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Re: [Bacula-users] Backing up to removable hard drive
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From: Arno L. <al...@it...> - 2006-02-06 19:40:40
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Hello,
On 2/6/2006 8:13 PM, John Demme wrote:
> So the requires mount option and family have very misleading names. In
> my not-so-humble opinion, the correct way to implement removable hard
> drive backup is to rename the current options to something like dvd
> mount ..., and use the generic names for a generic mount/umount scheme.
> That is, requires mount = yes tells the SD that it is in charge of
> mounting/umounting a device. Mount Command is the command it runs to
> mount the device, and unmount command is the command that SD uses to
> unmount the device.
Which is what the commands do now.
> Make write part command and free space command
> optional. Use the output from something like df for free space by
> default.
Look into the dvd-handler script and you might be surprised :-)
> Then, people can implement their hard drive backup schemes
> however they'd like. Personally, I'd use something like:
> Requires Mount = Yes
> Mount Point = /mnt/backup1
> Mount Command = /sbin/mountBackup1
> Unmount Command = /sbin/umount /mnt/backup1
>
> Where /sbin/mountBackup1 is a script that reads the drive and mounts the
> first partition to /mnt/backup1, and if the disk doesn't have a first
> partition it assumes it's a clean disk and writes a partition table and
> creates an ext3 partition, then mounts it.
Actually, something similar to what you suggest it what I had in mind
with dvd-handler.
I'd prefer that script to become more generally usable - we were
discussing storing backups to ftp servers, for example -, but that would
require some changes to the SD source code.
The problem currently is (as I see it, and keep in mind I am not a
programmer!) that the SD does lots of things the dvd-handler script
should do. Mainly, that's mounting and unmounting and verifying the disk
contents.
I'd rather only see calls to the external handler script:
- Verify volume name (or availability)
- Label volume
- Mount volume
- Umount (and eject) volume
- Write a part file to the volume
- Read a part file from the volume, and return its name or simply return
the name if the storage media is mounted
... and so on.
> This seems to be the most straight forward way to do it and I'm a little
> surprised it doesn't exist already.
the problem is that, IMO, dvd writing started as kind of a hack and is
not really maintained. Further, there is one conceptual difference
between DVDs and hard disks for Bacula: A DVD always contains exactly
one volume (like a tape) where a disk can contain many columes,
distinguished by name and not by the device and Baculas volume label.
> Without it, I'm just going to
> create two scripts that manage the drive's mounted status and the user
> will have to do it manually.
Look into the list archive - there was some lengthy discussion about a
similar setup some time ago. Search for the name "Barry L. Bond".
> I suppose the only wrikle is detecting when a new drive has been
> inserted. Preferably, Bacula would listen on dbus for a particular
> (configurable) message, and the user (again) care take care of it.
Such a scheme would be much too OS/distribution specific for my taste...
> I'm pretty busy right now (and my that I mean the last few and upcoming
> years), but when I get a chance (hopefully later in the week) I'll grep
> through the Bacula source. No promises.
I consider the Bacula source somewhat complicated... anyway, you might
want to start with src/stored/dvd.c which contains the interface to the
external handler script and the (too much) DVD specific functions. Some
fairly important information is in stored_conf.h, and of course you
should try to understand Baculas variables / objects (which I never
really did...)
> Thanks for the quick (albeight disappointing) answer,
Disappointing? I hope not! I'd rather say I pointed out an interesting
project!
;-)
Arno
> John Demme
>
> On 2/6/06, *Arno Lehmann* <al...@it... <mailto:al...@it...>>
> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> On 2/6/2006 4:20 PM, John Demme wrote:
> > I'm trying to get Bacula to backup to my removable SATA hard
> drive. I
> > want bacula to manage whether of not the drive is mounted. Thus,
> I have
> > the following bacula-sd device area:
> >
> > Device {
> > Name = FileStorage
> > Media Type = RemovableFile
> > Archive Device = /dev/sdg1
>
> oh oh...
>
> > Requires Mount = yes
> > Mount Point = /mnt/backup1
> > Mount Command = "/bin/mount /mnt/backup1"
> > Unmount Command = "/bin/umount /mnt/backup1"
> > Write Part Command = "/usr/bin/true"
> >
> > LabelMedia = yes; # lets Bacula label
> unlabeled media
> > Random Access = Yes;
> > AutomaticMount = yes; # when device opened, read it
> > RemovableMedia = yes;
> > AlwaysOpen = no;
> > }
> >
> >
> > However, when I try to label the drive the following hits me:
> >
> > *label
> > Using default Catalog name=MyCatalog DB=bacula
> > Automatically selected Storage: File
> > Enter new Volume name: Daily001
> > Defined Pools:
> > 1: Daily
> > 2: Monthly
> > Select the Pool (1-2): 1
> > Connecting to Storage daemon File at sophy:9103 ...
> > Sending label command for Volume "Daily001" Slot 0 ...
> > 3910 Unable to open device "FileStorage" (/dev/sdg1): ERR=The
> media in
> > the device "FileStorage" (/dev/sdg1) is not empty, please blank it
> > before writing anything to it.
> >
> > Label command failed for Volume Daily001.
> > Do not forget to mount the drive!!!
> >
> >
> > So I guess Bacula thinks I'm backing up to a DVD or CD since I'm
> using
> > the requires mount = yes option.
> >
> > What am I doing wrong?
>
> You can't achieve what you want like this.
>
> The requires mount options and related stuff heavily depend on the write
> part command program, so first, you'd need a real program that does
> what
> dvd-handler does with DVDs - writing part files to the device, mainly.
>
> Unless you're ready to read through the SD code - especially the parts
> regarding DVD writing - and creating a customized write part command
> program, what you want to do is not easily possible.
>
> There have been some suggestions as to how effectively use removable
> hard disk storage recently, you might want to search the archives for
> these. Also, Kern has started thinking about how to handle removable
> disks, so it might be that he comes up with something some day.
>
> And, of course, you can always suggest how Bacula should handle this
> sort of stuff, and also submit code :-)
>
> Arno
>
> > Thanks,
> > John Demme
>
> --
> IT-Service Lehmann al...@it...
> <mailto:al...@it...>
> Arno Lehmann http://www.its-lehmann.de
>
>
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--
IT-Service Lehmann al...@it...
Arno Lehmann http://www.its-lehmann.de
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