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Subsections


Dealing with Firewalls

If you have a firewall or a DMZ installed on your computer, you may experience difficulties contacting one or more of the Clients to back them up. This is especially true if you are trying to backup a Client across the Internet.

Technical Details

If you are attempting to do this, the sequence of network events in Bacula to do a backup are the following:

Console -> DIR:9101
DIR     -> SD:9103
DIR     -> FD:9102
FD      -> SD:9103

Where it should be obvious that DIR represents the Director, FD the File daemon or client, and SD the Storage daemon. The numbers that follow those names are the standard ports used by Bacula, and the -> represents the left side making a connection to the right side (i.e. the right side is the ``server'' or is listening on the specified port), and the left side is the ``client'' who initiates the conversation.

Note, port 9103 serves both the Director and the File daemon, each having its own independent connection.

If you are running iptables, you might add something like:

-A FW-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 9101:9103 -j ACCEPT

on your server, and

-A FW-1-INPUT -m state --state NEW -m tcp -p tcp --dport 9102 -j ACCEPT

on your client. In both cases, I assume that the machine is allowed to initiate connections on any port. If not, you will need to allow outgoing connections on ports 9102 and 9103 on your server and 9103 on your client. Thanks to Raymond Norton for this tip.

A Concrete Example

Jesse Guardiani's solution for his network for this problem, in his own words, is:

My bacula server is on the 192.168.1.0/24 network at IP address 192.168.1.52. For the sake of discussion we will refer to this network as the 'internal' network because it connects to the internet through a NAT'd firewall. We will call the network on the public (internet) side of the NAT'd firewall the 'external' network. Also, for the sake of discussion we will call my bacula server:

    server.int.mydomain.tld

when a fully qualified domain name is required, or simply:

    server

if a hostname is adequate. We will call the various bacula daemons running on the server.int.mydomain.tld machine:

    server-fd
    server-sd
    server-dir

In addition, I have two clients that I want to back up with Bacula. The first client is on the internal network. Its fully qualified domain name is:

    private1.int.mydomain.tld

And its hostname is:

    private1

This machine is a client and therefore runs just one bacula daemon:

    private1-fd

The second client is on the external network. Its fully qualified domain name is:

    public1.mydomain.tld

And its hostname is:

    public1

This machine also runs just one bacula daemon:

    public1-fd

Finally, I have a NAT firewall/gateway with two network interfaces. The first interface is on the internal network and serves as a gateway to the internet for all the machines attached to the internal network (For example, server.int.mydomain.tld and private1.int.mydomain.tld). The second interface is on the external (internet) network. The external interface has been assigned the name:

    firewall.mydomain.tld

Remember:

    *.int.mydomain.tld = internal network
        *.mydomain.tld = external network

The Bacula Configuration Files for the Above

server-sd manages a 4 tape AIT autoloader. All of my backups are written to server-sd. I have just *one* Device resource in my server-sd.conf file:

Device {
  Name = "autochanger1";
  Media Type = AIT-1;
  Archive Device = /dev/nrsa1;
  Changer Device = /dev/ch0;
  Changer Command = "/usr/local/sbin/chio-bacula %c %o %S %a";
  Label Media = yes;
  AutoChanger = yes;
  AutomaticMount = yes;               # when device opened, read it
  AlwaysOpen = yes;
    Hardware End of Medium = No
    Fast Forward Space File = No
    BSF at EOM = yes
}

(note, please see the Tape Testing chapter of this manual for important FreeBSD information.) However, I have *two* Storage resources in my server-dir.conf file:

Storage {
  Name = "autochanger1-int"    # Storage device for backing up
  Address = server.int.mydomain.tld
  SDPort = 9103
  Password = "mysecretpassword"
  Device = "autochanger1"
  Media Type = AIT-1
  Autochanger = yes
}
Storage {
  Name = "autochanger1-ext"    # Storage device for backing up
  Address = firewall.mydomain.tld
  SDPort = 9103
  Password = "mysecretpassword"
  Device = "autochanger1"
  Media Type = AIT-1
  Autochanger = yes
}

Note that BOTH of the above server-dir.conf Storage resources use the same 'autochanger1' Device resource from server-sd.conf.

My backup jobs run consecutively, one after the other, so only one of the above Storage resources is being used by Bacula file daemons at any given time. I don't know if this would cause problems at a site that runs more than one backup in parallel to a single tape device.

In addition to the above, I have two Client resources defined in server-dir.conf:

Client {
  Name = private1-fd
  Address = private1.int.mydomain.tld
  FDPort = 9102
  Catalog = MyCatalog
  Password = "mysecretpassword"       # password for FileDaemon
}
Client {
  Name = public1-fd
  Address = public1.mydomain.tld
  FDPort = 9102
  Catalog = MyCatalog
  Password = "mysecretpassword"       # password for FileDaemon
}

And finally, to tie it all together, I have two Job resources defined in server-dir.conf:

Job {
  Name = "Private1-Backup"
  Type = Backup
  Client = private1-fd
  FileSet = "Private1"
  Schedule = "WeeklyCycle"
  Storage = "autochanger1-int"
  Messages = Standard
  Pool = "Weekly"
  Write Bootstrap = "/var/db/bacula/Private1-Backup.bsr"
  Priority = 12
}
Job {
  Name = "Public1-Backup"
  Type = Backup
  Client = public1-fd
  FileSet = "Public1"
  Schedule = "WeeklyCycle"
  Storage = "autochanger1-ext"
  Messages = Standard
  Pool = "Weekly"
  Write Bootstrap = "/var/db/bacula/Public1-Backup.bsr"
  Priority = 13
}

It is important to notice that because the 'Private1-Backup' Job is intended to back up a machine on the internal network it uses the 'autochanger1-int' Storage resource. On the other hand, the 'Public1-Backup' Job is intended to back up a machine on the external network, so it uses the 'autochanger1-ext' Storage resource.

I have left the Pool, Catalog, Messages, FileSet, Schedule, and Director resources out of the above server-dir.conf examples because they are not pertinent to the discussion.

How Does It Work?

If I want to run a backup of private1.int.mydomain.tld and store that backup using server-sd then my understanding of the order of events is this:

  1. I execute my Bacula 'console' command on server.int.mydomain.tld.
  2. console connects to server-dir.
  3. I tell console to 'run' backup Job 'Private1-Backup'.
  4. console relays this command to server-dir.
  5. server-dir connects to private1-fd at private1.int.mydomain.tld:9102
  6. server-dir tells private1-fd to start sending the files defined in the 'Private1-Backup' Job's FileSet resource to the Storage resource 'autochanger1-int', which we have defined in server-dir.conf as having the address:port of server.int.mydomain.tld:9103.
  7. private1-fd connects to server.int.mydomain.tld:9103 and begins sending files.

Alternatively, if I want to run a backup of public1.mydomain.tld and store that backup using server-sd then my understanding of the order of events is this:

  1. I execute my Bacula 'console' command on server.int.mydomain.tld.
  2. console connects to server-dir.
  3. I tell console to 'run' backup Job 'Public1-Backup'.
  4. console relays this command to server-dir.
  5. server-dir connects, through the NAT'd firewall, to public1-fd at public1.mydomain.tld:9102
  6. server-dir tells public1-fd to start sending the files defined in the 'Public1-Backup' Job's FileSet resource to the Storage resource 'autochanger1-ext', which we have defined in server-dir.conf as having the address:port of firewall.mydomain.tld:9103.
  7. public1-fd connects to firewall.mydomain.tld:9103 and begins sending files.

Important Note

In order for the above 'Public1-Backup' Job to succeed, firewall.mydomain.tld:9103 MUST be forwarded using the firewall's configuration software to server.int.mydomain.tld:9103. Some firewalls call this 'Server Publication'. Others may call it 'Port Forwarding'.


next up previous contents index
Next: Using Bacula to Improve Up: Bacula User's Guide Previous: Bacula Security Issues   Contents   Index
2005-06-01