(For more resources related to this topic, see here.)

Getting ready

You will need root access to a BSD or Linux machine where you will be installing the Bacula server. This article is using Debian Linux 6.0 as an example. The machine is assumed to have an IP address of 10.10.1.100.

How to do it…

To install Bacula Director and Bacula Storage, perform the following steps:

1. Log in to the target machine using SSH client or a physical console.

2. Install the Bacula Director and Bacula Storage daemons plus the bconsole utility, using the package manager of your choice as follows (this example uses APT):

   $ apt-get install bacula-director-sqlite bacula-sd-sqlite baculaconsole

3. Now, replace the contents of the /etc/bacula/bacula-dir.conf file with the following code:

   Director {
   Name = debian-dir
   DIRport = 9101
   QueryFile = "/etc/bacula/scripts/query.sql"
   WorkingDirectory = "/var/lib/bacula"
   PidDirectory = "/var/run/bacula"
   Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 1
   Password = "password-dir"
   DirAddress = 10.10.1.100
   }
   Storage {
   Name = LocalStorage
   Address = 10.10.1.100
   SDPort = 9103
   Password = "password-sd"
   Device = FileStorage
   Media Type = File
   }
   Job {
   Name = DefaultJob
   Type = Backup
   Messages = Standard
   Pool = Default
   Client = DefaultClient
   Fileset = DefaultFileset
   Storage = LocalStorage
   }
   Client {
   Name = DefaultClient
   Address = 10.10.1.100
   Password = ""
   Catalog = DefaultCatalog
   }
   Fileset {
   Name = DefaultFileset
   }
   Catalog {
   Name = DefaultCatalog
   dbname = "bacula"; dbuser = ""; dbpassword = ""
   }

   The highlighted lines contain information you might want to alter, such as passwords and network addresses.

4. Replace the bacula-sd.conf file with a new one that has the following code:

   Storage {
   Name = LocalStorage
   SDPort = 9103
   WorkingDirectory = "/var/lib/bacula"
   Pid Directory = "/var/run/bacula"
   Maximum Concurrent Jobs = 20
   SDAddress = 10.10.1.100
   }
   Director {
   Name = debian-dir
   Password = "password-sd"
   }
   Device {
   Name = FileStorage
   Media Type = File
   Archive Device = /tmp/test-backups
   LabelMedia = yes;
   Random Access = Yes;
   AutomaticMount = yes;
   RemovableMedia = no;
   AlwaysOpen = no;
   }
   Messages {
   Name = Standard
   director = debian-dir = all
   }
   

5. And finally, the bconsole.conf file would look as follows:

   Director {
   Name = localhost-dir
   DIRport = 9101
   address = 10.10.1.100
   Password = "password-dir"
   }
   

   Note that appropriate passwords should match in both files.

6. Now restart the daemons as follows so the new configuration is applied:

   $ /etc/init.d/bacula-director restart
   $ /etc/init.d/bacula-sd restart

7. Create a directory for backup storage mentioned in the bacula-sd.conf file as follows:

   $ mkdir /tmp/test-backups

   Now you should be able to use the bconsole utility to inspect the status of Director and Storage using the status director and status storage commands as follows:

   $ bconsole
   Connecting to Director 10.10.1.100:9101
   1000 OK: debian-dir Version: 5.0.2 (28 April 2010)
   Enter a period to cancel a command.
   *status director
   debian-dir Version: 5.0.2 (28 April 2010) i486-pc-linux-gnu debian
   squeeze/sid
   Daemon started 07-Jun-12 13:54, 0 Jobs run since started.
   Heap: heap=245,760 smbytes=48,038 max_bytes=48,940 bufs=109 max_
   bufs=119
   No Scheduled Jobs.
   ====
   Running Jobs:
   No Jobs running.
   ====
   *status storage
   Automatically selected Storage: LocalStorage
   Connecting to Storage daemon LocalStorage at 10.10.1.100:9103
   LocalStorage Version: 5.0.2
   ...
   Running Jobs:
   No Jobs running.
   Device status:
   Device "FileStorage" (/tmp/test-backups) is not open.
   *

How it works…

A typical Bacula system consists of three independently running daemons:

• Storage daemon (SD): This daemon receives backups from Director and stores them into the storage (files or tapes)

• File daemon (FD): This daemon collects the files from client machines and sends them to the Director

• Director daemon: This daemon performs job scheduling and negotiates data transfers between Storage and File daemons

In this setup, we installed Director and Storage daemons on the same machine and configured a file-based storage at /tmp/test-backups in our filesystem.

The bconsole utility is used to connect to the Director daemon, pass commands to it, and receive messages from it. When we requested the status of Storage with the status storage command, Director forwarded the request to Storage. Therefore, it’s only important to have a direct connection from console to Director.

Replace the sample passwords of Director, Storage and the bconsole utility. Each component can reside on a separate machine as long as connectivity between them is possible. Don’t forget to always use fully qualified domain names or non-local IP addresses when specifying remote components.

Summary

In this article we learned to set up the simplest Bacula Director and Bacula Storage installations using the Bacula’s bconsole utility.

Resources for Article :

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Further resources on this subject:

• Backup in PostgreSQL 9 [Article]
• Recovery in PostgreSQL 9 [Article]
• Disaster Recovery for Hyper-V [Article]

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