How to make snapshot backups using rsnapshot - Powered by Kayako eSupport Help Desk Software

07 Sep 2010

Support Center » Knowledgebase » How to make snapshot backups using rsnapshot

	How to make snapshot backups using rsnapshot

Article RsyncPlace.com supports rsnapshot which is a filesystem snapshot utility for making backups by using rsync and hardlinks.
rsnapshot runs on our backup servers and "pulls", instead of "push", files from a server.

A special thanks to our client, Chris Johnston, for contributing to finding out how to use a custom location for the configuration file.
Link: http://chrisjohnston.org/2008/setting-up-rsnapshot-using-a-custom-location-for-the-config-file

You will be performing all these steps on your backup account.
Step 1:
Like any other automated backup methods, such as rsync, you need to setup ssh RSA keys. Follow this guide for full instructions:
http://support.rsyncpalace.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=4

# ssh-keygen -t rsa -N ''
# scp ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub root@sourceserver.example.com:.ssh/authorized_keys2
# ssh root@sourceserver.example.com "cat .ssh/authorized_keys2 >> .ssh/authorized_keys"

Step 2:
Here comes the fun stuff. Time to configure rsnapshot!

Copy the template configuration file to your home directory.
# cp /usr/configs/rsnapshot.conf ~/rsnapshot.conf

Edit the configuration file.
# vi ~/rsnapshot.conf

Configuration rules
* rsnapshot config file requires tabs between elements. *SPACE won't work!*
* All directories require a trailing slash. /home/ is correct, but /home is wrong.

First, specify root directory to store all backups:
snapshot_root /home/username/rsnapshot/

You must separate snapshot_root and /home/username/rsnapshot/ by a tab, and not a space.

Afterwards, you will need to define backup intervals.

interval hourly 6
interval daily 7
interval weekly 4

In the example in the configuration file, we want to take a snapshot every four hours, or six times a day (these are the hourly intervals). In the second line, backups are taken once a day and will be stored for a week. In the third line/set, backups are taken 4 times a week.

Lastly, you will need to specify which directories you would like to backup every interval. You can see the examples and follow the syntax in the configuration file.

To backup /home/, /etc/ for example from sourceserver.example.com to a directory called backup inside your snapshot_root, enter:
backup root@sourceserver.example.com:/home/ backup/
backup root@sourceserver.example.com:/etc/ backup/

*Make sure you use TABS! and backslashes!*

After that, save your configuration file and run:
# rsnapshot -c ~/rsnapshot.conf configtest

This will check if your syntax is right. It should show:
Synax OK

Otherwise, go back and apply changes and try again.

Example of failed syntax:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rsnapshot encountered an error! The program was invoked with these options:
/usr/bin/rsnapshot -c /usr/configs/rsnapshot.conf configtest
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: /usr/configs/rsnapshot.conf on line 120:
ERROR: backup root@example.com:/etc/ example.com/ exclude=mtab,exclude=core
ERROR: ---------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: Errors were found in /usr/configs/rsnapshot.conf,
ERROR: rsnapshot can not continue. If you think an entry looks right, make
ERROR: sure you don't have spaces where only tabs should be.

Step 3:
Edit cron for rsnapshot to run the backups corresponding with the interval values:
# crontab -e

0 */4 * * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot ~/rsnapshot/rsnapshot.conf hourly
30 10 * * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot ~/rsnapshot/rsnapshot.conf daily
0 20 * * 3 /usr/bin/rsnapshot ~/rsnapshot/rsnapshot.conf weekly

1st line: 6 backups a day (once every 4 hours, at 0h, 4h, 8h, 12h, 16h, 20h)
2nd line: 1 daily backup every day, at 10:30AM
3rd line: 1 weekly backup every week, at 10:00PM, on Thursday (4th day of week, starts at 0. 4-1=3)

Save and you're all set!

Contact support if you have any problems with anything in this tutorial.

Article Details

Article ID:

Created On:

05 Apr 2009 8:25 AM