Re: [Bacula-users] 'Lock' retention on a media...

[Rob G. <ro...@cr...>]

Marco,

In this email I will reference information from the bacula 15.x manual. See
link below.
https://www.bacula.org/15.0.x-manuals/en/main/Automatic_Volume_Recycling.html

>From the 15.x manual, PDF section 31.2, Pruning Directives:
AutoPrune = <yes∣no> If AutoPrune is set to yes (default), Bacula will
automatically apply the
Volume retention period when running a Job and it needs a new Volume but no
appendable
volumes are available. At that point, Bacula will prune all Volumes that
can be pruned (i.e.
AutoPrune set) in an attempt to find a usable volume. If during the
autoprune, all files
are pruned from the Volume, it will be marked with VolStatus Purged. The
default is yes.
Note, that although the File and Job records may be pruned from the
catalog, a Volume
will be marked Purged (and hence ready for recycling) if the Volume status
is Append, Full,
Used, or Error. *If the Volume has another status, such as Archive,*
Read-Only, Disabled,
Busy, or Cleaning, *the Volume status will not be changed to Purged.*

[snip]

Once a job has been pruned, you can still restore it from the backup
Volume, provided that the Volume has not been recycled, but one additional
step is required:
scanning the volume with bscan.
[snip]

*I take this to mean that the volumes with status 'archive', all associated
jobs and file records will still be pruned from the catalog if they are
past their retention period, but the volume won't be reused. What was your
experience when actually working with a volume with status 'archive'?*

I think that one way to 'lock' retention for certain media is to set the
volume and associated job retention (and maybe file retention) to some
large value (like 1000Y). Please note that if you set volume retention to a
very long period but jobs all expire, the volume will still be recycled
(unless you set 'recycle = no' on the volume). I think manually setting job
and file retention to a greater period than originally used for many jobs
on a given volume could be complicated and difficult. *I am not sure it is
possible to extend the retention of a job / file record after the job has
ran.* I think there are easier ways, but not ones that preserve your
catalog entries for jobs and file records past their configured retention
periods.

You could also set recycle = no on the volumes in question after the volume
is labeled. This would not allow recycling, but I think this is almost the
same as setting volume status 'archive' since a Volume must be marked as
'recycled' or 'purged' in order to be recycled.

You could set 'recycle = no' on all your pools, but you would need to
manually recycle expired volumes. This change would probably not apply to
previously labeled volumes unless you updated the volumes in
bconsole. Probably not what you want unless you're absolutely certain this
is preferred for you.

Please keep in mind that if you make changes to pools or jobs in the
configuration, these changes will not be applied to jobs that already ran,
or volumes there were already labeled / used (maybe moving a volume from
one pool to another might 'refresh' the settings on the volume to apply the
settings from the new pool). The manual says you can update a volume's
settings from pool settings using 'update volume from pool' (I haven't
tested this).

Default file, job, and volume retention periods are specified in the bacula
code. A file / job retention period can be specified in the client
resource, and these override the defaults. File, job, and volume retention
periods can be specified in the pool resource, and these override retention
specified anywhere else. File records are not necessary to restore a job
from a volume, but the entire job must be restored if you are missing the
file records. A volume with no more jobs will be recycled even if the
volume retention has not expired unless auto-prune or recycle are set to
'no'.

*In short, I think volume status = archive should have kept the target
volume from being recycled, but wouldn't have preserved any job or file
records that passed their retention period. *If you need to restore from a
volume in such a state, I recommend you add its contents to the bacula
catalog using the bscan tool. You could also examine its contents using
'bls /path/to/volume' (to see all contents) or 'bls -j /path/to/volume' (to
see just job listings). You should also be able to manually extract the
data in the volume without bacula's assistance using bextract.


Regards,
Robert Gerber
402-237-8692
ro...@cr...


On Fri, May 2, 2025 at 6:11 AM Marco Gaiarin <ga...@li...> wrote:

>
> There's some way to 'lock' metadata/catalog retention for a media?
>
> I supposed that put a media in 'Archive' state (before catalog retention
> expire) suffices, but seems not...
>
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
>
>
>
>
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