The release of bacula 9.0.6 launched many bugs fixed, major new features, major rewrite of Storage Daemon, and many smaller new features to be class based with drivers that can easily be dynamically loaded as needed and a backport of the current Bacula Enterprise version.
This version needs a database update so when updating, make sure to also execute the update_bacula_tables script. The new features and bug fixes have made the system even faster. You can easily find the files on SourceForge.
Binary Packages Built By Bacula 9.0.6
This version is efficient and easy to use and has advanced storage management features that make it easy for the client to find and recover any lost or damaged files. This version has a modular design that can be scaled from a small single computer to networks of many machines.
It installs the whole suite of Bacula applications like storage control, job scheduling, nide connector, and administrative console. This version has a director service that supervises all the backup, recovery, restore, verify, and archive operations.
It is able to run as a foreground service or daemon that administrators can use to schedule backups and restoration files making it a metapackage for client installations. It also stores the catalog in a PostgreSQL database making it suited for large installations.
The storage daemon feature performs storage and recovery of the data and file attributes to the physical media making it responsible for writing and reading the backups. It features the bscan utility, which can be used for recovery when the bacula catalog is not available.
It also features files that are useful for other bacula versions and packages. There is also a management console that allows the user or administrator to communicate with the director. It has an advanced GUI to bacula, the BAT (Bacula Administration Tool) console. The GUI interface is designed to ease your restore operations better than the basic text console.
However, the main enhancements of this version are the support for Qt5 in the tray monitor and bat, and the OpenSSL-1.1 support. The Qt5 enhancement isn’t complete yet so you should continue using Qt4 for the tray monitor and bat. Other features we appreciate about this version include:
Pros and Cons of Bacula 9.0.6
Pros
Proactive Support
Bacula will proactively send you a report on how your enterprise environment is running as well as the changes they recommend to help you optimize your backup environment. This is unique and extremely helpful since most companies don’t do this.
Support
This version’s support is second to none. When you encounter an issue, small or big, they get resolved within a few hours. If your RAID array fails on your main Bacula drive, this version will get your backups up and working in a day. The support team appreciated the seriousness of the situation and provided the right resources for you to get the job done.
Robustness
With Bacula, your company or server will hardly encounter any issues. Once you set it up correctly and to your liking, the system will barely need any maintenance.
Powerful and Flexible Configuration
If you are used to only dealing with text-based configuration files then this version will seem more familiar. It fits well with configuration management tools allowing the configuration across your system to be easily managed centrally.
The flexibility of this version allows you to have the backups run exactly when and how you want, perform stage via disk to tape, and with the help of various admins, this version tasks to automate the handling of tapes in your tape library.
Everything is Covered in Detail
The whitepapers, manuals, and additional documentation cover everything about this version in detail. The whitepapers give you a good overview of the concepts, installation, and specific scenarios. The manuals also cover in more depth the specific areas you should work on and how to handle the configuration.
Cons
- It may take time to find the right documentation due to structuring
- There learning curve is somewhat steep
- It can take you a while to get used to the software because you just can’t install it and get away with it
- A bit tricky to set up for beginners, but once you get used it becomes a piece of cake.
In Conclusion
This version is better equipped to manage backup, recovery/restoration, and verification of data across your network of computers of different kinds. It provides you with a standard server install that consists of the bacula director and storage daemons.
