purpose of File records?

[Chad W Seys]

Hi all,
I'm a bit confused as to the purpose and use of File Records in the bareos catalog. According to the documentation, Job Records alone are needed to (easily) restore files.

I imagine the File Record stores metadata about the file at specific points in time? So maybe needed for making the next incremental backup, but otherwise what would the File Record be used for? (Practically wondering how long to retain them.)

Thanks!
C.

[Spadajspadaj]

File records, together with a table specifying which files are in which
job, tell you which jobs you need to restore particular file if you want
to do a selective restore. I don't think I tried that but I suppose even
in case of a full restore you might not need every incremental you did
after the last full if only certain sets of files was updated regularly
and it was "overwritten" in subsequen Incremental backups so File
records should also tell you in such case that you only need the full
job and - for example - last incremental, not all previous ones.

But also - as you noticed - they keep metadata so that system can decide
whether the file is a candidate for backup or not.

MK

[Chad W Seys]

Hi MK,
Thanks for the response!

> File records, together with a table specifying which files are in which
> job, tell you which jobs you need to restore particular file if you want
> to do a selective restore.

Ah, I think I get it. Entire jobs can be (easily) restored if the File Record is gone but the Job Record is present, but selecting individual files before restore isn't (easily) possible

Weirdly this is clearly stated in bareos-21 documentation:
"once the File records are removed from the database, you will no longer be able to restore individual files from the Job. However, as long as the Job record remains in the database, you will be able to restore all the files backed up for the Job. "
https://docs.bareos.org/bareos-21/TasksAndConcepts/CatalogMaintenance.html#setting-retention-periods

But that whole section is gone for bareos-22! :(

Thanks again!
C.

[Jörg Steffens]

On 09.11.23 at 17:27 wrote 'Chad W Seys' via bareos-users:

it's not gone, just moved to another location ;-)

https://docs.bareos.org/IntroductionAndTutorial/WhatIsBareos.html#terminology
-> Retention Period

I think the intention of moving this section has been, so that it can
easier be found. Well ...
--
Jörg Steffens joerg.s...@bareos.com
Bareos GmbH & Co. KG Phone: +49 221 630693-91
https://www.bareos.com Fax: +49 221 630693-10

Sitz der Gesellschaft: Köln | Amtsgericht Köln: HRA 29646
Komplementär: Bareos Verwaltungs-GmbH
Geschäftsführer: Stephan Dühr, Jörg Steffens, Philipp Storz

[Chad W Seys]

Hi Jörg,
Thanks! That explanation seems even more clear. It seems google likes the older page better for some reason. :/

C.