safekeep.backup(5) - Linux man page

Name

safekeep.backup - Configuration file for a 'safekeep(1)' client

Synopsis

These files are usually placed in /etc/safekeep/backup.d/ to be picked up automatically by safekeep(1). They must have a .backup extension.

Description

Each configuration file controls the backup of a host. They are typically named after the hostname of the machine they control the backup for, and have a .backup extension (e.g. mailbox.backup). These files are written in XML. Virtually all elements and attributes are optional; if not present, safekeep(1) will provide reasonable, useful defaults.

The full set of supported elements and attributes looks as follows:

<backup id="my_workstation">

 <!-- the client backup host, the user under which the servers will connect,
       the SSH keys used for control and data transfer -->
  <host
    name="myhost" user="root"
    key-ctrl="/home/jdoe/.ssh/backup_id_dsa"
    key-data="/home/jdoe/.ssh/backup2_id_dsa"
  />

 <!-- location where the backups will be stored on the server
       and for how long (D=days, W=weeks, M=months, or Y=years) -->
  <repo path="./data" retention="10D"/>

 <!-- settings for database dump and for volume snapshot -->
  <setup>
    <!-- database type ("postgres" or "mysql"), and database name,
         DB user with backup rights, location of the dump file on the client
         host, and flag to remove or not the dump file after the backup is done.
         Databases can be dumped individualy using a dump clause for each database. -->
    <dump
      type="postgres"
      db="dbname"
      dbuser="foobar"
      file="/var/backup/dumps/mydata"
      cleanup="true"
    />

   <!-- what volume is to be snapshot (device location) and the size
         of the snapshot (free space must exist in the volume group) -->
    <snapshot
      device="/path/to/volume"
      size="500M"
    />

 </setup>

 <!-- data to be backup -->
  <data>
    <!-- each type of tag can be present more than one time -->
    <!-- if a database dump was created, it must be added in this section -->
    <include path="/home"/>
    <exclude path="/home/guest"/>

   <include glob="**/important/"/>
    <exclude glob="/home/*/tmp"/>

   <include regexp=".*\.ogg"/>
    <exclude regexp=".*\.mp3"/>
  </data>
</backup>

Parameters

XML elements and attributes are referred to via XPath expressions: elements are separated by /, attributes are introduced by @:

/backup: The root element of the XML file. Mandatory.
/backup/@id: This is the ID by which safekeep(1) will address this host. If specified it overrides the default value derived from the filename. Optional, defaults to the filename without the .backup extension. Use of the default value is highly recommended.
/backup/host/@name: The name or IP address of the client. If you need to backup the box that the server is running from, you can set this to "localhost". This is different from leaving it blank, as it will establish a SSH session and use the user specified by /backup/host/@user. Optional, defaults to local access.
/backup/host/@user: The user name to use when connecting to the client. This user must have read permissions for the files that will be backed up, so it most likely needs to be root. Optional, defaults to root.
/backup/host/@key-ctrl: This is the private key used to establish the SSH connection to the client for the control channel. Use of the default value is recommended. Optional, defaults to ~/.ssh/safekeep-server-ctrl-key.
/backup/host/@key-data: This is the private key used to establish the SSH connection to the client for the data channel. Use of the default value is recommended. Optional, defaults to ~/.ssh/safekeep-server-data-key.
/backup/repo/@path: The path under which the backups will be stored. Relative paths are based on the base.dir setting from the safekeep.conf(5). Since the default value for base.dir is the user's home directory, in a typical installation the data will be stored under /var/lib/safekeep/<id>/. If the directory does not exist, safekeep(1) will attempt to create it automatically. The backup will fail altogether if the directory can not be created. Optional, defaults to the client ID, see /backup/@id. Use of the default value is highly recommended. NOTE: if you must set this value explicitely, you must make sure that the path is not shared between different boxes; a shared repository path will result in data loss.
/backup/repo/@retention: Specifies the duration for which the backup data will be retained. The incremental backup information in the destination directory that has been around longer than the retention time will be removed. The value specified by this attribute is an time interval: an integer followed by the character s, m, h, D, W, M, or Y, indicating seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or years respectively, or a number of these concatenated. For example, 32m means 32 minutes, and 3W2D10h7s means 3 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours, and 7 seconds. In this context, a month means 30 days, a year is 365 days, and a day is always 86400 seconds. Note that backups of deleted files are covered by this operation. Thus if you deleted a file two weeks ago, backed up immediately afterward, and then ran safekeep(1) with a retention of 10D today, no trace of that file would remain. Finally, file selection options don't affect removal of incremental data. Optional, defaults to empty (unlimited retention).
/backup/setup/dump/@type: One of "postgres" or "mysql". Mandatory for a <dump> element.
/backup/setup/dump/@db: Name of the database to dump. If not specified, it defaults to all databases maintained in the RDBMS specified by type. Optional, defaults to all databases.
/backup/setup/dump/@dbuser: Name of the database user to use while doing the dump. Optional, defaults to whatever the database determines based on the system user.
/backup/setup/dump/@user: The system user under which the dump should take place. Please note that using this feature requires that safekeep(1) runs as root on the client. Optional, defaults to the user under which safekeep(1) runs on the client side.
/backup/setup/dump/@file: The full path to the dump file on the client host. Mandatory for a <dump> element.
/backup/setup/dump/@cleanup: One of "true" or "false". If "true", the dump file will be deleted from the client system once the backup is over. It is usually futile to delete it, since it will be created for each backup, and hence you will need to have the space available. Optional, defaults to "false".
/backup/setup/snapshot/@device: The path (device location) to the LVM volume to snapshot before the backup commences. It is recommended Please note that using this feature requires that safekeep(1) runs as root on the client. Mandatory for a <snapshot> element.
/backup/setup/snapshot/@size: The size of the snapshot. Unallocated space must exist on the volume group. It is recommended that it is about 15-20% of the original device's size. Mandatory for a <snapshot> element.
/backup/data/exclude/@path: Exclude the file or files matched by the path. If a directory is matched, then files under that directory will also be matched. See the FILE SELECTION section for more information.
/backup/data/include/@path: Include the file or files matched by the path. If a directory is matched, then files under that directory will also be matched. See the FILE SELECTION section for more information.
/backup/data/exclude/@glob: Exclude the file or files matched by the shell pattern. If a directory is matched, then files under that directory will also be matched. See the FILE SELECTION section for more information.
/backup/data/include/@glob: Include the file or files matched by the shell pattern. If a directory is matched, then files under that directory will also be matched. See the FILE SELECTION section for more information.
/backup/data/exclude/@regexp: Exclude the file or files matched by the regular expression. If a directory is matched, then files under that directory will also be matched. See the FILE SELECTION section for more information.
/backup/data/include/@regexp: Include the file or files matched by the regular expression. If a directory is matched, then files under that directory will also be matched. See the FILE SELECTION section for more information.

File Selection

safekeep(1) supports file selection options similar to rdiff-backup(1). When rdiff-backup is run, it searches through the given source directory and backs up all the files specified by the file selection system.

The file selection system comprises a number of file selection conditions, which are set using one of the <include>/<exclude> elements. Each file selection condition either matches or doesn't match a given file. A given file is included or excluded by the file selection system when the first matching file selection condition specifies that the file be included or excluded respecively; if the file matches no include or exclude statement, it is by default excluded.

When backing up, if a file is excluded, safekeep(1) acts as if that file does not exist in the source directory.

For more information on file selection semantics, please see rdiff-backup(1).

Files

/etc/safekeep/backup.d/