I use
rsnapshot to backup all my Unix-like systems. It's fast, efficient, and easy.
The backups are run from, and stored on, a FreeBSD ZFS server (named "sherman"), where I have the disk space needed.
Since
rsnapshot uses a "pull model", that ZFS server must have the right to read file systems on the backup clients, via
rsync.
It's possible for
rsync to use a "transparent remote shell" other than
ssh, but by far the most convenient way of doing this is certainly with
ssh. I don't believe you will identify another sensible option.
To permit the required access, I copy the ZFS server's root user public key (e.g.
~root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub) to each client into the file
~root/.ssh/authorized_keys.
i.e. the root account on all clients is accessible by ssh key, without password, by the root account on the ZFS server. When setting up, you need to test this.
This means that (after the first use of the key on each client) the backups run transparently.
However it has security implications you may wish to contemplate -- you can mitigate, but in the end analysis, only root has the required power to do backups.
I run the backups with this script, as root, on the ZFS server:
Code:
[sherman.136] $ cat ~/bin/snap2disk
#!/bin/sh
# See: /usr/local/etc/rsnapshot.conf
PATH=/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
export PATH
interval=${1:-sequential}
cd /
rsnapshot -v $interval
Here are the configuration file details:
Code:
[sherman.137] $ grep -v "^# " /usr/local/etc/rsnapshot.conf | sed -e'/^$/d'
config_version 1.2
snapshot_root /tank/backups/rsnapshot/
cmd_rm /bin/rm
cmd_rsync /usr/local/bin/rsync
cmd_ssh /usr/bin/ssh
cmd_logger /usr/bin/logger
cmd_du /usr/bin/du
retain sequential 40
verbose 2
loglevel 3
lockfile /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
rsync_long_args --delete --delete-excluded --devices --group --hard-links --links --numeric-ids --owner --perms --recursive --relative --sparse --times
link_dest 1
##
## Backup clients
##
## a Linux physical host (KVM server)
backup root@orac:/ orac/ exclude=/sys,exclude=/proc,exclude=/run,exclude=/dev,exclude=/media,exclude=/var/lib/vm,exclude=/spin/vm,exclude=/var/cache/apt/archives,exclude=/work
## the physical ZFS server backs up itself (excluding the tank)
backup root@sherman:/ sherman/ exclude=/backups*,exclude=/cdrom,exclude=/cdrom1,exclude=/usb,exclude=/stick,exclude=/windows,exclude=/tank,exclude=/tank/myth,exclude=/mount
## a FreeBSD VM under KVM
backup root@ritz:/ ritz/ exclude=/backups*,exclude=/cdrom,exclude=/cdrom1,exclude=/usb,exclude=/stick
## a FreeBSD VM under Virtualbox
backup root@f113:/ f113/ exclude=/backups*,exclude=/cdrom,exclude=/cdrom1,exclude=/usb,exclude=/stick,exclude=/windows
## a Raspberry Pi (bastion firewall)
backup root@piwall:/ piwall/ exclude=/sys/*,exclude=/proc/*
## many clients deleted...
I use a sequential rotation, keeping 40 backups (as of today, going back to Dec 22 2013). If you want daily/monthly/weekly rotations, you can sort that once it's working.
subatomicsolutions.org
