This script was created out of the need to have snapshots-like backups using the DreamHost Backup service, which provides 50GB of space for personal backups but gives very limited access to it's servers. Basically, you have no SSH access, only RSync and SFTP.
It can be used to backup any machine: your computer, a server or even a Dreamhost-hosted website.
You just need to configure it with the path to backup, your dreamhost backup account and the private key used for authentication and it will create daily backups and keep the last 7 days, 4 weeks and 6 months.
You can read a blog post I wrote about it if you're interested in the "whys" and "hows".
- Place the files in a directory
- Rename dhsnapshot.conf.sample to dhsnapshot.conf
- Edit it.
- Make sure the directory you're backing up to on the backup server exists
- Setup ssh public key authentication
- Run it manually for the first time
- Schedule a set of cron jobs to do it automatically.
[bob@dreamhost]~$ git clone git://github.com/carloslima/dhsnapshot.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /home/bob/dhsnapshot/.git/
remote: Counting objects: 11, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (9/9), done.
remote: Toremote: tal 11 (delta 3), reused 0 (delta 0)
Receiving objects: 100% (11/11), done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (3/3), done.
[bob@dreamhost]~$ cd dhsnapshot/
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ cp dhsnapshot.conf.sample dhsnapshot.conf
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ vi dhsnapshot.conf
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ more dhsnapshot.conf
$conf{'backup_source'} = "/home/bob/trac_trac/";
$conf{'backup_dest'} = 'b000000@hanjin.dreamhost.com:backup';
$conf{'backup_filter'} = '/home/bob/.backup-exclude-rsync';
$conf{'private_key'} = "/home/bob/.ssh/id_rsa";
$conf{'rsync_path'} = '/usr/bin/rsync';
$conf{'sftp_path'} = '/usr/bin/sftp';
$conf{'nice_path'} = '/usr/bin/nice';
return 1;
-
Check if you already have a key [bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ ls -lh ~/.ssh/id_rsa
-
If you get something like -rw------- 1 bob bob 1.7K 2010-10-30 19:31 /home/bob/.ssh/id_rsa
Then you're already set.
-
If you get a something like ls: cannot access /home/bob/.ssh/id_rsa: No such file or directory
Then you can create a ssh key pair by doing: [bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ ssh-keygen -q -N "" -f ~/.ssh/id_rsa
1.Create the directory where the backup will be placed
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ sftp b000000@hanjin.dreamhost.com
Connecting to hanjin.dreamhost.com...
The authenticity of host 'hanjin.dreamhost.com (205.196.216.115)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is 0e:c2:f6:f4:d9:86:9d:4b:c4:3d:77:e7:a4:bb:59:14.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no)? yes
Warning: Permanently added 'hanjin.dreamhost.com,205.196.216.115' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
b000000@hanjin.dreamhost.com's password:
sftp> mkdir backup
2.Configure the key as authorized key
This is needed so the backup script doesn't need to type a password to connect :)
sftp> mkdir .ssh
sftp> chmod 700 .ssh
Changing mode on /vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/.ssh
sftp> cd .ssh
sftp> put /home/bob/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
Uploading id_rsa.pub to /vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
id_rsa.pub 100% 395 0.4KB/s 00:00
sftp> rename id_rsa.pub authorized_keys
sftp> chmod 700 authorized_keys
Changing mode on /vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/.ssh/authorized_keys
sftp> quit
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ chmod 500 dhsnapshot.pl
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ chmod 400 dhsnapshot.conf
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ ./dhsnapshot.pl daily
Changing to: /vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup
sftp>
sftp> -rmdir daily.6
sftp> -rename daily.5 daily.6
Couldn't rename file "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.5" to "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.6": No such file or directory
sftp> -rename daily.4 daily.5
Couldn't rename file "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.4" to "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.5": No such file or directory
sftp> -rename daily.3 daily.4
Couldn't rename file "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.3" to "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.4": No such file or directory
sftp> -rename daily.2 daily.3
Couldn't rename file "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.2" to "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.3": No such file or directory
sftp> -rename daily.1 daily.2
Couldn't rename file "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.1" to "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.2": No such file or directory
sftp> -rename daily.0 daily.1
Couldn't rename file "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.0" to "/vol/shelf1/zool/b000000/backup/daily.1": No such file or directory
--link-dest arg does not exist: ../daily.1
The errors here are ok, they just say that the "daily.X" directory doesn't exist (yet).
After running the script for 7 days, the errors will disappear.
The same is valid for the Weekly and Monthly backups
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ crontab -l
no crontab for bob
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ crontab -e
It looks like you don't have a MAILTO line in your crontab file
For performance reasons we ask that you specify an address where
cronjob output will be delivered. If you do not wish to receive
cronjob output, simply press enter and cronjob output will not be
mailed to you.
For more information regarding this, please visit:
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Crontab#MAILTO_variable_requirement
Where would you like cronjob output delivered? (leave blank to disable)
: email@example.com
cronjob output will be emailed to email@example.com
confirm? (y/N): y
/usr/bin/crontab: installing new crontab
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$ crontab -l
MAILTO="email@example.com"
0 2 1 * * /home/bob/dhsnapshot/dhsnapshot.pl monthly
0 3 * * 0 /home/bob/dhsnapshot/dhsnapshot.pl weekly
0 4 * * * /home/bob/dhsnapshot/dhsnapshot.pl daily
[bob@dreamhost]~/dhsnapshot$
Monthly backups are rolled every 1st at 2am
Weeklys are rolled every Sunday 3am
Dailys are rolled and a new backup generated everyday at 4am
If you setup your email here, you will get daily notifications containing the 'sftp renames' results and error messages if any.
I think it's good to receive it so you know your backup is running and if any problem arises you get aware about it very fast.