Backups with rsnapshot
2016-11-03Docker test enviroment
Dockerfile:
FROM ubuntu:17.10
RUN apt-get update && apt-get install -y rsnapshot
ENTRYPOINT ["/bin/bash"]
and run it with
docker build -t ubuntu-rsnapshot .
docker run --name ubuntu-rsnapshot-bash -it ubuntu-rsnapshot
to attach another terminal you can use
docker exec -it ubuntu-rsnapshot-bash /bin/bash
Rsnapshot configuration
You can find configuration in /etc/rsnapshot.conf
The most interesing parts of config:
config_version 1.2
cmd_cp /bin/cp
cmd_rm /bin/rm
cmd_rsync /usr/bin/rsync
cmd_ssh /usr/bin/ssh
cmd_logger /usr/bin/logger
verbose 2
loglevel 3
logfile /var/log/rsnapshot.log
lockfile /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
# ...
# All snapshots will be stored under this root directory.
# ...
snapshot_root /var/cache/rsnapshot/
# ...
# This means that every time `rsnapshot alpha` is run,
# it will make a new snapshot, rotate the old ones,
# and retain the most recent six (`alpha.0` - `alpha.5`)
# ...
retain alpha 6
retain beta 7
retain gamma 4
# ...
# Example of local backups
# ...
backup /home/ localhost/
backup /etc/ localhost/
backup /usr/local/ localhost/
# ...
# Example of remote backup
# ...
backup root@example.com:/home/ example.com/
Now, you can do a manual backup using rsnapshot alpha.
Cron job
To run rsnapshot automaticly you need create cron job. You should use crontab -e to edit it.
Here is a quick example which makes backups every four hours, and beta backups for a week:
0 */4 * * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot alpha
50 23 * * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot beta
Note:
Make sure cron is running with service cron status. You can start it with service cron start. To start it on boot use update-rc.d cron defaults.
Remote snapshot
You can specify alternative config file and use rsnapshot -c /path/to/rsnapshot.remote.conf alpha
rsnapshot.remote.conf:
config_version 1.2
include_conf /etc/rsnapshot.conf
snapshot_root /mount/smb/backup/directory/
Rsnapshot does not support a remote snapshot root via SSH. However you should be able to use a remote snapshot root that is NFS mounted on the machine that runs rsnapshot but hosted on another machine (NFS server)link.
Advanced config
# ...
# List of short arguments to pass to rsync. If not specified, "-a" is the default.
# ..
rsync_short_args -a
# ...
# List of long arguments to pass to rsync.
# ..
rsync_long_args --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded
# ...
# Arguments to be passed to ssh. If not specified, the default is none.
# ...
ssh_args -p 22
# ...
# Full filesystem path to the rsnapshot log file.
# ...
logfile /var/log/rsnapshot
# ...
# If no_create_root is enabled, rsnapshot will not automatically create the
# snapshot_root directory. This is particularly useful if you are backing
# up to removable media, such as a FireWire or USB drive.
# ...
no_create_root 1
# ...
# Examples.
# ...
backup root@example.com:/etc/ example.com/
backup rsync://example.com/path2/ example.com/
backup /var/ localhost/ one_fs=1
backup lvm://vg0/home/path2/ lvm-vg0/
backup_script /usr/local/bin/backup_pgsql.sh pgsql_backup/
backup root@somehost:/ somehost +rsync_long_args=--exclude=/var/spool/
Full example
config_version 1.2
snapshot_root /.snapshots/
cmd_rsync /usr/bin/rsync
cmd_ssh /usr/bin/ssh
#cmd_cp /bin/cp
cmd_rm /bin/rm
cmd_logger /usr/bin/logger
cmd_du /usr/bin/du
linux_lvm_cmd_lvcreate /sbin/lvcreate
linux_lvm_cmd_lvremove /sbin/lvremove
linux_lvm_cmd_mount /bin/mount
linux_lvm_cmd_umount /bin/umount
linux_lvm_snapshotsize 2G
linux_lvm_snapshotname rsnapshot
linux_lvm_vgpath /dev
linux_lvm_mountpath /mnt/lvm-snapshot
retain hourly 6
retain daily 7
retain weekly 7
retain monthly 3
backup /etc/ localhost/
backup /home/ localhost/
backup_script /usr/local/bin/backup_mysql.sh mysql_backup/
backup root@foo.com:/etc/ foo.com/
backup root@foo.com:/home/ foo.com/
backup root@mail.foo.com:/home/ mail.foo.com/
backup rsync://example.com/pub/ example.com/pub/
backup lvm://vg0/xen-home/ lvm-vg0/xen-home/
cron:
0 */4 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot hourly
50 23 * * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot daily
40 23 * * 6 /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot weekly
30 23 1 * * /usr/local/bin/rsnapshot monthly
- 6 hourly backups a day (once every 4 hours, at 0,4,8,12,16,20)
- 1 daily backup every day, at 11:50PM
- 1 weekly backup every week, at 11:40PM, on Saturdays (6th day of week)
- 1 monthly backup every month, at 11:30PM on the 1st day of the month
Hard links - size of snapshots link
After I’ve taken a few snapshots, why do they all show up the same size in df? I thought rsnapshot was meant to only take one full snapshot and then a bunch of incrementals?
You thought right, and it does! It looks like you’ve got a bunch of full snapshots because any file which hasn’t changed between two consecutive snapshots will be a hard link, so potentially several directory entries in consecutive snapshots may actually point at the same data on disk, so the only space taken up by a snapshot is whatever is different between it and the previous one. Using the du utility to gauge your disk usage will normally produce confusing results because of this. The rsnapshot-diff utility solves this. You could also use the -c argument to du.