3 B A C K U P N I N J A /()/
6 a silent flower blossom death strike to lost data.
8 Backupninja allows you to coordinate system backup by dropping a few
9 simple configuration files into /etc/backup.d/. Most programs you
10 might use for making backups don't have their own configuration file
11 format. Backupninja provides a centralized way to configure and
12 coordinate many different backup utilities.
15 - easy to read ini style configuration files.
16 - you can drop in scripts to handle new types of backups.
17 - backup actions can be scheduled
18 - you can choose when status report emails are mailed to you
19 (always, on warning, on error, never).
20 - console-based wizard (ninjahelper) makes it easy to create
21 backup action configuration files.
22 - passwords are never sent via the command line to helper programs.
23 - works with Linux-Vservers (http://linux-vserver.org/)
26 - secure, remote, incremental filesytem backup (via rdiff-backup).
27 incremental data is compressed. permissions are retained even
28 with an unpriviledged backup user.
29 - backup of mysql databases (via mysqlhotcopy and mysqldump).
30 - backup of ldap databases (via slapcat and ldapsearch).
31 - basic system and hardware info
32 - encrypted remote backups (via duplicity).
33 - backup of subversion repositories.
35 The following options are available:
36 -h, --help This usage message
37 -d, --debug Run in debug mode, where all log messages are
38 output to the current shell.
39 -f, --conffile FILE Use FILE for the main configuration instead
40 of /etc/backupninja.conf
41 -t, --test Test run mode. This will test if the backup could run, without actually
42 preforming any backups. For example, it will attempt to authenticate
43 or test that ssh keys are set correctly.
44 -n, --now Perform actions now, instead of when they might be scheduled.
45 No output will be created unless also run with -d.
46 --run FILE Runs the specified action FILE (e.g. one of the /etc/backup.d/ files).
47 Also puts backupninja in debug mode.
52 The general configuration file is /etc/backupninja.conf. In this file
53 you can set the log level and change the default directory locations.
54 You can force a different general configuration file with "backupninja
57 To preform the actual backup, backupninja processes each configuration
58 file in /etc/backup.d according to the file's suffix:
60 .sh -- run this file as a shell script.
61 .rdiff -- filesystem backup (using rdiff-backup)
62 .dup -- filesystem backup (using duplicity)
63 .mysql -- backup mysql databases
64 .ldap -- backup ldap databases
65 .pgsql -- backup PostgreSQL databases
66 .sys -- general hardware, partition, and system reports.
67 .svn -- backup subversion repositories
68 .maildir -- incrementally backup maildirs (very specialized)
70 Support for additional configuration types can be added by dropping
71 bash scripts with the name of the suffix into /usr/share/backupninja.
73 The configuration files are processed in alphabetical order. However,
74 it is suggested that you name the config files in "sysvinit style."
82 Typically, you will put a '.rdiff' config file last, so that any
83 database dumps you make are included in the filesystem backup.
84 Configurations files with names beginning with 0 (zero) or ending with
85 .disabled (preferred method) are skipped.
87 Unless otherwise specified, the config file format is "ini style."
100 i will not have a pear.
106 By default, each configuration file is processed everyday at 01:00 (1
107 AM). This can be changed by specifying the 'when' option in a config
112 when = sundays at 02:00
115 when = everyday at 01 <-- the default
116 when = Tuesday at 05:00
118 A configuration file will be processed at the time(s) specified by the
119 "when" option. If multiple "when" options are present, then they all
120 apply. If two configurations files are scheduled to run in the same
121 hour, then we fall back on the alphabetical ordering specified above.
122 If two configurations files are scheduled close to one another in
123 time, it is possible to have multiple copies of backupninja running if
124 the first instance is not finished before the next one starts.
126 Make sure that you put the "when" option before any sections in your
129 These values for 'when' are equivalent:
131 when = tuesday at 05:30
132 when = TUESDAYS at 05
134 These values for 'when' are invalid:
136 when = tuesday at 2am
144 Backupninja can be used to implement whatever backup strategy you
145 choose. It is intended, however, to be used like so:
147 (1) First, databases are safely copied or exported to /var/backups.
148 Typically, you cannot make a file backup of a database while it
149 is in use, hence the need to use special tools to make a safe copy
150 or export into /var/backups.
152 (2) Then, vital parts of the file system, including /var/backups, are
153 nightly pushed to a remote, off-site, hard disk (using
154 rdiff-backup). The local user is root, but the remote user is not
155 priviledged. Hopefully, the remote filesystem is encrypted.
157 There are many different backup strategies out there, including "pull
158 style", magnetic tape, rsync + hard links, etc. We believe that the
159 strategy outlined above is the way to go because: (1) hard disks are
160 very cheap these days, (2) pull style backups are no good, because then
161 the backup server must have root on the production server, and (3)
162 rdiff-backup is more space efficient and featureful than using rsync +
169 In order for rdiff-backup to sync files over ssh unattended, you must
170 create ssh keys on the source server and copy the public key to the
171 remote user's authorized keys file. For example:
173 root@srchost# ssh-keygen -t dsa
174 root@srchost# ssh-copy-id -i /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub backup@desthost
176 Now, you should be able to ssh from user 'root' on srchost to
177 user 'backup' on desthost without specifying a password.
179 Note: when prompted for a password by ssh-keygen, just leave it
180 blank by hitting return.
182 The included helper program "ninjahelper" will walk you through creating
183 an rdiff-backup configuration, and will set up the ssh keys for you.
189 apt-get install bash gawk
192 apt-get install rdiff-backup gzip hwinfo
195 /usr/sbin/backupninja -- main script
196 /etc/cron.d/backupninja -- runs main script nightly
197 /etc/logrotate.d/backupninja -- rotates backupninja.log
198 /etc/backup.d/ -- directory for configuration files
199 /etc/backupninja.conf -- general options
200 /usr/share/backupninja -- handler scripts which do the actual work
203 There is no install script, but you just need to move files to the
204 correct locations. All files should be owned by root.
206 # tar xvzf backupninja.tar.gz
208 # mv backupninja /usr/sbin/backupninja
209 # mv ninjahelper /usr/sbin/ninjahelper
210 # mv etc/logrotate.d/backupninja /etc/logrotate.d/backupninja
211 # mv etc/cron.d/backupninja /etc/cron.d/backupninja
212 # mkdir /etc/backup.d/
213 # mv etc/backupninja.conf /etc/backupninja.conf
214 # mv handlers /usr/share/backupninja
220 If you are using Linux-Vservers (http://linux-vserver.org/) there are some
221 special capabilities that different handlers have to make vserver
224 Set the variable "vservers" to be "yes" in /etc/backupninja.conf and see the
225 example configuration files for each handler to configure the vserver specific
228 Additional vserver variables that can be configured in /etc/backupninja.conf,
229 but they probably don't need to be changed:
231 VSERVERINFO (default: /usr/sbin/vserver-info)
232 VSERVER (default: /usr/sbin/vserver)
233 VROOTDIR (default: `$VSERVERINFO info SYSINFO |grep vserver-Rootdir | awk '{print $2}'`)
238 Ninjahelper is an additional script which will walk you through the process of
239 configuring backupninja. Ninjahelper has a menu driven curses based interface
242 To add an additional 'wizard' to ninjahelper, follow these steps:
244 (1) to add a helper for the handler "blue", create the file
245 blue.helper in the directory where the handlers live.
246 (ie /usr/share/backupninja).
248 (2) next, you need to add your helper to the global HELPERS variable
249 and define the main function for your helper (the function name
250 is always <helper>_wizard). for example, blue.helper:
251 HELPERS="$HELPERS blue:description_of_this_helper"
256 (3) look at the existing helpers to see how they are written. Try to re-use
257 functions, such as the dialog functions that are defined in easydialog.sh,
258 or the vserver functions defined in lib/vserver.
260 (4) test, re-test, and test again. Try to break the helper by going backwards,
261 try to think like someone who has no idea how to configure your handler
262 would think, try to make your helper as simple as possible. Walk like a cat,
263 become your shadow, don't let your senses betray you.