BACKUPNINJA - A lightweight, extensible meta-backup system
"a silent flower blossom death strike to lost data."
backupninja [ -h ] [ -v ] [ -d ] [ -n ] [ -t ] [ -f filename ] [ --run
filename ]
Backupninja allows you to coordinate system backups by dropping a few
simple configuration files into /etc/backup.d/. Most programs you might use
for making backups don't have their own configuration file format. Backupninja
provides a centralized way to configure and coordinate many different backup
utilities.
- -
- easy to read ini style configuration files.
- -
- you can drop in scripts to handle new types of
backups.
- -
- backup actions can be scheduled.
- -
- you can choose when status report emails are mailed to you
(always, on warning, on error, never).
- -
- console-based wizard (ninjahelper) makes it easy to create
backup action configuration files.
- -
- passwords are never sent via the command line to helper
programs.
- -
- in order to backup a db or sql database, you cannot simply
copy database files. backupninja helps you safely export the data to a
format which you can backup.
Backup types include:
- -
- secure, remote, incremental filesystem backup (via
rdiff-backup). incremental data is compressed. permissions are retained
even with an unpriviledged backup user.
- -
- basic system and hardware information.
- -
- encrypted remote backups (via duplicity).
- -
- safe backup of MySQL, PostgreSQL, OpenLDAP, and subversion
databases.
- -
- burn CD/DVDs or create ISOs.
- -h, --help
- Show summary of options
- -V, --version
- Show backupninja version number
- -d, --debug
- Run in debug mode, where all log messages are output to the
current shell.
- -f, --conffile CONF_FILE
- Use CONF_FILE for the main configuration instead of
/etc/backupninja.conf
- -t, --test
- Run in test mode, no actions are actually taken.
- -n, --now
- Perform actions now, instead of when they might be
scheduled.
- --run ACTION_FILE
- Runs the action configuration ACTION_FILE and exits.
General settings are configured in /etc/backupninja.conf. In this file you can
set the log level and change the default directory locations. See
backupninja.conf(5).
To preform the actual backup actions, backupninja processes each action
configuration file in /etc/backup.d according to the file's suffix. See
backup.d(5).
- Backupninja can be used to implement whatever backup
strategy you choose. It is intended, however, to be used like so:
- First, databases are safely copied or exported to
/var/backups. Often, you cannot make a file backup of a database while it is
in use, hence the need to use special tools to make a safe copy or export
into /var/backups.
- Then, vital parts of the file system, including
/var/backups, are nightly pushed to a remote, off-site, hard disk (using
rdiff-backup). The local user is root, but the remote user is not
privileged. Hopefully, the remote filesystem is encrypted.
- In order for this to work (ie for diff-backup to run
unattended), you must create ssh keys on the source server and copy the
public key to the remote user's authorized keys file. For example:
-
root@srchost# ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 4096
root@srchost# ssh-copy-id -i /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub backup@desthost
- Now, you should be able to ssh from user 'root' on srchost
to user 'backup' on desthost without specifying a password. When prompted
for a password by ssh-keygen, just leave it blank by hitting return. The
"wizard" ninjahelper(1) will walk you through these
steps.
-
0 success
1 errors or warnings emitted during backup
2 one or more backup actions failed
3 syntax or usage error
/usr/sbin/backupninja main script
/etc/backupninja.conf main configuration file; general options
/etc/cron.d/backupninja runs main script hourly
/etc/logrotate.d/backupninja rotates backupninja.log
/etc/backup.d directory for configuration files
/usr/share/backupninja directory for handler scripts
/usr/share/doc/backupninja/examples example action configuration files.
ninjahelper(1),
backupninja.conf(5),
backup.d(5),
BACKUPNINJA was written by the riseup.net collective.