nethserver-backup-config

Configuration backup contains only system configuration files (passwd, config databases, etc). It's scheduled to be executed every night and will create a new archive only if any file is changed in the last 24 hours.

Backup libraries use conf.d directory behavior (see perldoc NethServer::Backup). When a backup is started, the system will search for all files in /etc/backup-config.d directory. This directory can contain .include and .exclude files. Each file contain a list of file to include/exclude into/from the backup.

Example file /etc/backup-config.d/nethserver-base.include :

/etc/e-smith/templates-custom
/etc/e-smith/templates-user-custom
/etc/ssh
/etc/sudoers
/etc/passwd
/etc/shadow
/etc/group
/etc/gshadow

Exclusions are evaluated after all inclusions.

All libraries are inside the nethserver-backup-config package.

Log format

Backup and restore actions will log all steps in a file using a parsable format. Each log line has the following format: :

<DATE_HOUR> - <TAG> - <MESSAGE> - <EXIT_STATUS>

Fields:

• DATE_HOUR: date in ISO 8601 format (%Y-%m-%d) and time in 24 hour notation (%H:%M:%S)
• TAG: can be START, STEP, SUCCESS or ERROR
• MESSAGE: log message
• EXIT_STATUS: (optional) the exit status of the process

Notifications

Both nethserver-backup-config and nethserver-backup-data comes with two property to configure notification:

• notify: enable or disable notification. Possible values:
  • always: send notification regardless of backup exit status
  • never: do not send any notification regardless of backup exit status
  • error: send notification only if an error occurs
• notifyTo: notification mail destination address (default is: admin``localhost)

Configuration backup

The nethserver-backup-config package implements the backup of configuration and relies on the backup-config key inside the configuration database.

Properties:

• status : enable or disable the automatic backup, can be enabled or disabled. Default is enabled.

Backup

The main command is /sbin/e-smith/backup-config which starts the backup process (if enabled). The backup process has 3 steps:

• pre-backup-config event: used to prepare data, for example a LDAP dump of users
• backup-config-execute action: actually execute the backup if any file is changed in the last 24 hours. The backup file is saved in /var/lib/nethserver/backup/backup-config.tar.xz (see perldoc NethServer::BackupConfig)
• post-backup-config event: used to post-process the backup file, for example to copy the backup to a remote server or encrypting the archive

The configuration backup runs every night and it creates a new backup only if:

• destination file does not exist
• or new files are added or removed to/from the backup set
• or content of any file inside the set is changed

This package does not provide any default action in the pre-backup-config and post-backup-config events. But you can create a script inside the post-backup-config event to copy the configuration backup to a remote machine using, for example, the SSH protocol.

The configuration backup is included inside the data backup.

Logs:

• /var/log/backup-config.log: parsable log

Restore

The main command is /sbin/e-smith/restore-config which starts the restore process:

• pre-restore-config event: used to prepare the system, for example stop a running service
• restore-config-execute action: search for a backup file in the well-known directory (see above) and restore it
• post-restore-config event: used to apply restored configuration, for example reinstall packages and load the LDAP dump

This package does not provide any action in the pre-restore-config event.

Please note that if no /var/lib/nethserver/backup/backup-config.tar.xz file is found, the restore-config command will try to access the data backup to retrieve the configuration backup.

The restore-config options:

• --no-reinstall : disable package reinstall during restore
• --mask-unit=<name> : use systemd to mask the specified unit (example: disable httpd-admin restart during restore)

Logs:

• /var/log/restore-config.log: parsable log

Customization

Add custom include/exclude inside following files:

• /etc/backup-config.d/custom.include
• /etc/backup-config.d/custom.exclude