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.TH rsync-backup 8 "7 October 2012" rsync-backup
.SH NAME
rsync-backup \- back up files using rsync
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B rsync-backup
.RB [ \-nv ]
.RB [ \-c
.IR config-file ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.B rsync-backup
script is a backup program of the currently popular
.RB ` rsync (1)
.BR \-\-link-dest '
variety.  It uses
.BR rsync 's
ability to create hardlinks from (apparently) similar existing local
trees to make incremental dumps efficient, even from remote sources.
Restoring files is easy because the backups created are just directories
full of files, exactly as they were on the source \(en and this is
verified using the
.BR fshash (1)
program.
.PP
The script does more than just running
.BR rsync .
It is also responsible for creating and removing snapshots of volumes to
be backed up, and expiring old dumps according to a user-specified
retention policy.
.SS Installation
The idea is that the
.B rsync-backup
script should be installed and run on a central backup server with local
access to the backup volumes.
.PP
The script should be run with full (root) privileges, so that it can
correctly record file ownership information.  The server should also be
able to connect via
.BR ssh (1)
to the client machines, and run processes there as root.  (This is not a
security disaster.  Remember that the backup server is, in the end,
responsible for the integrity of the backup data.  A dishonest backup
server can easily compromise a client which is being restored from
corrupt backup data.)
.SS Command-line options
Most of the behaviour of
.B rsync-backup
is controlled by a configuration file, described starting with the
section named
.B Configuration commands
below.
But a few features are controlled by command-line options.
.TP
.B \-h
Show a brief help message for the program, and exit successfully.
.TP
.B \-V
Show
.BR rsync-backup 's
version number and some choice pieces of build-time configuration, and
exit successfully.
.TP
.BI "\-c " conf
Read
.I conf
instead of the default configuration file (shown as
.B conf
in the
.B \-V
output).
.TP
.B \-n
Don't actually take a backup, or write proper logs: instead, write a
description of what would be done to standard error.
.TP
.B \-v
Produce verbose progress information on standard output while the backup
is running.  This keeps one amused while running a backup
interactively.  In any event,
.B rsync-backup
will report failures to standard error, and otherwise run silently, so
it doesn't annoy unnecessarily if run by
.BR cron (8).
.SS Backup process
Backing up a filesystem works as follows.
.hP \*o
Make a snapshot of the filesystem on the client, and ensure that the
snapshot is mounted.  There are some `trivial' snapshot types which use
the existing mounted filesystem, and either prevent processes writing to
it during the backup, or just hope for the best.  Other snapshot types
require the snapshot to be mounted somewhere distinct from the main
filesystem, so that the latter can continue being used.
.hP \*o
Run
.B rsync
to copy the snapshot to the backup volume \(en specifically, to
.IB host / fs / new \fR.
If this directory already exists, then it's presumed to be debris from a
previous attempt to dump this filesystem:
.B rsync
will update it appropriately, by adding, deleting or modifying the
files.  This means that retrying a failed dump \(en after fixing whatever
caused it to go wrong, obviously! \(en is usually fairly quick.
.hP \*o
Run
.B fshash
on the client to generate a `digest' describing the contents of the
filesystem, and send this to the server as
.IB host / fs / new .fshash \fR.
.hP \*o
Release the snapshot: we don't need it any more.
.hP \*o
Run
.B fshash
over the new backup; specifically, to
.BI tmp/fshash. host . fs . date \fR.
This gives us a digest for what the backup volume actually stored.
.hP \*o
Compare the two
.B fshash
digests.  If they differ then dump the differences to the log file and
report a backup failure.  (Backups aren't any good if they don't
actually back up the right thing.  And you stand a better chance of
fixing them if you know that they're going wrong.)
.hP \*o
Commit the backup, by renaming the dump directory to
.IB host / fs / date
and the
.B fshash
digest file to
.IB host / fs / date .fshash \fR.
.PP
The backup is now complete.
.SS Configuration commands
The configuration file is simply a Bash shell fragment: configuration
commands are shell functions.
.TP
.BI "backup " "fs\fR[:\fIfsarg\fR] ..."
Back up the named filesystems.  The corresponding
.IR fsarg s
may be required by the snapshot type.
.TP
.BI "host " host
Future
.B backup
commands will back up filesystems on the named
.IR host .
To back up filesystems on the backup server itself, use its hostname:
.B rsync-backup
will avoid inefficient and pointless messing about
.BR ssh (1)
in this case.
This command clears the
.B like
list, and resets the retention policy to its default (i.e., the to
policy defined prior to the first
.B host
command).
.TP
.BI "like " "host\fR ..."
Declare that subsequent filesystems are `similar' to like-named
filesystems on the named
.IR host s,
and that
.B rsync
should use those trees as potential sources of hardlinkable files.  Be
careful when using this option without
.BR rsync 's
.B \-\-checksum
option: an erroneous hardlink will cause the backup to fail.  (The
backup won't be left silently incorrect.)
.TP
.BI "retain " frequency " " duration
Define part a backup retention policy: backup trees of the
.I frequency
should be kept for the
.IR duration .
The
.I frequency
can be
.BR daily ,
.BR weekly ,
.BR monthly ,
or
.B annually
(or
.BR yearly ,
which means the same); the
.I duration
may be any of
.BR week ,
.BR month ,
.BR year ,
or
.BR forever .
Expiry considers each existing dump against the policy lines in order:
the last applicable line determines the dump's fate \(en so you should
probably write the lines in decreasing order of duration.
.PP
Groups of
.B retain
commands between
.B host
and/or
.B backup
commands collectively define a retention policy.  Once a policy is
defined, subsequent
.B backup
operations use the policy.  The first
.B retain
command after a
.B host
or
.B backup
command clears the policy and starts defining a new one.  The policy
defined before the first
.B host
is the
.I default
policy: at the start of each
.B host
stanza, the policy is reset to the default.
.TP
.BI "retry " count
The
.B live
snapshot type (see below) doesn't prevent a filesystem from being
modified while it's being backed up.  If this happens, the
.B fshash
pass will detect the difference and fail.  If the filesystem in question
is relatively quiescent, then maybe retrying the backup will result in a
successful consistent copy.  Following this command, a backup which
results in an
.B fshash
mismatch will be retried up to
.I count
times before being declared a failure.
.TP
.BI "snap " type " " \fR[\fIargs\fR...]
Use the snapshot
.I type
for subsequent backups.  Some snapshot types require additional
arguments, which may be supplied here.  This command clears the
.B retry
counter.
.SS Configuration variables
The following shell variables may be overridden by the configuration
file.
.TP
.B MAXLOG
The number of log files to be kept for each filesystem.  Old logfiles
are deleted to keep the total number below this bound.  The default
value is 14.
.TP
.B RSYNCOPTS
Command-line options to pass to
.BR rsync (1)
in addition to the basic set:
.B \-\-archive
.B \-\-hard-links
.B \-\-numeric-ids
.B \-\-del
.B \-\-sparse
.B \-\-compress
.B \-\-one-file-system
.B \-\-partial
.BR "\-\-filter=""dir-merge .rsync-backup""" .
The default is
.BR \-\-verbose .
.TP
.B SNAPDIR
LVM (and
.BR rfreezefs )
snapshots are mounted on subdirectories below the
.B SNAPDIR
.IR "on backup clients" .
The default is
.IB mntbkpdir /snap
where
.I mntbkpdir
is the backup mount directory configured at build time.
.TP
.B SNAPSIZE
The volume size option to pass to
.BR lvcreate (8)
when creating a snapshot.  The default is
.B \-l10%ORIGIN
which seems to work fairly well.
.TP
.B STOREDIR
Where the actual backup trees should be stored.  See the section on
.B Archive structure
below.
The default is
.IB mntbkpdir /store
where
.I mntbkpdir
is the backup mount directory configured at build time.
.TP
.B HASH
The hash function to use for verifying archive integrity.  This is
passed to the
.B \-H
option of
.BR fshash ,
so it must name one of the hash functions supported by your Python's
.B hashlib
module.  The default is
.BR sha256 .
.SS Hook functions
The configuration file may define shell functions to perform custom
actions at various points in the backup process.
.TP
.BI "backup_precommit_hook " host " " fs " " date
Called after a backup has been verified complete and about to be
committed.  The backup tree is in
.B new
in the current directory, and the
.B fshash
manifest is in
.BR new.fshash .
A typical action would be to create a digital signature on the
manifest.
.TP
.BI "backup_commit_hook " host " " fs " " date
Called during the commit procedure.  The backup tree and manifest have
been renamed into their proper places.  Typically one would use this
hook to rename files created by the
.B backup_precommit_hook
function.
.TP
.BR "whine " [ \-n ] " " \fItext\fR...
Called to report `interesting' events when the
.B \-v
option is in force.  The default action is to echo the
.I text
to (what was initially) standard output, followed by a newline unless
.B \-n
is given.
.SS Snapshot types
The following snapshot types are available.
.TP
.B live
A trivial snapshot type: attempts to back up a live filesystem.  How
well this works depends on how active the filesystem is.  If files
change while the dump is in progress then the
.B fshash
verification will likely fail.  Backups using this snapshot type must
specify the filesystem mount point as the
.IR fsarg .
.TP
.B ro
A slightly less trivial snapshot type: make the filesystem read-only
while the dump is in progress.  Backups using this snapshot type must
specify the filesystem mount point as the
.IR fsarg .
.TP
.BI "lvm " vg
Create snapshots using LVM.  The snapshot argument is interpreted as the
relevant volume group.  The filesystem name is interpreted as the origin
volume name; the snapshot will be called
.IB fs .bkp
and mounted on
.IB SNAPDIR / fs \fR;
space will be allocated to it according to the
.I SNAPSIZE
variable.
.TP
.BI "rfreezefs " client " " vg
This gets complicated.  Suppose that a server has an LVM volume group,
and exports (somehow) a logical volume to a client.  Examples are a host
providing a virtual disk to a guest, or a server providing
network-attached storage to a client.  The server can create a snapshot
of the volume using LVM, but must synchronize with the client to ensure
that the filesystem image captured in the snapshot is clean.  The
.BR rfreezefs (8)
program should be installed on the client to perform this rather
delicate synchronization.  Declare the server using the
.B host
command as usual; pass the client's name as the
.I client
and the
server's volume group name as the
.I vg
snapshot arguments.  Finally, backups using this snapshot type must
specify the filesystem mount point (or, actually, any file in the
filesystem) on the client, as the
.IR fsarg .
.PP
Additional snapshot types can be defined in the configuration file.  A
snapshot type requires two shell functions.
.TP
.BI snap_ type " " snapargs " " fs " " fsarg
Create the snapshot, and write the mountpoint (on the client host) to
standard output, in a form suitable as an argument to
.BR rsync .
.TP
.BI unsnap_ type " " snapargs " " fs " " fsarg
Remove the snapshot.
.PP
There are a number of utility functions which can be used by snapshot
type handlers: please see the script for details.  Please send the
author interesting snapshot handlers for inclusion in the main
distribution.
.SS Archive structure
Backup trees are stored in a fairly straightforward directory tree.
.PP
At the top level is one directory for each client host.  There are also
some special entries:
.TP
.B \&.rsync-backup-store
This file must be present in order to indicate that a backup volume is
present (and not just an empty mount point).
.TP
.B fshash.cache
The cache database used for improving performance of local file
hashing.  There may be other
.B fshash.cache-*
files used by SQLite for its own purposes.
.TP
.B lost+found
Part of the filesystem used on the backup volume.  You don't want to
mess with this.
.TP
.B tmp
Used to store temporary files during the backup process.  (Some of them
want to be on the same filesystem as the rest of the backup.)  When
things go wrong, files are left behind in the hope that they might help
someone debug the mess.  It's always safe to delete the files in here
when no backup is running.
.PP
So don't use those names for your hosts.
.PP
The next layer down contains a directory for each filesystem on the given host.
.PP
The bottom layer contains a directory for each dump of that filesystem,
named with the date at which the dump was started (in ISO8601
.IB yyyy \(en mm \(en dd
format), together with associated files named
.IB date .* \fR.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR fshash (1),
.BR lvm (8),
.BR rfreezefs (8),
.BR rsync (1),
.BR ssh (1).
.SH AUTHOR
Mark Wooding, <mdw@distorted.org.uk>