Backup of Bacula's MySQL catalog fails

[Stuart Griffith]

Binary package hint: bacula-director-mysql

Ubuntu release: Hardy Heron beta, all updates up to 2008-03-26
Package: bacula-director-mysql 2.2.8-5ubuntu4

I encountered the following problems that caused catalog backups to fail:
* The make_catalog_backup_awk script uses the gensub function, but gensub is not included in mawk which was the awk package that was installed by default. -- Installed gawk.
* In the make_catalog_backup_awk script there is an if statement, "if (catname == cat1 || catname == cat2 || catname == cat3 || catname == cat4)" that guards the creation of .my.cnf and execution of mysqldump. On my system cat1 had the value "<CatalogName>" and catname had the value "MyCatalog" so the configuration file was never created and mysqldump never executed. -- Commented out the if statement.
* The mysqldump command failed with an authorization error because nothing connected it to the .my.cnf file that contained the user name and password. -- Added "--defaults-file=/var/lib/bacula/.my.cnf" to the mysqldump command in make_catalog_backup_awk.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package bacula - 2.2.8-5ubuntu5

---------------
bacula (2.2.8-5ubuntu5) hardy; urgency=low

  * debian/control
    - Add gawk if isnt installed. (LP: #207527)

 -- Chuck Short <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:08:02 -0400

[Stuart Griffith (stuartg-littlefieldhouse)]

I got the update to bacula 2.2.8-5ubuntu5, but have not found any
indication of fixes for the second and third points of my bug report.

What was done to satisfy the if statement in the
"make_catalog_backup_awk" script so it would do the dump?

What was done so the mysqldump command would use the credentials in
the .my.cnf file?

Stuart Griffith

On Fri, 2008-03-28 at 19:15 +0000, Launchpad Bug Tracker wrote:
> This bug was fixed in the package bacula - 2.2.8-5ubuntu5
>
> ---------------
> bacula (2.2.8-5ubuntu5) hardy; urgency=low
>
> * debian/control
> - Add gawk if isnt installed. (LP: #207527)
>
> -- Chuck Short <email address hidden> Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:08:02 -0400
>
> ** Changed in: bacula (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Fix Released
>

[Ante Karamatić (ivoks)]

"* In the make_catalog_backup_awk script there is an if statement, "if (catname == cat1 || catname == cat2 || catname == cat3 || catname == cat4)" that guards the creation of .my.cnf and execution of mysqldump. On my system cat1 had the value "<CatalogName>" and catname had the value "MyCatalog" so the configuration file was never created and mysqldump never executed. -- Commented out the if statement."

You should replace <CatalogName> with the name of the catalog in your configuration, which is, if I understand you correctly, MyCatalog. You have to configure RunBeforeJob correctly, before you use it.

RunBeforeJob runs as 'bacula' user. Home of that user is /var/lib/bacula. mysql client reads ~/.my.cnf, which in case of bacula user is /var/lib/bacula. If you run it as root, it would appear that it doesn't work. Beside that, you'll have problems with root-owned files in /var/lib/bacula.

[Stuart Griffith (stuartg-littlefieldhouse)]

Thank you for clearing these up.

I didn't see anywhere that indicated that I needed to change the
RunBeforeJob. This is not something I have had to do before with Bacula.

Stuart

On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 15:12 +0000, Ante Karamatić wrote:
> "* In the make_catalog_backup_awk script there is an if statement, "if
> (catname == cat1 || catname == cat2 || catname == cat3 || catname ==
> cat4)" that guards the creation of .my.cnf and execution of mysqldump.
> On my system cat1 had the value "<CatalogName>" and catname had the
> value "MyCatalog" so the configuration file was never created and
> mysqldump never executed. -- Commented out the if statement."
>
> You should replace <CatalogName> with the name of the catalog in your
> configuration, which is, if I understand you correctly, MyCatalog. You
> have to configure RunBeforeJob correctly, before you use it.
>
> RunBeforeJob runs as 'bacula' user. Home of that user is
> /var/lib/bacula. mysql client reads ~/.my.cnf, which in case of bacula
> user is /var/lib/bacula. If you run it as root, it would appear that it
> doesn't work. Beside that, you'll have problems with root-owned files in
> /var/lib/bacula.
>

[Ante Karamatić (ivoks)]

On Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:18:49 -0000
Stuart Griffith <email address hidden> wrote:

> I didn't see anywhere that indicated that I needed to change the
> RunBeforeJob. This is not something I have had to do before with
> Bacula.

Maybe you don't remember, but you had to insert username and password
of a DB user:

RunBeforeJob = "/etc/bacula/scripts/make_catalog_backup -u<username> -p<password>"

Anyway, in next upload, I'll add a comment about what's needed to make
it functional.

[Stuart Griffith (stuartg-littlefieldhouse)]

Actually, I didn't insert the username and password. When I did the
initial install of the Bacula packages a dialog came up asking for that
information. Since I didn't enter the values directly into the file I'm
assuming that whatever put up that dialog did. It's possible that I
clicked right through the question asking for the DB name.

I'd like to take advantage of this ongoing conversation to say that,
even though there have been a couple minor rocks in the road, I was
really happy to see the Bacula packages in the Ubuntu repository, and
that they were the current versions. I have been using Bacula for a few
years and it was nice to be able to just click on the packages and port
over my configuration.

Stuart

On Wed, 2008-04-02 at 05:44 +0000, Ante Karamatić wrote:
> On Wed, 02 Apr 2008 01:18:49 -0000
> Stuart Griffith <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> > I didn't see anywhere that indicated that I needed to change the
> > RunBeforeJob. This is not something I have had to do before with
> > Bacula.
>
> Maybe you don't remember, but you had to insert username and password
> of a DB user:
>
> RunBeforeJob = "/etc/bacula/scripts/make_catalog_backup -u<username>
> -p<password>"
>
> Anyway, in next upload, I'll add a comment about what's needed to make
> it functional.
>

[Hanno Stock (hefe_bia) (hanno-stock)]

I am still experiencing the last issue mentioned in the original bug report. I have reported this as a new bug. (See bug #227410)

[Tomse (tomse-tomse)]

this is once again an issue due to the upgrade to Bacula 5.

it helps just to install gawk