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Old 08-04-2008, 08:29 PM   #1
neocontrol
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bacula - backup growing to large


I have bacula installed on a centos machine.

It's only backing up about a total of 3GB of data uncompressed. I have it backing up to the local server that is a 176GB raid 5 setup.

I only really need or want a backup of the last 8 days. My aim is to 2 fulls and incrementals on the rest.

I had set it to purge at 8 days but from what I found it looks like that just deletes the record, it doesn't wipe out the actual backup.

My issue is that my backup file is now about 100GB when I really was only hoping that it'd grow to 40GB.

How can I go about keeping this backup file in check?

Thanks,

Last edited by neocontrol; 05-06-2010 at 01:28 PM.
 
Old 08-04-2008, 09:05 PM   #2
neocontrol
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Okay, so what it looks like is I need to setup either more volumes, or more pools. As I only have one right now.

So to recap, if I have my files being stored locally on the hard drives. Do I need to create more volumes or pools to back up to?

I'm pretty sure this is what I need to get some rotation working for my backups to keep the file sizes manageable.

Thanks,

Last edited by neocontrol; 05-06-2010 at 01:28 PM.
 
Old 08-05-2008, 12:23 AM   #3
trickykid
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neocontrol View Post
Okay, so what it looks like is I need to setup either more volumes, or more pools. As I only have one right now.

So to recap, if I have my files being stored locally on the hard drives. Do I need to create more volumes or pools to back up to?

I'm pretty sure this is what I need to get some rotation working for my backups to keep the file sizes manageable.

Thanks,

CHarlie
Yes, you need to create and configure pools since you're using disk based backups. I'd imagine right now all you're doing is continuing to add to the same pool and volume, so the volume just continues to grow as it can't delete data at the beginning of the backup file bacula creates.

Start by reading at this chapter about volume management: http://www.bacula.org/en/dev-manual/...00000000000000

Here's what my own Pools are configured as:

Code:
# Pool Definitions
Pool {
  Name = Default
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = yes
  AutoPrune = yes
  Volume Retention = 90 days
}

Pool {
  Name = Full
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = yes
  AutoPrune = yes
  Volume Retention = 90 days
  Maximum Volume Jobs = 3
  Label Format = Full-
  Maximum Volumes = 32
}

Pool {
  Name = Inc
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = yes
  AutoPrune = yes
  Volume Retention = 90 days
  Maximum Volume Jobs = 3
  Label Format = Inc-
  Maximum Volumes = 180
}

Pool {
  Name = Diff
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = yes
  AutoPrune = yes
  Volume Retention = 90 days
  Maximum Volume Jobs = 3
  Label Format = Diff-
  Maximum Volumes = 64
}

Pool {
  Name = Catalog
  Pool Type = Backup
  Recycle = yes           # automatically recycle Volumes
  AutoPrune = yes         # Prune expired volumes
  Volume Retention = 90 days
  Maximum Volume Jobs = 1
  Label Format = Catalog-
  Maximum Volumes = 100
}
And with the above info, you set the Pools within each Job you want to apply them to with something like this (in bold):

Code:
Job {
  Name = "server"
  Client = server-fd
  Type = Backup
  FileSet = "Fileset"
  Level = Incremental
  Schedule = "WeeklyCycle"
  Storage = File
  Messages = Standard
  Pool = Default
  Priority = 10
  Full Backup Pool = Full
  Incremental Backup Pool = Inc
  Differential Backup Pool = Diff
  Write Bootstrap = "/var/bacula/working/backup.bsr"
}
I basically have 3 different pools configured for Full's, Diff's and Incrementals. That way, once the backups are done, they'll create a new file for the next backup and it also allows Bacula to reuse and recycle ones that have gone past their retention (expired/purge) period.
 
Old 08-05-2008, 06:56 AM   #4
neocontrol
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You nailed it on the head as I am only using one LARGE pool that doesn't ever shrink. Thanks for the link and your example it's what I was looking for.
 
Old 08-05-2008, 11:02 AM   #5
trickykid
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No problem. Also another good resource is the bacula mailing lists. I'm not trying to say don't ask your questions about bacula here but bacula isn't really mainstream, if you don't get an answer here, they're pretty good about responding on their lists though.
 
Old 08-05-2008, 09:32 PM   #6
neocontrol
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Okay one more question. I have things all setup. I can get bacula started. It looks like I can get backups going.

I'm trying to get a fresh start here.

If we are creating a bunch of different pools. I assume we need to do a bunch of 'label's to accommodate these?

Do we need to label a default, inc, full if that's what I'm doing? Or just create a 'Default' with label?

Sorry for the newbish question here but I'm really trying to wrap my head around volumes and pools for the first time.
 
Old 10-14-2008, 03:53 PM   #7
trickykid
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Quote:
Originally Posted by neocontrol View Post
Okay one more question. I have things all setup. I can get bacula started. It looks like I can get backups going.

I'm trying to get a fresh start here.

If we are creating a bunch of different pools. I assume we need to do a bunch of 'label's to accommodate these?

Do we need to label a default, inc, full if that's what I'm doing? Or just create a 'Default' with label?

Sorry for the newbish question here but I'm really trying to wrap my head around volumes and pools for the first time.
I like to keep mine separate just in case you have to recover manually, then you know what each is instead of having to dig through them all. Kind of keeps them tidy and organized with more specific labels.
 
  


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