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• Do you need full backups more than once per month?
• Do you want redundant (more than one) copy of backed up data?
• Do you want to avoid having several scripts to backup multiple locations?
• Do you need to backup several servers into a centralized location?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, then rsnapshot is the tool for you. With rsnapshot, this is what your backup plan will look like:

1. rsnapshot will make hard-link snapshots of your folders and files.
2. rsync will backup the snapshot directory from the previous step to your EVBackup account.

What this means to you is speedy and redundant recovery:

• If you need to restore a file quickly, you have it locally.
• Your EVBackup account becomes your fall-back (redundant) backup site.

To check whether you have rsnapshot installed on your *nix machine, open up a terminal and enter the following command

• If you see a path returned, you are good to go!
• If you see rsnapshot: , then you need to get it installed.

Once you are assured that rsnapshot is installed, you'll want to edit rsnapshot.conf. It's kept in the /etc, so you'll need to be in super-user (sudo) mode to edit it. The following is a list of edits that you'll need to make.

snapshot_root

This is the local path to where rsnapshot will place it's snapshots. You'll need to use a trailing slash ( "/" ) for all directory paths.

We suggest: /backup/snapshots/

Backup Intervals

Backup Intervals controls two things:

1. Controls the directory name of the snapshot in snapshot_root.
2. Sets a argument for running the rsnapshot command.

Backup points are how you direct rsnapshot what you want to to take snapshots of. You can have as many snapshot directives as you like. Each directive has three tab separated fields:

[instruction]   [path to backup target]/   [snapshot_root subdirectory name]/

Note: remember the trailing slash for directories! 

Once you are ready to test your rsnapshot configuration, enter the following into a terminal:

Of course, if you hit a snag, don't get frustrated. Contact us — we're here to help: .

Note: If you would like a more detailed guide to setting up an rsync script, then check out:

• rsync 101: The EVBackup rsync Setup Guide
• Commonly Used rsync Arguments
• Scripting and Automating rsync

Essentially, the rsync script that you create needs only to backup the contents of snapshot_root. Here are the steps /commands to creating the rsync script to backup your snapshots to your EVBackup account:

• Each of the following commands are entered as a single line.
• You'll want to run all of the commands here as the 'super-user' (using sudo), so that you have full access to all the files on your machine.

1. Create an SSH key pair with ssh-keygen

sudo ssh-keygen -f /backup/ssh_key -t rsa -N ''

Note the command ends with two single quote characters.

• Why do I need an SSH keypair? »
• « OK. Hide this

An SSH key pair allows you to securely login to your backup server without entering a password each time.

2. Upload and activate the public key to your EVBackup account

sudo rsync -e ssh /backup/ssh_key.pub user@user.evbackup.com:ssh_keys/key1.pub

ssh user@user.evbackup.com addkeys

Show Me

• Notes about uploading »
• « OK. Hide this

• Substitute user with your EVBackup account name.
• When you enter this command, you might see a message indicating that your computer is doesn't recognize the server. Just enter yes when prompted and you'll never be bothered again.
• You'll be asked to enter the password for your EVBackup account. Once the key is uploaded and activated, this won't be necessary again.
• If Terminal simply returns (looking as though nothing has happened), then you have successfully uploaded your key!

3. Test that you can login without a password

sudo ssh -i /backup/ssh_key user@user.evbackup.com

• How do I know if it worked? »
• « OK. Hide this

If you were successful, then something very similar to the following will appear in Terminal:

Last login: Thu Jul 15 16:16:44 2010 from c-28-26-13-101.
Copyright (c) 1983, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994
The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

FreeBSD 6.4-STABLE (EXAVAULT) #1:
[your-account@quark ~]$

4. Enter an rsync command with --hard-links and --dry-run

The following command needs to be entered as a single statement:

sudo rsync -avz --hard-links --dry-run -e "ssh -i /backup/ssh_key" /backup/snapshots user@user.evbackup.com:remote-folder

Note that you need to use a --hard-links argument so that the links are uploaded to the site — and not extra copies of the linked files.

• Why aren't you using trailing slashes? »
• « OK. Hide this

Because the rsync argument -a implies a --recursive argument. Effectively, that means that if the target of the rsync script is a directory, then it and all sub-directories will be backed up.

Note that rsnapshot still requires a trailing slash on directories.

5. Paste and render executable the contents of your rsync command (sans --dry-run) into a file

The first command needs to be entered as a single statement, and remember to \escape \internal \quotes \":

sudo echo "rsync -avz -e \"ssh -i /backup/ssh_key\" /backup/snapshots user@user.evbackup.com:remote-folder" > /backup/backup-snapshots.sh

sudo chmod +x /backup/backup-snapshots.sh

6. Edit the cmd_postexec directive in /etc/rsnapshot.conf

cmd_postexec   /backup/backup-snapshots.sh

Remember: if you need help, just ask:

When you are ready to go, run the daily backup. Enter the following into a terminal:

The expected sequence of events that you will need to validate are:

1. rsnapshot populated snapshot_root with the initial backup with all targeted files and directories.
2. rsync uploaded the contents of snapshot_root to your EVBackup account.  
   • How do I check this? »
   • « Hide this

   Here are two easy ways to check:

   1. Log in with SSH at a terminal:
      ssh user@user.evbackup.com ls -Ar remote-folder

   2. Use EVFTP — the Secure FTP Java web client: https://files.exavault.com/

Once you have your backup script created and saved, you need only to add a cron job to automate it. To automate a cron job for your rsync script:

1. At terminal, add a cron job for the superuser:
   sudo crontab -e

2. Enter the schedule command for the rsnapshot daily command.

   For example, to run rsnapshot daily Monday through Saturday at 11:42 PM, you would enter:

   42 23 * * 1-6 rsnapshot daily
   What are the crontab fields? »
   « Hide this

   The fields in crontab (separated by s p a c e s or tabs) are:

   [minute] [hour] [day of month] [month] [weekday] [command] [command args]

   Use commas to designate a more than one value: 00,09,11,22
   Use hyphens to designate a range of values: 0-6

3. Enter the schedule command for the rsnapshot weekly command.

   For example, to run rsnapshot weekly on Sunday at 1:42 PM, you would enter:

   42 13 * * 0 rsnapshot weekly

4. Enter the schedule command for the rsnapshot monthly command.

   For example, to run rsnapshot monthly on the 3rd of each month at 4:42 AM, you would enter:

   42 04 03 * * rsnapshot monthly

5. Save your crontab file and close your text editor. You're all set!

Should you have questions or need help: .