Is there an equivalent of volume space reclamation in Bacula?

Question

I recently met a guy using Tivoli Storage Manager. He talked about "volume reclamation", which copies only the files of incremental backup which are newer than the retention period/number of version we want to keep. As a result, it is possible to copy "two tapes" containing "useless old versions of files" into one.

Is there an equivalent in Bacula OR have we to make weekly full back to avoid to long incremental chain?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 06 '13 at 22:37

2

Bacula doesn't support "volume space reclamation" as you describe, but it does support "Virtual Backups" (what other systems call "Synthetic Backup" which seems to do what you're looking for.

Your backup media is still subject to whatever retention periods you've configured, but you could set those to an appropriate period to avoid having extra full backups around.

answered Dec 06 '13 at 22:37

voretaq7

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Wow, I can see exiting new opportunities! I think the VirtualFull backup level will find a new usage... – MUY Belgium Dec 07 '13 at 09:24

Is there an equivalent of volume space reclamation in Bacula?

1 Answers1