacula configuration files are formatted based on resources comprising of directives surrounded by \u201c{}<\/strong>\u201d braces. Each Bacula component has an individual file in the \/etc\/bacula<\/strong> directory.<\/p>\n The various Bacula components must authorize themselves to each other. This is accomplished using the password directive. For example, the Storage resource password in the \/etc\/bacula\/bacula-dir.conf<\/strong> file must match the Director resource password in \/etc\/bacula\/bacula-sd.conf<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The Console can be used to query the Director about jobs, but to use the Console with a non-root user, the user needs to be in the bacula group. To add a user to the bacula group enter the following from a terminal:<\/p>\n Log out then back in to make the change effective. As mentioned in the previous section, I’m going to backup my data to local storage so I need to create a location for the “file media<\/strong>“. While we’re at it I’ll also create a directory where files can be restored to.<\/p>\n Everything in Bacula is about using IP addresses or resolvable addresses. But despite my hostnames being resolvable by DNS I still had to make sure there was an entry in the hosts file for this machine before it would work. If you’ve defined a static IP address, this will have been done automatically during the OS install.<\/p>\n In the FileDaemon<\/strong> {} block change<\/span><\/p>\n Restart the bacula file daemon for the changes to take effect<\/p>\n In the Storage<\/strong> {} block change<\/span><\/p>\n In the Device<\/strong> {} block for “FileStorage<\/strong>” change<\/span><\/p>\n Restart the bacula storage daemon for the changes to take effect<\/p>\n In the Director<\/strong> {} block change<\/span><\/p>\n In the Client<\/strong> {} block change<\/span><\/p>\n In the Storage<\/strong> {} block change<\/span><\/p>\n In the RestoreFiles<\/strong> \u00bb Job<\/strong> {} block change<\/span><\/p>\n In the Catalog<\/strong> {} block add<\/span><\/p>\n I don’t think this is a “requirement” but I changed it for the sake of “consistancy” and “completeness”.<\/p>\n Restart the bacula director for the changes to take effect<\/p>\n I have to create the media for the backup jobs to use now. For that we use bconsole<\/p>\n Automatically create the media and label it with the following command<\/p>\n Enter a meaningfull name for this “File<\/em>” based media. I call mine “File-Repository<\/strong>xxx<\/em>” where xxx<\/em> increments 001,002,003… Select a relevant pool to make this media available in (I select “File<\/strong>“). If the permissions on our \/var\/lib\/archive\/<\/strong> directories and the storage daemon are configured correctly, you should see…<\/p>\n This has now created a volume that will store a maximum of 50GB, as defined in the Pool<\/strong> {} section for File in the bacula-dir.conf<\/strong><\/p>\n You can check the status of the various components with the status command. To check the status of the director and defined jobs type<\/p>\n If you’re unsure of a command, you can list them all by typing<\/p>\n For help on a specific command, type help followed by the command<\/em> name i.e.<\/p>\n In Bacula, the backup jobs are defined in the bacula-dir.conf<\/strong> file in the Job<\/strong> {} blocks. Normally (and for flexability) each job is defined with reference to a Fileset<\/strong> {}, Schedule<\/strong> {}, and Storage<\/strong> {} subset. Common elements can be included in the JobDefs<\/strong> {} subset and can be referenced in each job to avoid repitition and to save on scripting.<\/p>\n We’ll create a simple job to backup the \/etc<\/em> directory (including sub-directories) but ultimately it’s up to you how you’ll configure your jobs.<\/p>\n Check what is already defined for JobDefs<\/strong> {}. It shoudl look something like this:<\/p>\n NOTE:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Any entries duplicated in the Job<\/strong> { } section, take precedence over ones already defined in the JobDefs<\/strong> { } section.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Next step is to create a new backup job entry.<\/p>\n Notes on the Job<\/strong> {} definition:<\/p>\n Now we can create a FileSet<\/strong> {} (referenced in the Job<\/strong> {} above). Filesets are handy and can be used by multiple jobs. An example might be backing up the same files, but off multiple different clients.<\/p>\nBase Install<\/h2>\n
sudo aptitude update\r\nsudo aptitude safe-upgrade<\/pre>\n
sudo aptitude install mysql-client mysql-server<\/pre>\n
sudo aptitude install openssh-server<\/pre>\n
sudo aptitude install apache2<\/pre>\n
sudo aptitude install bacula<\/pre>\n
Stage One: Configuring the Bacula server<\/h2>\n
sudo adduser username<\/strong> <\/em>bacula<\/pre>\n
sudo mkdir -m 770 \/var\/lib\/archive\r\nsudo mkdir -m 770 \/var\/lib\/archive\/backup\r\nsudo mkdir -m 770 \/var\/lib\/archive\/restore sudo chown -R bacula:bacula \/var\/lib\/archive<\/pre>\n
Configuring the File Daemon (bacula-fd.conf)<\/h3>\n
sudo vi \/etc\/bacula\/bacula-fd.conf<\/pre>\n
FileDaemon {<\/span>\r\n\r\n FDAddress = hostname.example.com<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\r\n\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\nsudo \/etc\/init.d\/bacula-fd restart<\/pre>\n
Configuring the Storage Daemon (bacula-sd.conf)<\/h3>\n
sudo vi \/etc\/bacula\/bacula-sd.conf<\/pre>\n
Storage {<\/span>\r\n\r\n SDAddress = hostname.example.com<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\r\n\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\nDevice {<\/span>\r\n Name = FileStorage<\/strong><\/span>\r\n\r\n Archive Device = \/var\/lib\/archive\/backup<\/strong><\/span>\r\n\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\nsudo \/etc\/init.d\/bacula-sd restart<\/pre>\n
Configuring the Director (bacula-dir.conf)<\/h3>\n
sudo vi \/etc\/bacula\/bacula-dir.conf<\/pre>\n
Director {<\/span>\r\n\r\n DirAddress = hostname.example.com<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\r\n\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\nClient {\r\n Name = hostname<\/em>-fd<\/strong>\r\n Address = hostname.example.com<\/strong><\/em>\r\n\r\n}<\/pre>\nStorage {<\/span>\r\n\r\n Address = hostname.example.com<\/strong><\/em><\/span>\r\n\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\nJob {<\/span>\r\n Name = \"RestoreFiles\"<\/span>\r\n\r\n Where = \/var\/lib\/archive\/restore<\/strong><\/span>\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\nCatalog {<\/span>\r\n Name = MyCatalog<\/span>\r\n dbname = bacula<\/strong><\/em>; DB Address = \"localhost<\/strong><\/em>\"; dbuser = \"bacula<\/strong><\/em>\"; dbpassword = \"baculaPASSWORD<\/strong><\/em>\"<\/span>\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\nsudo \/etc\/init.d\/bacula-director restart<\/pre>\n
Using Bconsole<\/h3>\n
bconsole\r\n\r\nConnecting to Director hostname.example.com<\/strong><\/em>:9101<\/span>\r\n1000 OK: hostname-dir Version: 5.0.1 (24 February 2010)<\/span>\r\nEnter a period to cancel a command.<\/span>\r\n*<\/span><\/pre>\n* label\r\n<\/strong>Automatically selected Catalog: MyCatalog<\/span>\r\nUsing Catalog \"MyCatalog\"<\/span>\r\nAutomatically selected Storage: File<\/span>\r\nEnter new Volume name:<\/span><\/pre>\nConnecting to Storage daemon File at hostname.example.com:9103 ...<\/span>\r\nSending label command for Volume \"File-Repository001<\/strong>\" Slot 0 ...<\/span>\r\n3000 OK label. VolBytes=202 DVD=0 Volume=\"File-Repository001\" Device=\"FileStorage<\/strong>\" (\/var\/lib\/archive\/backup)<\/span>\r\nCatalog record for Volume \"File-Repository001<\/strong>\", Slot 0 successfully created.<\/span>\r\nRequesting to mount FileStorage ...<\/span>\r\n3906 File device \"FileStorage<\/strong>\" (\/var\/lib\/archive\/backup<\/strong>) is always mounted.<\/span><\/pre>\n* status director<\/strong><\/span><\/pre>\n* help<\/strong><\/span><\/pre>\n* help status<\/strong><\/span>\r\n* help list<\/strong><\/span><\/pre>\nStage Two: Backup local files to local storage<\/h2>\n
sudo vi \/etc\/bacula\/bacula-dir.conf<\/pre>\n
JobDefs {\r\n Name = \"DefaultJob<\/strong><\/em>\"\r\n Type = Backup\r\n Level = Incremental\r\n Client = hostname<\/em><\/strong>-fd\r\n FileSet = \"Full Set\"\r\n Schedule = \"WeeklyCycle\"\r\n Storage = File\r\n Messages = Standard\r\n Pool = File\r\n Priority = 10\r\n Write Bootstrap = \"\/var\/lib\/bacula\/%c.bsr\"\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\n\n
Job {\r\n Name = \"LocalConfigBackup\"\r\n JobDefs = \"DefaultJob<\/strong>\"\r\n Type = Backup\r\n Level = Full\r\n Storage = File\r\n Client = hostname<\/em><\/strong>-fd\r\n FileSet = \"LocalConfigFiles\"\r\n Schedule = \"DailyBackup\"\r\n}<\/span><\/pre>\n\n