1%% 2%% 3 4\chapter{Critical Items to Implement Before Production} 5\label{CriticalChapter} 6\index[general]{Production!Critical Items to Implement Before } 7\index[general]{Critical Items to Implement Before Production } 8 9We recommend you take your time before implementing a production a Bacula 10backup system since Bacula is a rather complex program, and if you make a 11mistake, you may suddenly find that you cannot restore your files in case 12of a disaster. This is especially true if you have not previously used a 13major backup product. 14 15If you follow the instructions in this chapter, you will have covered most of 16the major problems that can occur. It goes without saying that if you ever 17find that we have left out an important point, please inform us, so 18that we can document it to the benefit of everyone. 19 20\label{Critical} 21\section{Critical Items} 22\index[general]{Critical Items } 23\index[general]{Items!Critical } 24 25The following assumes that you have installed Bacula, you more or less 26understand it, you have at least worked through the tutorial or have 27equivalent experience, and that you have set up a basic production 28configuration. If you haven't done the above, please do so and then come back 29here. The following is a sort of checklist that points with perhaps a brief 30explanation of why you should do it. In most cases, you will find the 31details elsewhere in the manual. The order is more or less the order you 32would use in setting up a production system (if you already are in 33production, use the checklist anyway). 34 35\begin{itemize} 36\item Test your tape drive for compatibility with Bacula by using the test 37 command in the \ilink{btape}{btape} program. 38\item Better than doing the above is to walk through the nine steps in the 39 \ilink{Tape Testing}{TapeTestingChapter} chapter of the manual. It 40 may take you a bit of time, but it will eliminate surprises. 41\item Test the end of tape handling of your tape drive by using the 42 fill command in the \ilink{btape}{btape} program. 43\item If you are using a Linux 2.4 kernel, make sure that /lib/tls is disabled. Bacula 44 does not work with this library. See the second point under 45 \ilink{ Supported Operating Systems.}{SupportedOSes} 46\item Do at least one restore of files. If you backup multiple OS types 47 (Linux, Solaris, HP, MacOS, FreeBSD, Win32, ...), 48 restore files from each system type. The 49 \ilink{Restoring Files}{RestoreChapter} chapter shows you how. 50\item Write a bootstrap file to a separate system for each backup job. The 51 Write Bootstrap directive is described in the 52 \ilink{Director Configuration}{writebootstrap} chapter of the 53 manual, and more details are available in the 54 \ilink{Bootstrap File}{BootstrapChapter} chapter. Also, the default 55 bacula-dir.conf comes with a Write Bootstrap directive defined. This allows 56 you to recover the state of your system as of the last backup. 57\item Backup your catalog. An example of this is found in the default 58 bacula-dir.conf file. The backup script is installed by default and 59 should handle any database, though you may want to make your own local 60 modifications. See also \ilink{Backing Up Your Bacula Database - 61 Security Considerations }{BackingUpBaculaSecurityConsiderations} for more 62 information. 63\item Write a bootstrap file for the catalog. An example of this is found in 64 the default bacula-dir.conf file. This will allow you to quickly restore your 65 catalog in the event it is wiped out -- otherwise it is many excruciating 66 hours of work. 67\item Make a copy of the bacula-dir.conf, bacula-sd.conf, and 68 bacula-fd.conf files that you are using on your server. Put it in a safe 69 place (on another machine) as these files can be difficult to 70 reconstruct if your server dies. 71\item Make a Bacula Rescue CDROM! See the 72 \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using a Bacula Rescue 73 CDROM}{RescueChapter} chapter. It is trivial to make such a CDROM, 74 and it can make system recovery in the event of a lost hard disk infinitely 75 easier. 76\item Bacula assumes all filenames are in UTF-8 format. This is important 77 when saving the filenames to the catalog. For Win32 machine, Bacula will 78 automatically convert from Unicode to UTF-8, but on Unix, Linux, *BSD, 79 and MacOS X machines, you must explicitly ensure that your locale is set 80 properly. Typically this means that the {bf LANG} environment variable 81 must end in {\bf .UTF-8}. An full example is {\bf en\_US.UTF-8}. The 82 exact syntax may vary a bit from OS to OS, and exactly how you define it 83 will also vary. 84 85 On most modern Win32 machines, you can edit the conf files with {\bf 86 notepad} and choose output encoding UTF-8. 87\end{itemize} 88 89\section{Recommended Items} 90\index[general]{Items!Recommended } 91\index[general]{Recommended Items } 92 93Although these items may not be critical, they are recommended and will help 94you avoid problems. 95 96\begin{itemize} 97\item Read the \ilink{Quick Start Guide to Bacula}{QuickStartChapter} 98\item After installing and experimenting with Bacula, read and work carefully 99 through the examples in the 100 \ilink{Tutorial}{TutorialChapter} chapter of this manual. 101\item Learn what each of the \ilink{Bacula Utility Programs}{_UtilityChapter} 102 does. 103\item Set up reasonable retention periods so that your catalog does not grow 104 to be too big. See the following three chapters:\\ 105 \ilink{Recycling your Volumes}{RecyclingChapter},\\ 106 \ilink{Basic Volume Management}{DiskChapter},\\ 107 \ilink{Using Pools to Manage Volumes}{PoolsChapter}. 108\item Perform a bare metal recovery using the Bacula Rescue CDROM. See the 109 \ilink{Disaster Recovery Using a Bacula Rescue CDROM}{RescueChapter} 110 chapter. 111\end{itemize} 112 113If you absolutely must implement a system where you write a different 114tape each night and take it offsite in the morning. We recommend that you do 115several things: 116\begin{itemize} 117\item Write a bootstrap file of your backed up data and a bootstrap file 118 of your catalog backup to a floppy disk or a CDROM, and take that with 119 the tape. If this is not possible, try to write those files to another 120 computer or offsite computer, or send them as email to a friend. If none 121 of that is possible, at least print the bootstrap files and take that 122 offsite with the tape. Having the bootstrap files will make recovery 123 much easier. 124\item It is better not to force Bacula to load a particular tape each day. 125 Instead, let Bacula choose the tape. If you need to know what tape to 126 mount, you can print a list of recycled and appendable tapes daily, and 127 select any tape from that list. Bacula may propose a particular tape 128 for use that it considers optimal, but it will accept any valid tape 129 from the correct pool. 130\end{itemize} 131