I would like to setup Backuppc to Backup files of all remote hosts. A need guide with screenshots will be appreciated.
All the hosts are running ubuntu, i need to set incremental backup for the files which is kept in their desktop.
Need to monitor backup status from server using web GUI.
Install via Ubuntu BackupPC package
sudo apt-get install backuppc
This will install BackupPC and configure the following automatically
Linux User : backuppc (home directory /var/lib/backuppc)
BackupPC daemon will run as this user
HTTP User : backuppc (For web gui http login)
Password is located in /etc/backuppc/htpasswd (See Step 2)
Config file location : /etc/backupc
Data file location : /var/lib/backuppc
Apache will be configured
Web Interface URL : http://<hostname/IP>/backuppc
This guide is base on the above installation method and information.
If manual installation is used, in config.pl, look for following line
set $Conf{CgiAdminUsers} = '';
and change to
set $Conf{CgiAdminUsers} = 'backuppc';
HTTP Login/User backuppc
To have full administrative right in BackupPC web interface, one have to login as backuppc and password. (This is not the same as the linux user.)
The web interface user(http login) backuppc is created with a random password during installation. If you forget to write down the password, use htpasswd to change it as follow
sudo htpasswd /etc/backuppc/htpasswd backuppc
Additional User
To add additional user
sudo htpasswd /etc/backuppc/htpasswd <username>
In Step 5 Add Client, put < username > into moreUsers field. When < username > login web interface, will only see client they are assigned to.
Client SSHD Configuration
To keep it simple, client machines sshd should allow root login. For each client /etc/ssh/sshd_config, make sure following options are there and un-commented
PermitRootLogin yes
PubkeyAuthentication yes
AuthorizedKeysFile %h/.ssh/authorized_keys
This should be done on all clients to speed up the next step, as scp will be used.
Server SSH KEY Creation and Deployment
On server, login as user backuppc
backuppc@server$ sudo su - backuppc
Generate SSH Key Pair with Empty Pass Phase
backuppc@server$ ssh-keygen
When asked for phasephase, leave it empty(press enter)
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
That will generate 2 files in /var/lib/backuppc/.ssh: id_rsa and id_rsa.pub. You only need to generate one pair of key.
Deploy Key To Client Machine
Copy id_rsa.pub to client machine
backuppc@server$ scp /var/lib/backuppc/.ssh/id_rsa.pub sudo-user@<client machine>:/home/sudo-user/backuppc.id_ras.pub
backuppc@server$ ssh sudo-user@<client machine>
sudo-user@client$ chmod 600 backuppc.id_ras.pub
sudo-user@client$ sudo mkdir /root/.ssh
sudo-user@client$ sudo chmod 700 /root/.ssh
sudo-user@client$ sudo mv backuppc.id_ras.pub /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
sudo-user@client$ sudo chown root:root /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
Test ssh connection(On server, as Linux user backuppc)
backuppc@server$ ssh root@<client machine>
It should not ask for password.
It is important to do the test because this will also add client machine fingerprint to backuppc(linux user) .ssh/known_hosts list. Otherwise when BackupPC(the software) connect(via ssh) to client machine, it will be prompt for fingerprint confirmation, which it cannot handle, and the backup process will fail.
Repeat step 3 for all client machines.
At this point, server user backuppc should be able to ssh into all client machines as root, without being prompt for password nor fingerprint confirmation nor passphase.
In Xfer tab, change following, then click Save on top
XferMethod: rsync
RsyncShareName: /home
(Assume only backing up user home directories)
This will automatically apply to all clients.
Server section, click Edit Hostshost, and always use backuppc for user, click Add for more rows. Remember to click Save on top when finish.Delete localhost from the list
The situation become tricky if dhcp is used for desktop machines. There are a few ways to work around this
In any case, server need to be able to reach(ssh) each client machine consistently either with an IP address or a hostname.
Nothing to be done, the default schedule will perform
Full Backup every 7 days (FullPeriod: 6.97 day)
Incremental Backup everyday (IncrPeriod: 0.97 day)
Adding an Audit Interface to BackupPC has instruction to add an audit only interface to BackupPC.
However the index.cgi in Ubuntu BackupPC package is compiled. /usr/share/backuppc/lib/realindex.cgi should be used to generate audit.cgi mentioned in the blog.
You could mount a folder of your backupPC on the remote PCs and use the default backup tool of Ubuntu to store the backup on this mounted share.
Or if you're familiar with bash scripting you could write a script using rsync to copy the files on the backupPC and let the script run on a regular basis via cron jobs.
If you google for "mount network share" I think you can find a screenshoted guide.
Something I found by googling is this pictured guide: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem/SimpleBackupSuite that uses SimpleBackupSuite. Never tried that one.
Hope it helps :-)
