ccollect - Installing, Configuring and Using ============================================ Nico Schottelius 0.7.1, for ccollect 0.7.1, Initial Version from 2006-01-13 :Author Initials: NS (pseudo) incremental backup with different exclude lists using hardlinks and `rsync` Introduction ------------ `ccollect` is a backup utility written in the sh-scripting language. It does not depend on a specific shell, only `/bin/sh` needs to be bourne shell compatible (like 'dash', 'ksh', 'zsh', 'bash', ...). Supported and tested operating systems and architectures ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ `ccollect` was successfully tested on the following platforms: - GNU/Linux on amd64/hppa/i386/ppc/ARM - FreeBSD on amd64/i386 - Mac OS X 10.5 - NetBSD on alpha/amd64/i386/sparc/sparc64 - OpenBSD on amd64 It *should* run on any Unix that supports `rsync` and has a POSIX-compatible bourne shell. If your platform is not listed above and you have it successfully running, please drop me a mail. Why you COULD only backup from remote hosts, not to them ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ While considering the design of ccollect, I thought about enabling backup to *remote* hosts. Though this sounds like a nice feature ('Backup my notebook to the server now.'), in my opinion it is a bad idea to backup to a remote host. But as more and more people requested this feature, it was implemented, so you have the choice whether you want to use it or not. Reason ^^^^^^ If you want to backup *TO* a remote host, you have to loosen security on it. Imagine the following situation: You backup your farm of webservers *TO* a backup host somewhere else. Now one of your webservers which has access to your backup host gets compromised. Your backup server will be compromised, too. And the attacker will have access to all data on the other webservers. Doing it securely ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Think of it the other way round: The backup server (now behind a firewall, not accessable from outside) connects to the webservers and pulls the data *from* them. If someone gets access to one of the webservers, this person will perhaps not even see your machine. If the attacker sees connections from a host to the compromised machine, she will not be able to log in on the backup machine. All other backups are still secure. Incompatibilities ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Versions 0.6 and 0.7 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .The format of `destination` changed: - Before 0.7 it was a (link to a) directory - As of 0.7 it is a textfile containing the destination You can update your configuration using `tools/config-pre-0.7-to-0.7.sh`. .Added 'remote_host' - As of 0.7 it is possible to backup *to* hosts (see section remote_host below). Versions 0.5 and 0.6 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ .The format of `rsync_options` changed: - Before 0.6 it was whitespace delimeted - As of 0.6 it is newline seperated (so you can pass whitespaces to `rsync`) You can update your configuration using `tools/config-pre-0.6-to-0.6.sh`. .The name of the backup directories changed: - Before 0.6: "date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M" - As of 0.6: "date +%Y%m%d-%H%M" (better readable, date is closer together) For the second change there is no updated needed, as XXXX- is always before XXXXX (- comes before digit). Versions 0.4 and 0.5 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Not a real incompatibilty, but seems to fit in this section: .0.5 does *NOT* require - PaX - bc anymore! Versions < 0.4 and 0.4 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Since `ccollect` 0.4 there are several incompatibilities with earlier versions: .List of incompatibilities - `pax` (Posix) is now required, `cp -al` (GNU specific) is removed - "interval" was written with two 'l' (ell), which is wrong in English - Changed the name of backup directories, removed the colon in the interval - ccollect will now exit when preexec returns non-zero - ccollect now reports when postexec returns non-zero You can convert your old configuration directory using `config-pre-0.4-to-0.4.sh`, which can be found in the *tools/* subdirectory: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [10:05] hydrogenium:ccollect-0.4# ./tools/config-pre-0.4-to-0.4.sh /etc/ccollect -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quick start ----------- For those who do not want to read the whole long document: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # get latest ccollect tarball from http://unix.schottelius.org/ccollect/ # replace value for CCV with the current version export CCV=0.7.1 # # replace 'wget' with 'fetch' on bsd # holen=wget "$holen" http://unix.schottelius.org/ccollect/ccollect-${CCV}.tar.bz2 # extract the tarball, change to the newly created directory tar -xvjf ccollect-${CCV}.tar.bz2 cd ccollect-${CCV} # create mini-configuration # first create directory structure mkdir -p miniconfig/defaults/intervals mkdir miniconfig/sources # create sample intervals echo 2 > miniconfig/defaults/intervals/testinterval echo 3 > miniconfig/defaults/intervals/testinterval2 # create destination directory, where the backups will be kept mkdir ~/DASI # create sample source, which will be saved mkdir miniconfig/sources/testsource # We will save '/bin' to the directory '~/DASI' echo '/bin' > miniconfig/sources/testsource/source # configure ccollect to use ~/DASI as destination echo ~/DASI > miniconfig/sources/testsource/destination # We want to see what happens and also a small summary at the end touch miniconfig/sources/testsource/verbose touch miniconfig/sources/testsource/summary echo "do the backup, twice" CCOLLECT_CONF=./miniconfig ./ccollect.sh testinterval testsource CCOLLECT_CONF=./miniconfig ./ccollect.sh testinterval testsource echo "the third time ccollect begins to remove old backups" echo -n "Hit enter to see it" read CCOLLECT_CONF=./miniconfig ./ccollect.sh testinterval testsource echo "Now we add another interval, ccollect should clone from existent ones" echo -n "Hit enter to see it" read CCOLLECT_CONF=./miniconfig ./ccollect.sh testinterval2 testsource echo "Let's see how much space we used with two backups and compare it to /bin" du -s ~/DASI /bin # report success echo "Please report success using ./tools/report_success.sh" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cutting and pasting the complete section above to your shell will result in the download of ccollect, the creation of a sample configuration and the execution of some backups. Requirements ------------ Installing ccollect ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For the installation you need at least - the latest ccollect package (http://unix.schottelius.org/ccollect/) - either `cp` and `chmod` or `install` - for more comfort: `make` - for rebuilding the generated documentation: additionally `asciidoc` Using ccollect ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .Running ccollect requires the following tools to be installed: - `date` - `rsync` - `ssh` (if you want to use rsync over ssh, which is recommened for security) Installing ---------- Either type 'make install' or simply copy it to a directory in your $PATH and execute 'chmod *0755* /path/to/ccollect.sh'. If you would like to use the new management scripts (available since 0.6), copy the following scripts to a directory in $PATH: - `tools/ccollect_add_source.sh` - `tools/ccollect_analyse_logs.sh.sh` - `tools/ccollect_delete_source.sh` - `tools/ccollect_list_intervals.sh` - `tools/ccollect_logwrapper.sh` After having installed and used ccollect, report success using './tools/report_success.sh'. Configuring ----------- For configuration aid have a look at the above mentioned tools, which can assist you quite well. When you are successfully using `ccollect`, report success using `tools/report_success.sh`. Runtime options ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ `ccollect` looks for its configuration in '/etc/ccollect' or, if set, in the directory specified by the variable '$CCOLLECT_CONF': -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- # sh-compatible (dash, zsh, mksh, ksh, bash, ...) $ CCOLLECT_CONF=/your/config/dir ccollect.sh ... # csh $ ( setenv CCOLLECT_CONF /your/config/dir ; ccollect.sh ... ) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you start `ccollect`, you have to specify in which interval to backup (daily, weekly, yearly; you can specify the names yourself, see below) and which sources to backup (or -a to backup all sources). The interval specifies how many backups are kept. There are also some self-explanatory parameters you can pass to ccollect, simply use `ccollect.sh --help` for info. General configuration ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The general configuration can be found in $CCOLLECT_CONF/defaults or /etc/ccollect/defaults. All options specified there are generally valid for all source definitions, although the values can be overwritten in the source configuration. All configuration entries are plain-text files (use UTF-8 for non-ascii characters). Interval definition ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The interval definition can be found in '$CCOLLECT_CONF/defaults/intervals/' or '/etc/ccollect/defaults/intervals'. Each file in this directory specifies an interval. The name of the file is the same as the name of the interval: `intervals/''`. The content of this file should be a single line containing a number. This number defines how many versions of this interval are kept. Example: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [10:23] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% ls -l conf/defaults/intervals/ insgesamt 12 -rw-r--r-- 1 nico users 3 2005-12-08 10:24 daily -rw-r--r-- 1 nico users 3 2005-12-08 11:36 monthly -rw-r--r-- 1 nico users 2 2005-12-08 11:36 weekly [10:23] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% cat conf/defaults/intervals/* 28 12 4 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This means to keep 28 daily backups, 12 monthly backups and 4 weekly. General pre- and post-execution ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you add '$CCOLLECT_CONF/defaults/`pre_exec`' or '/etc/ccollect/defaults/`pre_exec`' (same with `post_exec`), `ccollect` will start `pre_exec` before the whole backup process and `post_exec` after backup of all sources is done. The following example describes how to report free disk space in human readable format before and after the whole backup process: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [13:00] hydrogenium:~# mkdir -p /etc/ccollect/defaults/ [13:00] hydrogenium:~# echo '#!/bin/sh' > /etc/ccollect/defaults/pre_exec [13:01] hydrogenium:~# echo '' >> /etc/ccollect/defaults/pre_exec [13:01] hydrogenium:~# echo 'df -h' >> /etc/ccollect/defaults/pre_exec [13:01] hydrogenium:~# chmod 0755 /etc/ccollect/defaults/pre_exec [13:01] hydrogenium:~# ln -s /etc/ccollect/defaults/pre_exec /etc/ccollect/defaults/post_exec ------------------------------------------------------------------------- General delete_incomplete ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you add '$CCOLLECT_CONF/defaults/`delete_incomplete`', this option applies for all sources. See below for a longer explanation. Source configuration ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Each source configuration exists in '$CCOLLECT_CONF/sources/$name' or '/etc/ccollect/sources/$name'. The name you choose for the subdirectory describes the source. Each source contains at least the following files: - `source` (a text file containing the `rsync` compatible path to backup) - `destination` (a text file containing the directory we should backup to) Additionally a source may have the following files: - `verbose` whether to be verbose (passes -v to `rsync`) - `very_verbose` be very verbose (`mkdir -v`, `rm -v` and `rsync -vv`) - `summary` create a transfer summary when `rsync` finished - `exclude` exclude list for `rsync`. newline seperated list. - `rsync_options` extra options for `rsync`. newline seperated list. - `pre_exec` program to execute before backing up *this* source - `post_exec` program to execute after backing up *this* source - `delete_incomplete` delete incomplete backups - `remote_host` host to backup to - `rsync_failure_codes` list of rsync exit codes that indicate complete failure - `mtime` Sort backup directories based on their modification time Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [10:47] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% ls -l conf/sources/testsource2 insgesamt 12 lrwxrwxrwx 1 nico users 20 2005-11-17 16:44 destination -> /home/nico/backupdir -rw-r--r-- 1 nico users 62 2005-12-07 17:43 exclude drwxr-xr-x 2 nico users 4096 2005-12-07 17:38 intervals -rw-r--r-- 1 nico users 15 2005-11-17 16:44 source [10:47] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% cat conf/sources/testsource2/exclude openvpn-2.0.1.tar.gz nicht_reinnehmen etwas mit leerzeichenli [10:47] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% ls -l conf/sources/testsource2/intervals insgesamt 4 -rw-r--r-- 1 nico users 2 2005-12-07 17:38 daily [10:48] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% cat conf/sources/testsource2/intervals/daily 5 [10:48] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% cat conf/sources/testsource2/source /home/nico/vpn -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailed description of "source" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ `source` describes a `rsync` compatible source (one line only). For instance 'backup_user@foreign_host:/home/server/video'. To use the `rsync` protocol without the `ssh`-tunnel, use 'rsync::USER@HOST/SRC'. For more information have a look at the manpage of `rsync`(1). Detailed description of "destination" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ `destination` must be a text file containing the destination directory. `destination` *USED* to be a link to the destination directory in earlier versions, so do not be confused if you see such examples. Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [11:36] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% cat conf/sources/testsource2/destination /home/nico/backupdir -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailed description of "remote_host" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ `remote_host` must be a text file containing the destination host. If this file is existing, you are backing up your data *TO* this host and *not* to you local host. *Warning*: You need to have `ssh` access to the remote host. `rsync` and `ccollect` will connect to that host via `ssh`. `ccollect` needs the shell access, because it needs to find out how many backups exist on the remote host and to be able to delete them. Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [10:17] denkbrett:ccollect-0.7.0% cat conf/sources/remote1/remote_host home.schottelius.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It may contain all the ssh-specific values like 'myuser@yourhost.ch'. Detailed description of "verbose" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ `verbose` tells `ccollect` that the log should contain verbose messages. If this file exists in the source specification *-v* will be passed to `rsync`. ` Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [11:35] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% touch conf/sources/testsource1/verbose -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailed description of "very_verbose" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ `very_verbose` tells `ccollect` that it should log very verbosely. If this file exists in the source specification *-v* will be passed to `rsync`, `rm` and `mkdir`. Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [23:67] nohost:~% touch conf/sources/testsource1/very_verbose -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailed description of "summary" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you create the file `summary` in the source definition, `ccollect` will present you a nice summary at the end. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- backup:~# touch /etc/ccollect/sources/root/summary backup:~# ccollect.sh werktags root ==> ccollect.sh: Beginning backup using interval werktags <== [root] Beginning to backup this source ... [root] Currently 3 backup(s) exist, total keeping 50 backup(s). [root] Beginning to backup, this may take some time... [root] Hard linking... [root] Transferring files... [root] [root] Number of files: 84183 [root] Number of files transferred: 32 [root] Total file size: 26234080536 bytes [root] Total transferred file size: 9988252 bytes [root] Literal data: 9988252 bytes [root] Matched data: 0 bytes [root] File list size: 3016771 [root] File list generation time: 1.786 seconds [root] File list transfer time: 0.000 seconds [root] Total bytes sent: 13009119 [root] Total bytes received: 2152 [root] [root] sent 13009119 bytes received 2152 bytes 2891393.56 bytes/sec [root] total size is 26234080536 speedup is 2016.26 [root] Successfully finished backup. ==> Finished ccollect.sh <== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You could also combine it with `verbose` or `very_verbose`, but these already print some statistics (though not all / the same as presented by `summary`). Detailed description of "exclude" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ `exclude` specifies a list of paths to exclude. The entries are seperated by a newline (\n). Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [11:35] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% cat conf/sources/testsource2/exclude openvpn-2.0.1.tar.gz nicht_reinnehmen etwas mit leerzeichenli something with spaces is not a problem -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailed description of "intervals/" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ When you create the subdirectory `intervals/` in your source configuration directory, you can specify individiual intervals for this specific source. Each file in this directory describes an interval. Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [11:37] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% ls -l conf/sources/testsource2/intervals/ insgesamt 8 -rw-r--r-- 1 nico users 2 2005-12-07 17:38 daily -rw-r--r-- 1 nico users 3 2005-12-14 11:33 yearly [11:37] zaphodbeeblebrox:ccollect-0.2% cat conf/sources/testsource2/intervals/* 5 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailled description of "rsync_options" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ When you create the file `rsync_options` in your source configuration, all the parameters in this file will be passed to rsync. This way you can pass additional options to rsync. For instance you can tell rsync to show progress ("--progress"), or which -password-file ("--password-file") to use for automatic backup over the rsync-protocol. Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [23:42] hydrogenium:ccollect-0.2% cat conf/sources/test_rsync/rsync_options --password-file=/home/user/backup/protected_password_file -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailled description of "pre_exec" and "post_exec" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ When you create `pre_exec` and / or `post_exec` in your source configuration, `ccollect` will execute this command before and respectively after doing the backup for *this specific* source. If you want to have pre-/post-exec before and after *all* backups, see above for general configuration. Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [13:09] hydrogenium:ccollect-0.3% cat conf/sources/with_exec/pre_exec #!/bin/sh # Show whats free before df -h [13:09] hydrogenium:ccollect-0.3% cat conf/sources/with_exec/post_exec #!/bin/sh # Show whats free after df -h -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Detailed description of "delete_incomplete" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you create the file `delete_incomplete` in a source specification directory, `ccollect` will look for incomplete backups (when the whole `ccollect` process was interrupted) and remove them. Without this file `ccollect` will only warn the user. Detailed description of "rsync_failure_codes" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ If you have the file `rsync_failure_codes` in your source configuration directory, it should contain a newline-separated list of numbers representing rsync exit codes. If rsync exits with any code in this list, a marker will be left in the destination directory indicating failure of this backup. If you have enabled delete_incomplete, then this backup will be deleted during the next ccollect run on the same interval. mtime ^^^^^ By default, ccollect.sh chooses the most recent backup directory for cloning or the oldest for deletion based on the directory's last change time (ctime). With this option, the sorting is done based on modification time (mtime). With this version of ccollect.sh, the ctime and mtime of your backups will normally be the same and this option has no effect. However, if you, for example, move your backups to another hard disk using cp -a or rsync -a, you should use this option because the ctimes are not preserved during such operations. If you have any backups in your repository made with ccollect version 0.7.1 or earlier, do not use this option and do not move your repository. Hints ----- Smart logging ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Since ccollect-0.6.1 you can use the ccollect-logwrapper.sh(1) for logging. You call it the same way you call ccollect.sh and it will create a logfile containing the output of ccollect.sh. For more information look at the manpage 'ccollect-logwrapper'. The following is an example running ccollect-logwrapper.sh: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- u0219 ~ # ~chdscni9/ccollect-logwrapper.sh daily u0160.nshq.ch.netstream.com ccollect-logwrapper.sh (11722): Starting with arguments: daily u0160.nshq.ch.netstream.com ccollect-logwrapper.sh (11722): Finished. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using a different ssh port ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mostly easy is to use your ~/.ssh/config file: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- host mx2.schottelius.org Port 2342 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you only use that port for backup only and normally want to use another port, you can add 'HostName' and "HostKeyAlias" (if you also have different keys on the different ports): -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Host hhydrogenium Hostname bruehe.schottelius.org Port 666 HostKeyAlias hydrogenium Host bruehe Hostname bruehe.schottelius.org Port 22 HostKeyAlias bruehe.schottelius.org -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using source names or interval in pre_/post_exec scripts ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The pre-/post_exec scripts can access some internal variables from `ccollect`: - INTERVAL: The interval specified on the command line - no_sources: number of sources - source_$NUM: the name of the source - name: the name of the currently being backuped source (not available for generic pre_exec script) Using rsync protocol without ssh ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you have a computer with little computing power, it may be useful to use rsync without ssh, directly using the rsync protocol (specify 'user@host::share' in `source`). You may wish to use `rsync_options` to specify a password file to use for automatic backup. Example: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- backup:~# cat /etc/ccollect/sources/sample.backup.host.org/source backup@webserver::backup-share backup:~# cat /etc/ccollect/sources/sample.backup.host.org/rsync_options --password-file=/etc/ccollect/sources/sample.backup.host.org/rsync_password backup:~# cat /etc/ccollect/sources/sample.backup.host.org/rsync_password this_is_the_rsync_password -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This hint was reported by Daniel Aubry. Not excluding top-level directories ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you exclude "/proc" or "/mnt" from your backup, you may run into trouble when you restore your backup. When you use "/proc/\*" or "/mnt/\*" instead, `ccollect` will backup empty directories. [NOTE] =========================================== When those directories contain hidden files (those beginning with a dot (*.*)), they will still be transferred! =========================================== This hint was reported by Marcus Wagner. Re-using already created rsync-backups ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you used `rsync` directly before you use `ccollect`, you can use this old backup as initial backup for `ccollect`: You simply move it into a directory below the destination directory and name it "'interval'.0". Example: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- backup:/home/backup/web1# ls bin dev etc initrd lost+found mnt root srv usr vmlinuz boot doc home lib media opt sbin tmp var vmlinuz.old backup:/home/backup/web1# mkdir daily.0 # ignore error about copying to itself backup:/home/backup/web1# mv * daily.0 2>/dev/null backup:/home/backup/web1# ls daily.0 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now you can use /home/backup/web1 as the `destination` for the backup. [NOTE] =============================================================================== It does not matter anymore how you name your directory, as `ccollect` uses the -c option from `ls` to find out which directory to clone from. =============================================================================== [NOTE] =============================================================================== Older versions (pre 0.6, iirc) had a problem, if you named the first backup something like "daily.initial". It was needed to use the "*0*" (or some number that is lower than the current year) as extension. `ccollect` used `sort` to find the latest backup. `ccollect` itself uses 'interval.YEARMONTHDAY-HOURMINUTE.PID'. This notation was *always* before "daily.initial", as numbers are earlier in the list which is produced by `sort`. So, if you had a directory named "daily.initial", `ccollect` always diffed against this backup and transfered and deleted files which where deleted in previous backups. This means you simply wasted resources, but your backup had beer complete anyway. =============================================================================== Using pre_/post_exec ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your pre_/post_exec script does not need to be a script, you can also use a link to - an existing program - an already written script The only requirement is that it is executable. Using source specific interval definitions ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When you are backing up multiple hosts via cron each night, it may be a problem that host "big_server" may only have 4 daily backups, because otherwise its backup device will be full. But for all other hosts you want to keep 20 daily backups. In this case you would create `/etc/ccollect/default/intervals/daily` containing "20" and `/etc/ccollect/sources/big_server/intervals/daily` containing "4". Source specific intervals always overwrite the default values. If you have to specify it individually for every host, because of different requirements, you can even omit creating `/etc/ccollect/default/intervals/daily`. Comparing backups ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you want to see what changed between two backups, you can use `rsync` directly: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [12:00] u0255:ddba034.netstream.ch# rsync -n -a --delete --stats --progress daily.20080324-0313.17841/ daily.20080325-0313.31148/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This results in a listing of changes. Because we pass -n to rsync no transfer is made (i.e. report only mode)" This hint was reported by Daniel Aubry. Testing for host reachabilty ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you want to test whether the host you try to backup is reachable, you can use the following script as source specific pre-exec: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #!/bin/sh # ping -c1 -q `cat "/etc/ccollect/sources/$name/source" | cut -d"@" -f2 | cut -d":" -f1` -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This prevents the deletion of old backups, if the host is not reachable. This hint was reported by Daniel Aubry. Easy check for errors ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ If you want to see whether there have been any errors while doing the backup, you can run `ccollect` together with `ccollect_analyse_logs.sh`: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- $ ccollect | ccollect_analyse_logs.sh e -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- F.A.Q. ------ What happens if one backup is broken or empty? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Let us assume that one backup failed (connection broke or the source hard disk had some failures). Therefore we've got one incomplete backup in our history. `ccollect` will transfer the missing files the next time you use it. This leads to - more transferred files - much greater disk space usage, as no hardlinks can be used If the whole `ccollect` process was interrupted, `ccollect` (since 0.6) can detect that and remove the incomplete backups, so you can clone from a complete backup instead When backing up from localhost the destination is also included. Is this a bug? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ No. `ccollect` passes your source definition directly to `rsync`. It does not try to analyze it. So it actually does not know if a source comes from local harddisk or from a remote server. And it does not want to. When you backup from the local harddisk (which is perhaps not even a good idea when thinking of security), add the `destination` to 'source/exclude'. (Daniel Aubry reported this problem) Why does ccollect say "Permission denied" with my pre-/postexec script? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The most common error is that you have not given your script the correct permissions. Try `chmod 0755 /etc/ccollect/sources/'yoursource'/*_exec``. Why does the backup job fail when part of the source is a link? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ When a part of your path you specified in the source is a (symbolic, hard links are not possible for directories) link, the backup *must* fail. First of all, let us have a look at how it looks like: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==> ccollect 0.4: Beginning backup using interval taeglich <== [testsource] Sa Apr 29 00:01:55 CEST 2006 Beginning to backup [testsource] Currently 0 backup(s) exist(s), total keeping 10 backup(s). [testsource] Beginning to backup, this may take some time... [testsource] Creating /etc/ccollect/sources/testsource/destination/taeglich.2006-04-29-0001.3874 ... [testsource] Sa Apr 29 00:01:55 CEST 2006 Transferring files... [testsource] rsync: recv_generator: mkdir "/etc/ccollect/sources/testsource/destination/taeglich.2006-04-29-0001.3874/home/user/nico/projekte/ccollect" failed: No such file or directory (2) [testsource] rsync: stat "/etc/ccollect/sources/testsource/destination/taeglich.2006-04-29-0001.3874/home/user/nico/projekte/ccollect" failed: No such file or directory (2) [...] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So what is the problem? It is very obvious when you look deeper into it: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- % cat /etc/ccollect/sources/testsource/source /home/user/nico/projekte/ccollect/ccollect-0.4 % ls -l /home/user/nico/projekte lrwxrwxrwx 1 nico nico 29 2005-12-02 23:28 /home/user/nico/projekte -> oeffentlich/computer/projekte % ls -l /etc/ccollect/sources/testsource/destination/taeglich.2006-04-29-0001.3874/home/user/nico lrwxrwxrwx 1 nico nico 29 2006-04-29 00:01 projekte -> oeffentlich/computer/projekte ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- `rsync` creates the directory structure before it creates the symbolic link. This link now links to something not reachable (dead link). It is impossible to create subdirectories under the broken link. In conclusion you cannot use paths with a linked part. However, you can backup directories containing symbolic links (in this case you could backup /home/user/nico, which contains /home/user/nico/projekte and oeffentlich/computer/projekte). How can I prevent missing the right time to enter my password? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As `ccollect` first deletes the old backups, it may take some time until `rsync` requests the password for the `ssh` session from you. The easiest way not to miss that point is running `ccollect` in `screen`, which has the ability to monitor the output for activity. So as soon as your screen beeps, after `ccollect` began to remove the last directory, you can enter your password (have a look at screen(1), especially "C-a M" and "C-a _", for more information). Examples -------- A backup host configuration from scratch ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- srwali01:~# mkdir /etc/ccollect srwali01:~# mkdir -p /etc/ccollect/defaults/intervals/ srwali01:~# echo 28 > /etc/ccollect/defaults/intervals/taeglich srwali01:~# echo 52 > /etc/ccollect/defaults/intervals/woechentlich srwali01:~# cd /etc/ccollect/ srwali01:/etc/ccollect# mkdir sources srwali01:/etc/ccollect# cd sources/ srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# ls srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# mkdir local-root srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# cd local-root/ srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/local-root# echo / > source srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/local-root# cat > exclude << EOF > /proc > /sys > /mnt > EOF srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/local-root# echo /mnt/hdbackup/local-root > destination srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/local-root# mkdir /mnt/hdbackup/local-root srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/local-root# ccollect.sh taeglich local-root /o> ccollect.sh: Beginning backup using interval taeglich /=> Beginning to backup "local-root" ... |-> 0 backup(s) already exist, keeping 28 backup(s). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After that, I added some more sources: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- srwali01:~# cd /etc/ccollect/sources srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# mkdir windos-wl6 srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# cd windos-wl6/ srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/windos-wl6# echo /mnt/win/SYS/WL6 > source srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/windos-wl6# ln -s /mnt/hdbackup/wl6 destination srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/windos-wl6# mkdir /mnt/hdbackup/wl6 srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/windos-wl6# cd .. srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# mkdir windos-daten srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/windos-daten# echo /mnt/win/Daten > source srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/windos-daten# ln -s /mnt/hdbackup/windos-daten destination srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/windos-daten# mkdir /mnt/hdbackup/windos-daten # Now add some remote source srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/windos-daten# cd .. srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# mkdir srwali03 srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# cd srwali03/ srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/srwali03# cat > exclude << EOF > /proc > /sys > /mnt > /home > EOF srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/srwali03# echo 'root@10.103.2.3:/' > source srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/srwali03# echo /mnt/hdbackup/srwali03 > destination srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources/srwali03# mkdir /mnt/hdbackup/srwali03 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Using hard-links requires less disk space ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- # du (coreutils) 5.2.1 [10:53] srsyg01:sources% du -sh ~/backupdir 4.6M /home/nico/backupdir [10:53] srsyg01:sources% du -sh ~/backupdir/* 4.1M /home/nico/backupdir/daily.2005-12-08-10:52.28456 4.1M /home/nico/backupdir/daily.2005-12-08-10:53.28484 4.1M /home/nico/backupdir/daily.2005-12-08-10:53.28507 4.1M /home/nico/backupdir/daily.2005-12-08-10:53.28531 4.1M /home/nico/backupdir/daily.2005-12-08-10:53.28554 4.1M /home/nico/backupdir/daily.2005-12-08-10:53.28577 srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# du -sh /mnt/hdbackup/wl6/ 186M /mnt/hdbackup/wl6/ srwali01:/etc/ccollect/sources# du -sh /mnt/hdbackup/wl6/* 147M /mnt/hdbackup/wl6/taeglich.2005-12-08-14:42.312 147M /mnt/hdbackup/wl6/taeglich.2005-12-08-14:45.588 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- The backup of our main fileserver: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- backup:~# df -h /home/backup/srsyg01/ Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on /dev/mapper/backup--01-srsyg01 591G 451G 111G 81% /home/backup/srsyg01 backup:~# du -sh /home/backup/srsyg01/* 432G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-01-24-01:00.15990 432G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-01-26-01:00.30152 434G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-01-27-01:00.4596 435G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-01-28-01:00.11998 437G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-01-29-01:00.19115 437G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-01-30-01:00.26405 438G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-01-31-01:00.1148 439G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-02-01-01:00.8321 439G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-02-02-01:00.15383 439G /home/backup/srsyg01/daily.2006-02-03-01:00.22567 16K /home/backup/srsyg01/lost+found backup:~# du --version | head -n1 du (coreutils) 5.2.1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Newer versions of du also detect the hardlinks, so we can even compare the sizes directly with du: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [8:16] eiche:~# du --version | head -n 1 du (GNU coreutils) 5.93 [8:17] eiche:schwarzesloch# du -slh hydrogenium/* 19G hydrogenium/durcheinander.0 18G hydrogenium/durcheinander.2006-01-17-00:27.13820 19G hydrogenium/durcheinander.2006-01-25-23:18.31328 19G hydrogenium/durcheinander.2006-01-26-00:11.3332 [8:22] eiche:schwarzesloch# du -sh hydrogenium/* 19G hydrogenium/durcheinander.0 12G hydrogenium/durcheinander.2006-01-17-00:27.13820 1.5G hydrogenium/durcheinander.2006-01-25-23:18.31328 200M hydrogenium/durcheinander.2006-01-26-00:11.3332 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the second report (without -l) the sizes include the space the inodes of the hardlinks allocate. A collection of backups on the backup server ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All the data of my important hosts is backuped to eiche into /mnt/schwarzesloch/backup: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [9:24] eiche:backup# ls * creme: woechentlich.2006-01-26-22:22.4153 woechentlich.2006-02-12-11:48.2461 woechentlich.2006-01-26-22:23.4180 woechentlich.2006-02-18-23:00.7898 woechentlich.2006-02-05-02:43.14281 woechentlich.2006-02-25-23:00.13480 woechentlich.2006-02-06-00:24.15509 woechentlich.2006-03-04-23:00.25439 hydrogenium: durcheinander.2006-01-27-11:16.6391 durcheinander.2006-02-13-01:07.2895 durcheinander.2006-01-30-19:29.9505 durcheinander.2006-02-17-08:20.6707 durcheinander.2006-01-30-22:27.9623 durcheinander.2006-02-24-16:24.12461 durcheinander.2006-02-03-09:52.12885 durcheinander.2006-03-03-19:17.18075 durcheinander.2006-02-05-23:00.15068 durcheinander.2006-03-17-22:41.5007 scice: woechentlich.2006-02-04-10:32.13766 woechentlich.2006-02-16-23:00.6185 woechentlich.2006-02-05-23:02.15093 woechentlich.2006-02-23-23:00.11783 woechentlich.2006-02-06-08:22.15994 woechentlich.2006-03-02-23:00.17346 woechentlich.2006-02-06-19:40.16321 woechentlich.2006-03-09-23:00.29317 woechentlich.2006-02-12-11:51.2514 woechentlich.2006-03-16-23:00.4218 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- And this incremental backup and the archive are copied to an external usb harddisk (attention: you *should* really use -H to backup the backup): ------------------------------------------------------------------------- [9:23] eiche:backup# df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on rootfs 14G 8.2G 4.9G 63% / /dev/root 14G 8.2G 4.9G 63% / /dev/root 14G 8.2G 4.9G 63% /dev/.static/dev tmpfs 10M 444K 9.6M 5% /dev /dev/hdh 29G 3.7M 29G 1% /mnt/datenklo tmpfs 110M 4.0K 110M 1% /dev/shm /dev/mapper/nirvana 112G 90G 23G 81% /mnt/datennirvana /dev/mapper/schwarzes-loch 230G 144G 86G 63% /mnt/schwarzesloch /dev/mapper/archiv 38G 20G 19G 52% /mnt/archiv /dev/mapper/usb-backup 280G 36M 280G 1% /mnt/usb/backup [9:24] eiche:backup# cat ~/bin/sync-to-usb DDIR=/mnt/usb/backup rsync -av -H --delete /mnt/schwarzesloch/ "$DDIR/schwarzesloch/" rsync -av -H --delete /mnt/archiv/ "$DDIR/archiv/" ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Processes running when doing ccollect -p ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Truncated output from `ps axuwwwf`: ------------------------------------------------------------------------- S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily -p ddba034 ddba045 ddba046 ddba047 ddba049 ddna010 ddna011 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba034 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba034 R+ 11:40 23:40 | | | | | \_ rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --link-dest=/home/server/backup/ddba034 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | | \_ ssh -l root ddba034.netstream.ch rsync --server --sender -vlogDtprR --numeric-ids . / S+ 11:41 0:11 | | | | | \_ rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --link-dest=/home/server/backup/ddb S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba034 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ sed s:^:\[ddba034\] : S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba045 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba045 R+ 11:40 0:02 | | | | | \_ rm -rf /etc/ccollect/sources/ddba045/destination/daily.2006-10-19-1807.6934 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba045 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ sed s:^:\[ddba045\] : S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba046 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba046 R+ 11:40 0:02 | | | | | \_ rm -rf /etc/ccollect/sources/ddba046/destination/daily.2006-10-19-1810.7072 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba046 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ sed s:^:\[ddba046\] : S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba047 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba047 R+ 11:40 0:03 | | | | | \_ rm -rf /etc/ccollect/sources/ddba047/destination/daily.2006-10-19-1816.7268 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba047 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ sed s:^:\[ddba047\] : S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba049 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba049 D+ 11:40 0:03 | | | | | \_ rm -rf /etc/ccollect/sources/ddba049/destination/daily.2006-10-19-1821.7504 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddba049 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ sed s:^:\[ddba049\] : S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddna010 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddna010 R+ 11:40 0:03 | | | | | \_ rm -rf /etc/ccollect/sources/ddna010/destination/daily.2006-10-19-1805.6849 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddna010 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | | \_ sed s:^:\[ddna010\] : S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddna011 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddna011 R+ 12:08 0:00 | | | | \_ rm -rf /etc/ccollect/sources/ddna011/destination/daily.2006-10-20-1502.7824 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ /bin/sh /usr/local/bin/ccollect.sh daily ddna011 S+ 11:40 0:00 | | | \_ sed s:^:\[ddna011\] : ------------------------------------------------------------------------- As you can see, six processes are deleting old backups, while one backup (ddba034) is already copying data.