Automated Backups With rdiff-backup

Sorry Falko, we did not understand each other:

the text between --- and --- is according your how to.

The line: "Note: this can not be done as user rdiff-backup !!" is my own experience, so i do not understand your line "With this command you become the user rdiff-backup on the shell. All the following commands must be run as user rdiff-backup!" within the how to.

I have to mention this because i can not create file create the file /backup/.ssh/config not do it under user rdiff-backup.

I think also that it is the reason that i have the result:

ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nza[...]W1go9M= root@backup

in stead of:

ssh-rsa AAAAB3Nza[...]W1go9M= rdiff-backup@backup


Hans

 

It is working for me like that. What's rdiff-backup's homedir? Is it /backup?

 

Yes Falko,

That directory is /backup and is located on my backupserver backup.myhostingcompany.tld.

Hans

 

What's the output of

Code:

ls -la /backup

?

 

Output of ls -la /backup

backup:/home/admin# ls -la /backup
total 28
drwxr-xr-x 4 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 4096 2006-04-12 20:10 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 2006-04-10 21:03 ..
-rw------- 1 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 2797 2006-04-14 20:29 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 567 2006-04-10 21:03 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 1834 2006-04-10 21:03 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x 5 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 4096 2006-04-10 18:55 boot
drwx------ 2 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 4096 2006-04-12 18:46 .ssh
backup:/home/admin#

Hans

 

What's the output of

Code:

grep rdiff-backup /etc/passwd

?

 

Falko,

here is the output:

backup:/home/admin# grep rdiff-backup /etc/passwd
rdiff-backup:x:3500:3500:rdiff-backup:/backup:/bin/false

Hans

 

What's the exact error message when you do this as rdiff-backup:

 

Falko,

here is the in- and output, you requested:

backup:/home/admin# su -m rdiff-backup
backup:/home/admin$ cd /backup
backup:/backup$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/backup/.ssh/id_rsa):
/backup/.ssh/id_rsa already exists.
Overwrite (y/n)? y
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /backup/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /backup/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
The key fingerprint is:
dc:d6:e2:4d:d1:69:c8:12:e0:1e:a7:2e:f2:51:aa:f5 [email protected]
backup:/backup$ nano /backup/.ssh/config

Unable to open ~/.nano_history file, Permission denied
Press return to continue starting nano

Note:
The file nano /backup/.ssh/config exists already, the last try, i created it as root. It was the only way i could create it.

--
Hans

 

This seems to be a problem with nano. I always use vi and never had problems with it...

 

Nano

Wow,

i did not expect this Falko, but i will try the VI editor.

I let you know, how i am going on.

Thanks for your reply,

Hans

 

A little step further again

Falko,

You where right about the nano editor. I did everything now with the Unix VI editor and i could make a backup with rdiff-backup.

I have only one more problem that i can not understand:
Before i can make a backup: i have to give root's password to access the server. So i can not go further with creating a cron job for rdiff.

Any ideas?

Hans

 

Then there seems to something wrong with the certificates...

 

rdiff-backup is working!

Falko,
i did it...finally. Thanks for the hint.

Hans

 

Juhuuu!!!

 

Fatal Error: Bad rdiff-backup-data dir on destination side

Falko,

I have this error when i make a backup with rdiff:
And if i remove the rdiff-backup-data directory i receive a lot of update errors. I guess this is because rdiif creates incremental backups..

Fatal Error: Bad rdiff-backup-data dir on destination side

The rdiff-backup data directory
/backup/server1/rdiff-backup-data
exists, but we cannot find a valid current_mirror marker. You can
avoid this message by removing the rdiff-backup-data directory;
however any data in it will be lost.

Probably this error was caused because the first rdiff-backup session
into a new directory failed. If this is the case it is safe to delete
the rdiff-backup-data directory because there is no important
information in it.

How can i start over again, so i can avoid these errors?


Hans

 

Remove that directory and check the permissions of the other directories (/backup).

 

/var directory is not included within backup

I removed the directory as you told me.
When i do an rdiff-backup --exclude /tmp --exclude /mnt --exclude /proc --exclude /dev --exclude /cdrom server1_backup::/ /backup/server1 the backup works fine again.

One more problem: the /var directory is not backuped as it should be...

What could be the reason for this?

Hans

 

Any errors in the logs? What's the output of

Code:

ls -la /var

?

 

The output of ls -la /var

admin@server1:/tmp$ ls -la /var
total 108
drwxr-xr-x 16 root root 4096 2006-05-03 21:28 .
drwxr-xr-x 21 root root 4096 2006-03-31 12:56 ..
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-05-12 06:25 backups
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 2006-03-31 11:44 cache
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-04-27 19:53 certs
drwxr-xr-x 24 root root 4096 2006-04-27 19:30 lib
drwxrwsr-x 2 root staff 4096 2005-02-18 15:59 local
drwxrwxrwt 3 root root 4096 2006-05-03 19:23 lock
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 2006-05-15 06:25 log
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 49152 2006-03-31 11:48 lost+found
drwxrwsr-x 3 root mail 4096 2006-05-15 13:26 mail
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 2006-03-31 11:50 opt
drwxr-xr-x 13 root root 4096 2006-05-14 23:59 run
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2006-03-31 11:26 spool
drwxrwxrwt 3 root root 4096 2006-05-11 19:10 tmp
drwxr-xr-x 25 root root 4096 2006-05-13 00:30 www

And the output of :

backup:/backup# ls -la /backup
total 32

drwxr-xr-x 5 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 4096 2006-05-17 02:40 .
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 4096 2006-05-16 21:04 ..
-rw------- 1 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 410 2006-05-16 21:20 .bash_history
-rw-r--r-- 1 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 567 2006-05-16 21:04 .bash_profile
-rw-r--r-- 1 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 1834 2006-05-16 21:04 .bashrc
drwxr-xr-x 5 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 4096 2006-03-31 13:23 boot
drwx------ 16 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 4096 2006-05-17 02:49 server1
drwx------ 2 rdiff-backup rdiff-backup 4096 2006-05-16 21:11 .ssh

Hans