DBCHECK(8)					     Network backup, recovery and verification						DBCHECK(8)

NAME

	dbcheck - Bacula's Catalog Database Check/Clean program

SYNOPSIS

       dbcheck [options] working-directory bacula-database user password [dbhost] [dbport]

DESCRIPTION

       This manual page documents briefly the dbcheck command.

       dbcheck will not repair your database if it is broken. Please see your vendor's instructions for fixing broken database.

       dbcheck	is  a  simple program that will search for logical inconsistencies in the Bacula tables in your database, and optionally fix them.
       It is a database maintenance routine, in the sense that it can detect and remove unused rows, but it is not a database repair  routine.	To
       repair a database, see the tools furnished by the database vendor.  Normally dbcheck should never need to be run, but if Bacula has crashed
       or you have a lot of Clients, Pools, or Jobs that you have removed, it could be useful.

OPTIONS

       A summary of options is included below.

       -?     Show version and usage of program.

       -b     If specified, dbcheck will run in batch mode, and it will proceed to examine and fix (if -f is  set)  all  programmed  inconsistency
	      checks. By default, dbcheck will enter interactive mode (see below).

       -C catalog
	      catalog name in the director conf file.

       -c config
	      If  the -c option is given with the Director's conf file, there is no need to enter any of the command line arguments, in particular
	      the working directory as dbcheck will read them from the file.

       -B     print catalog configuration and exit.

       -d nn  set debug level to nn.

       -dt    print timestamp in debug output.

       -f     If specified, dbcheck will repair (fix) the inconsistencies it finds.  Otherwise, it will report only.

       -v     Set verbose mode.

INTERACTIVE MODE

       In interactive mode dbcheck will prompt with the following:

       Hello, this is the database check/correct program.  Please select the function you want to perform.
	    1) Toggle modify database flag
	    2) Toggle verbose flag
	    3) Repair bad Filename records
	    4) Repair bad Path records
	    5) Eliminate duplicate Filename records
	    6) Eliminate duplicate Path records
	    7) Eliminate orphaned Jobmedia records
	    8) Eliminate orphaned File records
	    9) Eliminate orphaned Path records
	   10) Eliminate orphaned Filename records
	   11) Eliminate orphaned FileSet records
	   12) Eliminate orphaned Client records
	   13) Eliminate orphaned Job records
	   14) Eliminate all Admin records
	   15) Eliminate all Restore records
	   16) All (3-15)
	   17) Quit Select function number:

       By entering 1 or 2, you can toggle the modify database flag (-f option) and the verbose flag (-v).  It can be  helpful  and  reassuring	to
       turn  off  the  modify  database flag, then select one or more of the consistency checks (items 3 through 9) to see what will be done, then
       toggle the modify flag on and re-run the check.

       The inconsistencies examined are the following:

	Duplicate filename records.  This can happen if you accidentally run two
	  copies of Bacula at the same time, and they are both adding filenames
	  simultaneously.  It is a rare occurrence, but will create an
	  inconsistent database.  If this is the case, you will receive error
	  messages during Jobs warning of duplicate database records.  If you are
	  not getting these error messages, there is no reason to run this check.

	Repair bad Filename records.  This checks and corrects filenames that have
	  a trailing slash.  They should not.

	Repair bad Path records.  This checks and corrects path names that do not
	  have a trailing slash.  They should.

	Duplicate path records.  This can happen if you accidentally run two copies
	  of Bacula at the same time, and they are both adding filenames
	  simultaneously.  It is a rare occurrence, but will create an
	  inconsistent database.  See the item above for why this occurs and how
	  you know it is happening.

	Orphaned JobMedia records.  This happens when a Job record is deleted
	  (perhaps by a user issued SQL statement), but the corresponding JobMedia
	  record (one for each Volume used in the Job) was not deleted.  Normally,
	  this should not happen, and even if it does, these records generally do
	  not take much space in your database.  However, by running this check,
	  you can eliminate any such orphans.

	Orphaned File records.	This happens when a Job record is deleted (perhaps
	  by a user issued SQL statement), but the corresponding File record (one
	  for each Volume used in the Job) was not deleted.  Note, searching for
	  these records can be very time consuming (i.e.  it may take hours) for a
	  large database.  Normally this should not happen as Bacula takes care to
	  prevent it.  Just the same, this check can remove any orphaned File
	  records.  It is recommended that you run this once a year since orphaned
	  File records can take a large amount of space in your database.  You
	  might want to ensure that you have indexes on JobId, FilenameId, and
	  PathId for the File table in your catalog before running this command.

	Orphaned Path records.	This condition happens any time a directory is
	  deleted from your system and all associated Job records have been
	  purged.  During standard purging (or pruning) of Job records, Bacula
	  does not check for orphaned Path records.  As a consequence, over a
	  period of time, old unused Path records will tend to accumulate and use
	  space in your database.  This check will eliminate them.  It is
	  recommended that you run this check at least once a year.

	Orphaned Filename records.  This condition happens any time a file is
	  deleted from your system and all associated Job records have been
	  purged.  This can happen quite frequently as there are quite a large
	  number of files that are created and then deleted.  In addition, if you
	  do a system update or delete an entire directory, there can be a very
	  large number of Filename records that remain in the catalog but are no
	  longer used.

	  During standard purging (or pruning) of Job records, Bacula does not
	  check for orphaned Filename records.	As a consequence, over a period of
	  time, old unused Filename records will accumulate and use space in your
	  database.  This check will eliminate them.  It is strongly recommended
	  that you run this check at least once a year, and for large database
	  (more than 200 Megabytes), it is probably better to run this once every
	  6 months.

	Orphaned Client records.  These records can remain in the database long
	  after you have removed a client.

	Orphaned Job records.  If no client is defined for a job or you do not run
	  a job for a long time, you can accumulate old job records.  This option
	  allow you to remove jobs that are not attached to any client (and thus
	  useless).

	All Admin records. This command will remove all Admin records,
	  regardless of their age.

	All Restore records. This command will remove all Restore records,
	  regardless of their age.

       By the way, I personally run dbcheck only where I have messed up my database due to a bug in developing Bacula code, so normally you should
       never  need to run dbcheck inspite of the recommendations given above, which are given so that users don't waste their time running dbcheck
       too often.

SEE ALSO

       bls(1), bextract(1).

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written by Jose Luis Tallon <jltallon@adv-solutions.net>.

Kern Sibbald							 26 September 2009							DBCHECK(8)