Re: [Bacula-users] How to run bconsole commands in a bash for loop?

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

The following is my rocky Linux, bacula community 15.0.2 "how to delete all
bacula volumes and reset a bacula installation" runbook. It's been
customized for my specific environment. My bacula was installed from the
bacula community repositories, so bacula was installed in /opt/bacula/.

You will need to customize some of this to match the actual paths on your
system.

Runbook starts:
# This document discusses how to reset a bacula installation, post or
during the testing phase.
# All local volumes will be deleted.
# The entire database will be dropped.
# HERE BE DRAGONS
# HERE BE DRAGONS
# HERE BE DRAGONS
# HERE BE DRAGONS
# HERE BE DRAGONS
# HERE BE DRAGONS


# as root:

# Stop bacula.
/usr/sbin/bacula stop

# print every volume file and folder that will be deleted
find /mnt/synology/bacula/* -mindepth 1 -print

# flip this on its head and see what folders will remain.
find /mnt/synology/bacula/* -maxdepth 0 -print

# Now, to actually delete all those files
# THERE WILL BE NO PROMPTING OR TAKEBACKSIES
#find /mnt/synology/bacula/* -mindepth 1 -delete


# Log into Backblaze B2 and delete any cloud volumes. Make sure object
lifecycle is set to keep previous versions of objects for max 1 day.
# alternately, you can use cyberduck or something, but the B2 volume file
browser might be more thorough.

# delete any bacula storage volume encryption keys in
/opt/bacula/etc/keydir.
# YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DECRYPT ANY CLOUD VOLUMES WITHOUT THESE KEYS
#rm -f /opt/bacula/etc/keydir/*



# Drop the bacula database and then re-create it:

# As postgres:
su - postgres

# drop the bacula tables.
# we could drop the whole database, but I think we'd have to set the
password again.
# dropping tables should be enough.

/opt/bacula/scripts/drop_bacula_tables

# re-create the tables and grant permissions.
# /opt/bacula/scripts/create_postgresql_database # shouldn't need this,
since we didn't drop the database.
/opt/bacula/scripts/make_postgresql_tables
/opt/bacula/scripts/grant_postgresql_privileges
# you may see a message "psql:<stdin>:2: ERROR: role "bacula" already
exists". This seems to be fine and reasonable.


exit

# restart bacula and get status
systemctl start bacula-dir bacula-sd bacula-fd
/usr/sbin/bacula status

# should be done!
# please note this didn't delete any cloud volumes.
# that is easy enough to do in cyberduck.
# dear god, why isn't there a suitable GUI S3 browser for linux?


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

On Tue, Sep 16, 2025, 12:04 PM Gary Dale <ga...@ex...> wrote:

> Internet searches have been futile. The ones that actually mention
> bconsole suggest what I've been trying to do should work, but it doesn't.
>
> Through my initial setup struggles, my storage volumes have become a
> disjointed mess. To make matters worse, there are close to a hundred
> volumes showing "Error" when I "List Volumes". I have only about 20 that
> show up as physical disk volumes. And automatic volume creation seems to
> be failing. All my backups for the last 5 days have failed.
>
> To fix this, I'm trying to go back to the start (without purging and
> reinstalling bacula) by removing everything to date. However, I can't do
> that for the volumes - way to many of them. So I'm trying to run a bash
> script to cycle through them to purge them.
>
> I've found multiple answers that suggest using a bash for loop then
> doing something like:
>          echo "purge volume ${volname} yes" | bconsole  - where $volname
> is created by the for loop -
> should work. And it does actually to a point. It will invoke the "purge
> volume" dialogue then asks which pool to use. Inserting the pool number
> after the volume command (e.g. echo "purge volume 2 ${volname} yes" |
> bconsole) doesn't work either. Nor does inserting \n into the echoed
> command at various points.
>
> Being able to put bconsole commands into a bash script seems like
> something that will be generally useful but I can't find a way to make
> it work.
>
> Any ideas?
>
>
>
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