Bacula - Director unable to authenticate with Storage daemon

Question

I'm trying to stay sane while configuring Bacula Server on my virtual CentOS Linux release 7.3.1611 to do a basic local backup job.

I prepared all the configurations I found necessary in the conf-files and prepared the mysql database accordingly.

When I want to start a job (local backup for now) I enter the following commands in bconsole:

*Connecting to Director 127.0.0.1:9101
1000 OK: bacula-dir Version: 5.2.13 (19 February 2013)
Enter a period to cancel a command.
*label
Automatically selected Catalog: MyCatalog
Using Catalog "MyCatalog"
Automatically selected Storage: File
Enter new Volume name: MyVolume
Defined Pools:
     1: Default
     2: File
     3: Scratch
Select the Pool (1-3): 2

This returns

Connecting to Storage daemon File at 127.0.0.1:9101 ...
Failed to connect to Storage daemon.
Do not forget to mount the drive!!!
You have messages.

where the message is:

12-Sep 12:05 bacula-dir JobId 0: Fatal error: authenticate.c:120 Director unable to authenticate with Storage daemon at "127.0.0.1:9101". Possible causes:
Passwords or names not the same or
Maximum Concurrent Jobs exceeded on the SD or
SD networking messed up (restart daemon).
Please see http://www.bacula.org/en/rel-manual/Bacula_Freque_Asked_Questi.html#SECTION00260000000000000000 for help.

I double and triple checked all the conf files for integrity and names and passwords. I don't know where to further look for the error.

I will gladly post any parts of the conf files but don't want to blow up this question right away if it might not be necessary. Thank you for any hints.

Answer 1

It might help someone sometime who made the same mistake as I:

After looking through manual page after manual page I found it was my own mistake. I had (for a reason I don't precisely recall, I guess to trouble-shoot another issue before) set all ports to 9101 - for the director, the file-daemon and the storage daemon.

So I assume the bacula components must have blocked each other's communication on port 9101. After resetting the default ports like 9102, 9103 according to the manual, it worked and I can now backup locally.

Answer 2

You have to add director's name from the backup server, edit /etc/bacula/bacula-fd.conf on remote client, see "List Directors who are permitted to contact this File daemon":

Director {
  Name = BackupServerName-dir
  Password = "use *-dir password from the same file"
}