Backup Central

I run rsnaphot on my Western Digital MyBook NAS and it does its job
brilliantly most of the time. However I would really like to have a
confirmation message that it has run successfully and I can't see any
easy way to do this.

The cron on the WD NAS is (now) configured so that anything appearing on
stdout from jobs it runs is sent to me on my desktop machine. Thus any
errors and/or warnings do get to me. However if (for example) cron
stops running for any reason or something else goes awry to stop
rsnapshot being run at all then I won't know.

The -v option doesn't really help, I don't want all that much output.

Any ideas anyone?

--
Chris Green

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

I am trying to get a facility integrated into rsnapshot called "backup_exec" that could do exactly what you're looking for.Alternatively, you could run something like this in your crontab: /usr/bin/rsnapshot daily && echo "backups are done!"


cheers,
Scott

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 09:25, Chris Green <cl < at > isbd.net ([email]cl < at > isbd.net[/email])> wrote:
I run rsnaphot on my Western Digital MyBook NAS and it does its job
brilliantly most of the time.  However I would really like to have a
confirmation message that it has run successfully and I can't see any
easy way to do this.

The cron on the WD NAS is (now) configured so that anything appearing on
stdout from jobs it runs is sent to me on my desktop machine.  Thus any
errors and/or warnings do get to me.  However if (for example) cron
stops running for any reason or something else goes awry to stop
rsnapshot being run at all then I won't know.

The -v option doesn't really help, I don't want all that much output.

Any ideas anyone?

--
Chris Green

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net ([email]rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net[/email])
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

Hallo, Chris,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:

I run rsnaphot on my Western Digital MyBook NAS and it does its job
brilliantly most of the time. However I would really like to have a
confirmation message that it has run successfully and I can't see any
easy way to do this.

Take a deep look into the log file; default is "/var/log/rsnapshot.log".

If something goes wrong, "rsnapshot" tells it there and as an error
message.

Viele Gruesse!
Helmut

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

Hallo, Scott,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:


I run rsnaphot on my Western Digital MyBook NAS and it does its job
brilliantly most of the time. However I would really like to have a
confirmation message that it has run successfully and I can't see
any easy way to do this.

I am trying to get a facility integrated into rsnapshot called
"backup_exec" that could do exactly what you're looking for.
Alternatively, you could run something like this in your crontab:
/usr/bin/rsnapshot daily && echo "backups are done!"

My cron system only sends the error messages - that's all I need. All
other messages I find in "/var/log/rsnapshot.log".

Viele Gruesse!
Helmut

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 09:50, Helmut Hullen <Hullen < at > t-online.de ([email]Hullen < at > t-online.de[/email])> wrote:
Hallo, Scott,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:


I run rsnaphot on my Western Digital MyBook NAS and it does its job
brilliantly most of the time.  However I would really like to have a
confirmation message that it has run successfully and I can't see
any easy way to do this.


I am trying to get a facility integrated into rsnapshot called
"backup_exec" that could do exactly what you're looking for.
Alternatively, you could run something like this in your crontab:
/usr/bin/rsnapshot daily && echo "backups are done!"


My cron system only sends the error messages - that's all I need. All
other messages I find in "/var/log/rsnapshot.log".



It's all I need too-- for messages.  The backup_exec feature is way more useful for other things, like prepping remote data before it's rsync'ed, but it would work fine running echo statements as well.  I need backup_exec for doing the following easily: create and mount LVM snapshot on remote host, rsync that data, umount and destroy LVM snapshot on remote host.  backup_script was too cumbersome for that task.  It required unique directories to exist within snapshot_root and so snapshot_root got cluttered.


-Scott
 

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 09:38:57AM -0400, Scott Zahn wrote:
I am trying to get a facility integrated into rsnapshot called
"backup_exec" that could do exactly what you're looking for.
Alternatively, you could run something like this in your crontab:
/usr/bin/rsnapshot daily && echo "backups are done!"

OK, thanks, that's a reasonably neat way of doing it.

--
Chris Green

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 02:50:00PM +0100, Helmut Hullen wrote:
Hallo, Scott,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:


I run rsnaphot on my Western Digital MyBook NAS and it does its job
brilliantly most of the time. However I would really like to have a
confirmation message that it has run successfully and I can't see
any easy way to do this.

I am trying to get a facility integrated into rsnapshot called
"backup_exec" that could do exactly what you're looking for.
Alternatively, you could run something like this in your crontab:
/usr/bin/rsnapshot daily && echo "backups are done!"

My cron system only sends the error messages - that's all I need. All
other messages I find in "/var/log/rsnapshot.log".

Yes, that's fine for rsnapshot running on an easily accessible system
but the WD NAS is not something I log into regularly.

--
Chris Green

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 02:41:00PM +0100, Helmut Hullen wrote:
Hallo, Chris,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:

I run rsnaphot on my Western Digital MyBook NAS and it does its job
brilliantly most of the time. However I would really like to have a
confirmation message that it has run successfully and I can't see any
easy way to do this.

Take a deep look into the log file; default is "/var/log/rsnapshot.log".

If something goes wrong, "rsnapshot" tells it there and as an error
message.

Yes, all very well if it's my local log file but it isn't. Not to
mention that on the very minimal WD MyBook NAS there's not much logging
at all.

If rsnapshot was running on my desktop (well it is actually but that's
another story) I could look at the log file and/or get logwatch to
report things for me but that isn't really an option on the backup
system out in the garage.

--
Chris Green

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

Hallo, Chris,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:

"/var/log/rsnapshot.log".

If something goes wrong, "rsnapshot" tells it there and as an error
message.

Yes, all very well if it's my local log file but it isn't. Not to
mention that on the very minimal WD MyBook NAS there's not much
logging at all.

It's always a very good idea to run "rsnapshot" on that machine which
has to be backed up.

I'd mount the NAS directory (the target for the backups) somewhere into
the machine which you want to back up.

Viele Gruesse!
Helmut

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

My experience tells me that rsync is often very slow over NFS on 'home' hardware, while rsync over ssh is much more reliable and I never had any issues with it.
Besides that I personally prefer a central point of configuration of all my backups.
--
С уважением Владимир В. Бережной


On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 19:57, Helmut Hullen <Hullen < at > t-online.de ([email]Hullen < at > t-online.de[/email])> wrote:
Hallo, Chris,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:


"/var/log/rsnapshot.log".

If something goes wrong, "rsnapshot" tells it there and as an error
message.

Yes, all very well if it's my local log file but it isn't.  Not to
mention that on the very minimal WD MyBook NAS there's not much
logging at all.


It's always a very good idea to run "rsnapshot" on that machine which
has to be backed up.

I'd mount the NAS directory (the target for the backups) somewhere into
the machine which you want to back up.

Viele Gruesse!
Helmut


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net ([email]rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net[/email])
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 04:57:00PM +0100, Helmut Hullen (Hullen < at > t-online.de) wrote:

It's always a very good idea to run "rsnapshot" on that machine
which has to be backed up.

Not always. In particular it's not a good idea if you don't
trust that machine, i.e., you want to be able to recover
when it's corrupted, e.g., by students who've found
yet another local exploit, or if it's a web server
which is vulnerable to sql injections or whatever.
Then you don't want the client machines to have direct
write access to the backup server.

So, I prefer to run rsnapshot from a dedicated backup server
which is better-protected than the machines it backs up.

But it depends on the situation, of course.

--
Tapani Tarvainen

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 01:25:32PM +0000, Chris Green wrote:

I run rsnaphot on my Western Digital MyBook NAS and it does its job
brilliantly most of the time. However I would really like to have a
confirmation message that it has run successfully and I can't see any
easy way to do this.

The cron on the WD NAS is (now) configured so that anything appearing on
stdout from jobs it runs is sent to me on my desktop machine. Thus any
errors and/or warnings do get to me. However if (for example) cron
stops running for any reason or something else goes awry to stop
rsnapshot being run at all then I won't know.

0 0 * * * rsnapshot daily; echo rsnapshot finished

--
David Cantrell | A machine for turning tea into grumpiness

There is no one true indentation style,
But if there were K&R would be Its Prophets.
Peace be upon Their Holy Beards.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

On 2012-03-21, Helmut Hullen <Hullen < at > t-online.de> wrote:

It's always a very good idea to run "rsnapshot" on that machine which
has to be backed up.

I'd mount the NAS directory (the target for the backups) somewhere into
the machine which you want to back up.

I don't necessarily agree. Sometimes it makes more sense to run
rsnapshot from the machine to be receiving the backup. Centralization
of configuration has already been mentioned, as has machine hardening.
If you use NFS, you can mount the share to be backed up read-only, thus
giving another layer of protection in case something gets screwed up
(either accidentally or intentionally).

--keith

--
kkeller < at > wombat.san-francisco.ca.us



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

Hallo, ????????,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:

Yes, all very well if it's my local log file but it isn't. Not to
mention that on the very minimal WD MyBook NAS there's not much
logging at all.

It's always a very good idea to run "rsnapshot" on that machine
which has to be backed up.

I'd mount the NAS directory (the target for the backups) somewhere
into the machine which you want to back up.

[...]

My experience tells me that rsync is often very slow over NFS on
'home' hardware, while rsync over ssh is much more reliable and I
never had any issues with it.

"That depends!"

On my installations which use NFS shares on other machines as target I
use scripts for "cp" and "rm" which run on the target machine (I changed
the defaults in "rsnapshot.conf"). That helps not only for NFS shares
but for ssh too.

Just an example for "cp":

#! /bin/bash
# fuer rsnapshot mit NFS-Freigaben
# David Cantrell, Mailingliste "rsnapshot" 12. Mai 2011

# link_dest muss auf 0 (aus) gesetzt sein

Ziel=/srv/Archiv/backup
# on 192.168.0.3, usually mounted on the source machine

echo ssh root < at > 192.168.0.3 cp -al $Ziel/hourly.0 $Ziel/hourly.1
ssh root < at > 192.168.0.3 cp -al $Ziel/hourly.0 $Ziel/hourly.1
#


Viele Gruesse!
Helmut

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss

On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 04:57:00PM +0100, Helmut Hullen wrote:
Hallo, Chris,

Du meintest am 21.03.12:

"/var/log/rsnapshot.log".

If something goes wrong, "rsnapshot" tells it there and as an error
message.

Yes, all very well if it's my local log file but it isn't. Not to
mention that on the very minimal WD MyBook NAS there's not much
logging at all.

It's always a very good idea to run "rsnapshot" on that machine which
has to be backed up.

I'd mount the NAS directory (the target for the backups) somewhere into
the machine which you want to back up.

Not secure!

If someone breaks into my desktop machine (the one being backed up)
they would also be able to destroy the backups. So what I do is as
follows:-

Use rsync to copy files from my desktop machine to the NAS.

Run rsnapshot on the NAS from the rsync files from my desktop to a
separate partition (actually a separate hard disk) to make the
incremental backups.

This way an intruder has to first discover that there is a backup
system, then they'd have to break into that too (not so easy, the rsync
uses an 'rsync only' public key). The incremental backups can't be seen
from my desktop system.

In addition the NAS is located quite a long way from my desktop system
so if my house burns down the backups will still be safe.

--
Chris Green

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This SF email is sponsosred by:
Try Windows Azure free for 90 days Click Here
http://p.sf.net/sfu/sfd2d-msazure
_______________________________________________
rsnapshot-discuss mailing list
rsnapshot-discuss < at > lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/rsnapshot-discuss