I would like to bring you up to date on the following items:
1. Bacula Release Status
2. Windows Binaries
3. Bacula Enterprise
4. Vacation
1. Bacula Release Status
As you probably are aware, the current version of Bacula is 7.0.5, which appears to be quite stable. I have seen a few reports of seg faults in the SD, but as of the current time, I have no tracebacks or bug reports so there isn’t anything I can do until users submit something.
There are a few bug reports (relatively minor) that I will work on this month as well as two or three patches that were submitted too late for version 7.0.5. In addition, I have spent a significant amount of time refactoring the Director backup and restore routines to make them easier to read and maintain, and I hope to release them mid-September.
Before the end of the year, I will make a pass through the Bacula Enterprise version and ensure that all bug fixes are back ported (I believe this is already the case, but better to double check) and that all enhancements possible will be back ported.
As you probably know, I have for some time been trying/planning to resume community binary builds of as many platforms as possible. This has not been possible for a number of years due to reduced community participation (probably because Bacula is in most distros and they upgrade much more frequently than previously). If I can pull it off, hopefully before the end of the year, it will be with the help of Bacula Systems. Since they will be community binaries they will obviously be without charge.
2. Windows Binaries
The latest version of the Enterprise Windows binaries adapted for compatibility with the community version are now posted on the Bacula Systems web page:
http://www.baculasystems.com/windows-binaries-for-bacula-community-users
This version is numbered 7.0.5, but it actually contains code from a prerelease of Bacula Enterprise 8.0.0. The new Windows binaries contain all bug fixes and enterprise enhancements that we have made to the Windows binaries until present, where I have recently spent a considerable amount of time. A few of the new features/enhancements are:
– All bug fixes such as: silent install, better .conf file security, correct verify file count, …
– Working IPv6
– Support for Windows mount points
– Experimental Windows Storage daemon (disk only)
As you know, these binaries are available from Bacula Systems at a very modest cost which is designed to simply cover the costs incurred by Bacula Systems in producing and distributing them. If you have purchased these binaries in the past three months, any upgrade will be free of charge.
In addition, Bacula Systems has authorized me to distribute binaries to “my friends”. Since “my friends” is a bit objective, I have decided to use this permission to give free Windows binaries to all Bacula community contributors that are listed in the AUTHORS file. So if you name is in that file, simply send me (kern at sibbald dot com) an email with your name and the email address you will use for getting your binaries, and I will notify you how to do it (please allow for a bit of a delay). If you feel that you have made some significant contribution to the Bacula project, and your name is not in the AUTHORS file, please contact me to correct this. If you want free binaries and you have not contributed to the project, it is not too late.
3. Bacula Enterprise
The newest release of the Bacula Enterprise Edition was released on 31 August to specific customers. It will have lots of new features, some of which are already in the community version, but others are entirely new and very significant. Bacula Systems customers should already be aware of the new features. Also, shortly the details will be announced on the Bacula Systems web site, until then, you can get information at:
http://www.baculasystems.com/contactus
A few years ago, I informed you that for several years I would be spending more time working with Bacula Systems, which meant less of my personal time for the community, but that in the end, the community would benefit. I believe that what I said has come true, I spent less time with the community, but there were significantly more total contributions to the community from myself and Bacula Systems. If you look at the new community feature list, hopefully you will see that this is true.
Now that those few years have passed, and Bacula Systems is well on its way, I have turned my daily management responsibilities over the Bacula Systems R&D manager, Eric Bollengier. This means, as you may have noticed, that I am able to devote significantly more time to what I love doing — developing the Bacula community version. This will continue with the help of Bacula Systems.
At the moment, I am spending most of my time improving the Windows version of Bacula, and with the recent work I did to produce the Windows Enterprise binaries for the community, all this work will be available to the community shortly after it is implemented. Bottom line, you can look forward to additional Windows improvements over the next six months.
Community users can look forward to more advanced Enterprise features being backported into the community version as it always has done. I expect that by the end of the year or shortly thereafter you will see some significant new community features.
Since Bacula Systems has more and more customers from Eastern Europe, if you are interested in working as a customer support engineer and you live and work in Eastern Europe, please see if this job description fits you.
http://www.baculasystems.com/company/careers
If you are an experienced C or C++ programmer, you might also consider applying.
4. Vacation
I have been invited to give a presentation of Bacula to the Latinoware conference in Iguazu, Brazil (15-17 October) http://2014.latinoware.org/?lang=en so I would be very pleased to see/meet as many of you there as possible. If you live in South America, please see if it is possible for you to attend as I would enjoy meeting you there.
Since the trip from Switzerland, where I live to Iguazu takes something like 20 hours, I will prolong my trip to include a full vacation, and I will be able to visit a few other countries in South America. In total I will be gone from 30 September until 7 November. During this time Eric Bollengier will ensure maintenance of the Bacula project.
So my message here is that the Bacula community version is destined to evolve significantly in the future.
Thank you for using Bacula.
Kern
