yhager's rsync based backup scripts

yet another backup script suite, that does exactly what I want.

* automatic

* offsite(online)

* bandwidth and space efficient

* incremental

Some more detailed list of the features:

* use rsync snapshots with hardlinks[1] - a no frills working backup solution:

* allows going back in time for as long as you want

* uses the minimal amount of storage space required

* clear up old backups easily by deleting a directory

* can retry the backup if the network failed during the process

* use crontab to control backup initiation

* simple, simple, simple

The script more or less implements the method outlined by rsync.net's

support team[2]

[1] http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/

[2] http://www.rsync.net/resources/howto/rsync_snapshots.html

Installation:

# most of the steps require root privilege

su

# copy this entire directory onto /usr/local/backup

cp -a . /usr/local/backup

cd /usr/local/backup

# edit the file conf.d/backup to match your settings

vi conf.d/backup

# copy the file to /etc/conf.d

mkdir /etc/conf.d

cp conf.d/backup /etc/conf.d/

# edit the rules file to match your setup

vi conf.d/rsync-rules

# copy to /etc/backup

mkdir /etc/backup

cp conf.d/rsync-rules /etc/backup/.

# create a directory for mysql backups

mkdir -p /var/backups/mysql

# Add the crontab to your existing crontab

crontab -l > /tmp/crontab && cat /tmp/crontab crontab | crontab - && rm /tmp/crontab

# or if your crontab is currently empty, simply

crontab crontab

Encryption:

I do not encrypt my backups. I am getting too nervous about losing

the private key (where would I keep it? in a USB storage? in a bank?

printed and kept at a friend's house? - I was never able to solve

that question), so I decided that encryption might give me more

headache than benefit.

Edit: The above paragraph made sense at the time I wrote it; I now

strongly recommend that you incorporate some encryption routine into

your backups, especially when using any external provider.

Other options:

I used rdiff-backup[3] for a while and it is generally very good,

however, it has it's own format of backup files, and it is very

dependent on completing a full run everytime, and failures are disastrous.

At one time, the command '--list-increments-sizes' could never be

completed, and this convinced me I am looking for something less fancy.

In addition, removing a huge directory that snuck in by mistake is

nearly impossible, and you are stuck with it until it is phased out

as old.

There are quite a lot of other options, like rsnapshot[4] or

duplicity[5]. They are all good - choose whatever fits your needs.

[3] http://rdiff-backup.nongnu.org/

[4] http://rsnapshot.org

[5] http://www.nongnu.org/duplicity/

Backup providers:

All you need is ssh access and rsync to be installed at the remote

side. This is very common, and I doubt if you will find a backup

provider that does not give you these.

I use rsync.net[6], which are very friendly, and give great value

for the money. However, use any service that rsync works with (I

believe Amazon s3 is not on this list).

[6] http://rsync.net

Suggestions, Questions:

send me an email (see LICENSE file), or use github.