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README
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[Generated from doc/README.html]
SysBackup README
[a+logo.png] Note: The most up-to-date copy of this file is
available in the [1]SysBackup Documentation and FAQ pages on the
[2]AzerTech.net web site. Source code documentation was previously
being generated using phpdoc; work has begun to switch over to
Doxygen. The results so far can be found in the
[3]/doc/doxygen/html/ folder within the distribution tarball.
Remember to check the notes in the headers of the various scripts
(especially sysbackup, remexec and localexec for helpful information.
This is a short introduction to SysBackup, a swiss-army-knife-type
utility that helps simplify and organize the nightly backup tasks. It
allows the system administrator to quickly and easily script jobs that
tarball folders and compress files into a backup set.
The Problem
As system administrators we are faced with a variety of problems on our
servers from day to day. Over long periods of time we experience
different issues with our user community and our equipment. This leads
us to recognize a variety of different needs and, in general, try to
meet them with little scripts. We run these little scripts every night
in the hope that we might be better prepared for the days ahead. After
a while, though, the scripts start to get complicated. Then, when
disaster does strike again - and it will - we find out the hard way
that things didn't quite work out as planned. There are always minor
details that conspire against us (often just simple system software
upgrades and changes in the behavior of the user community.) The
problems also tend to happen most when we are most confident that we
are doing what we need to be doing - which leads to much embarrassment.
This forces us to review the backup procedure and make more
adjustments.
The Solution
[multi-function-tool.jpg]
[4]Docs & FAQ Pages
[5]Download SysBackup
[6]SysBackup on SourceForge
[7]SysBackup on GitHub
[8]SysBackup on Ohloh
[9]Installation Overview
[10]System Requirements
[11]Basic Installation
[12]SSH Remote Storage
[13]First Run
[14]Be Prepared!
The ultimate solution is an iterative business process combined with a
simple but flexible collection of tools. The business process will
include regular reviews and disaster recovery exercises to ensure that
everything is running smoothly. What we want from the backup tool is
to:
* easily perform simple tasks, such as tarballing specific folders or
collections of folders, quickly and conveniently,
* intelligently execute common tasks such as backing-up a well-known
service.
* allow us to simply, quickly and easily add to and adjust the
overall procedure in response to day-to-day issues.
SysBackup is a swiss-army-knife-type utility that helps simplify and
organize the nightly backup tasks. It allows the system administrator
to quickly and easily script jobs that tarball folders and compress
files into a backup set. The jobs are really easy to setup.
The jobs make use of a collection of plugins that are designed to
simplify common tasks. Each plugin is a small and simple script that is
designed to perform some kind of common task. For example the
mysql.plugin script is designed to backup a MySQL database server, the
mailman.plugin script is designed to backup a mailman installation,
etc.
Some of the plugins perform generic functions. The sysdirs.plugin, for
example, is designed to tarball any list of system folders. This tends
to work well for system folders that are rarely updated but wastes a
huge amount of disk space if you try using it on user home directories.
Users typically make changes to the files in their working folders and
those changes, when part of a huge tarball, prevent the SysBackup
utility from making use of hardlinks to save disk space. Therefore, the
homedirs.plugin is designed to list all the files and folders in a
users' home directory and compress everything into separate files. This
more granular approach can save a great deal of disk space. It can also
make it easier for the system administrator to find files that might be
requested by the users.
At the time of this writing there is a small collection of plugins
available and, hopefully, that collection will grow over time.
Once you get to know about the different plugins you can setup the jobs
you need to properly backup your server or workstation. Again,
setting-up the backup jobs is fairly easy. Job configuration scripts
are really just little scripts that schedule calls to the plugins. If
you need to do something complicated you can take a look at the code
for the existing plugins and roll your own.
The resulting backup sets are conveniently organized into daily, weekly
and monthly rotations that are automatically pruned for you. Each
backupset contains a set of sub-folders containing, hopefully,
everything related to a particular service or user.
Together these tools become a powerful and effective solution to the
day-to-day problems faced by a system administrator. At the same time,
SysBackup is simple and flexible enough that new jobs, possibly
involving new plugins, can easily be added as new issues are
identified.
Limitations
* SysBackup was written for Linux. It will run fine under Cygwin or
XAMPP and the sys-tarballs class can be configured to use zip
instead of tar or pax. Then again there are many Windows backup
solutions available and they tend to understand the Windows
Registry and NTFS file attributes - issues that SysBackup makes no
effort to address.
* SysBackup is not a plug-and-play backup utility. You can't just
install and run it - it won't do anything for you unless you take
the time to think about what you need and configure the jobs and
plugins to do what you need them to do.
* SysBackup is not a bit-copy utility. In theory you could setup a
job that tarballs an entire server or workstation - but that's not
what SysBackup is designed to do. There are other solutions
available for bit-copy operations. For example:
+ On Amazon AWS you can make bit-copies of your VM's using the
Create Image function available through the web-based GUI.
+ On physical VM hosts you can simply take a snapshot of the
VM's storage and compress it to create a bit-image of an
entire server.
+ On physical workstations and servers you can boot a
SysRescCD.org CD and use Partition Image to bit-copy an entire
host over to network storage.
Be Prepared!
[15][main-use-case.png] It's always a good idea to make some kind of
backup - having copies of data is better than not having copies - but
any experienced system administrator will tell you that backups are
not, by themselves, very useful. Blindly running a backup utility is
not the same as being prepared for the day-to-day issues that your
organization will face over a period of years.
The goal of any serious backup process is to be prepared. An
experienced system administrator wants to make sure that any piece of
equipment (server or workstation) is setup so that users will be able
to get what they need, when they need it, for different types of
restore operations. This often means being able to go back in time and:
* find copies of files that users have accidentally changed or
deleted (sometimes undetected for days, weeks or months,)
* help users recover from long-term data value degradation caused by
malware and software bugs,
* restore a service or services that have been damaged by software
upgrades,
* migrate a server to a new host,
* comply with regulations concerning long-term storage of data
* and respond to regulatory agency requests for otherwise expired
information.
SysBackup is a simple, flexible and efficient tool that you can use to
help you get the results you need - but only if you plan the process,
test it and adjust it to ensure that you are, in fact, getting what you
need!
__________________________________________________________________
[16][agpl-v3-logo.svg] [17][gfdl-logo.svg]
Copyright © 2011 by [18]Sam Azer<[19]sam[at]azertech.net>, All rights
reserved.
Last modified: Thu Jan 12 17:06:30 EST 2012
References
1. http://www.azertech.net/content/category/3/49/29/
2. http://www.azertech.net/
3. file://doc/doxygen/html/
4. http://www.azertech.net/content/category/3/49/29/
5. http://www.azertech.net/sysbackup-sfd
6. http://www.azertech.net/sysbackup-sf
7. http://www.azertech.net/sysbackup-gh
8. http://www.azertech.net/sysbackup-oh
9. http://www.azertech.net/content/view/69/29/
10. http://www.azertech.net/content/view/94/29/
11. http://www.azertech.net/content/view/92/29/
12. http://www.azertech.net/content/view/93/29/
13. http://www.azertech.net/content/view/95/29/
14. http://www.azertech.net/content/view/70/29/
15. http://www.azertech.net/content/view/70/29/
16. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl.html
17. http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html
18. http://azertech.net/about
19. mailto:sam[at]azertech.net?subject=SysBackup