What kind of user will benefit the most from Bacula 3.0?
Demanding, large enterprises will appreciate the new high-end features of 3.0, such as the enhanced migration features; the plugins to allow specialized backups, for example, of databases; and the new "Accurate" and "Copy" features. These new features will encourage more organizations to move away from proprietary backup solutions.

Can you tell us more about the new features will Bacula 3.0 have?
Bacula 3.0 is a very comprehensive release, so there's just too much for me to mention everything. But some of the key features are "Accurate Backup", where, the job can be run as an Accurate Job. This means that, for Differential and Incremental backups, the Director will send a list of all previous files backed up, and the File daemon will use that list to determine if any new files have been added, moved, or deleted. This allows Bacula to backup a system to precisely that point in time, so that it can restore your system exactly.

Bacula also has important ACL Updates: The whole ACL code had been overhauled and in this version each platforms has different streams for each type of acl available on such a platform. Extended Attributes are implemented in 3.0 for platforms that support a similar kind of interface. It is the support for backup and restore of so-called extended attributes. I should also mention that a new Copy job type 'C' will be implemented. It is similar to the existing Migration feature, but with the exception that the Job that is copied is left unchanged, essentially creating two identical copies of the same backup. This is a big advantage for off-site backups, and backups of extremely critical data.

(note - next month's newsletter will cover some of Bacula 3.0's other exciting new features).

Bacula Systems Partner Spotlight: dass IT

dass IT GmbH was founded in 2004 by former Senior Consultants of Suse Linux AG. With offices in Köln, Bonn, Düsseldorf, Koblenz and Heidelberg, dass IT is primarily a systems integrator, offering support and consulting around Linux and Open Source. An approved Bacula Systems Partner, dass IT focuses on System Management solutions, automated installations, and integration of Linux-based servers and services into existing complex IT infrastructures. Dass IT has expert Bacula knowledge. dass IT searched hard for a backup technology solution without major bugs. In the Open Source space in particular, there seemed to be no true enterprise class, highly scalable solution. "Everything out there seemed to perform unpredictably, and was over-complicated in design", said Philipp. Eventually, dass IT discovered Bacula, and began testing it. dass IT found that Bacula's technology had professional quality; "even better than some of the leading proprietary products" said Philipp Storz. Most urgently, dass IT needed a backup solution for its own requirements. But as dass IT began to learn of the advanced features and capabilities of Bacula, the company started to recommend Bacula to its clients, which include some large enterprises with mission-critical IT environments. "That Bacula performed so well as a networked backup solution was definitely the most important thing. But the fact that Bacula is also Open Source was the icing on the cake", said Jörg Steffens, co-founder of dass IT. Read the full dass IT case study here

Industry focus:	Financial, Industrial, Government, Telco and Educational sectors
Country:	Germany
Bacula Systems Partner Level:	Approved
Core competencies:	Systems management and integration, Deployment, Migration, individual custom development, installation, configuration, tuning and integration of Linux servers into complex IT infrastructures.
Web site:	www.dass-it.de

Being A Bacula Developer

This issue, we give you a brief snapshot of what it's like to be a developer in Bacula's Open Source Community. This edition, we talk to Eric Bollengier, in France.

Eric, When did you decide to get involved with the Bacula Community??
Initially, I was thinking of writing my own backup software, and I also took a long, hard look at existing backup software. Afbackup wasn't very active, Amanda seemed pretty poor and didn't really fit my point of view. Bacula's mailing list was really active, and many of the design decisions were very interesting. I especially remember the 1.37 design doc as a very exciting document. Eventually, I actually decided to make a 400km journey to meet Kern Sibbald in Paris, although at that point he did not even know me! After that, I was encouraged to be more active by doing translations and fixing problems.

How did you first get involved in actually contributing code to the Bacula Project?
It was in 2003, with a couple of fixes around the pre/post job execution command module. After that, I worked on the French translation of Bacula; I found this to be a good way to contribute without having to be an expert, although you do have to understand the software fairly well to translate some of the messages. My first significant contribution was the runscript feature in the 1.39 series - this project was the one that really stands out, now I look back.

What's your favourite part of Bacula that you have worked on?
The Bweb interface is my favourite piece of code, but it's not strictly a part of Bacula. I would say that the new "Accurate" feature, coming up in release 3.0, is one of my favourites. This contribution has brought about the addition of new very high end and professional features. By way of example; as with most other backup programs, Bacula decides by default what files to backup for Incremental and Differental backup by comparing the change and modification times of the file to the time the last backup completed. If one of those two times is later than the last backup time, then the file will be backed up. This did not, however, permit tracking what files have been deleted and would miss any file with an old time that may have been restored to or moved onto the client filesystem. The new "Accurate" feature resolves this.

When do you usually find yourself working on Bacula?
Well right now, I'm working all day on Bacula - and sometimes during the night, too!.

What do you feel has been your best piece of code for Bacula?
The new lock manager is quite cool, and it improves Bacula's quality by detecting deadlocks and mutex problems.

Do you have any special tips for other Bacula developers?
Try to secure your code at the begining, sanitise all user input and take a look at lib/mem_pool.h to use the POOLMEM object instead of a char.

Do you have any advice for other people wanting to get involved in developing Bacula?
First, read the code. In many cases, you don't need to reinvent the wheel, Bacula provides tools to help you. Don't hesitate to send ideas, examples and pieces of code over the Bacula-devel lists. In many cases, that helps to simplify your work, while also being sure that your patch(es) will be merged.

People wishing to get involved in the Bacula Project can find out more at bacula.org

Bacula Presents at Open Source Meets Business

Bacula Systems’ Jack Griffin and Arno Lehmann will be presenting on Bacula Systems at the annual “Open Source Meets Business” event, January 27-29, in Nuremberg, Germany. This is your chance to meet Jack and Arno, along with other Bacula Systems representatives, and get your questions answered face-to-face. Conference details here.