# Backlava

Backlava is centralized backup solution, basing on rsync and laurent22's rsync-time-backup backup script.

Client machines are backed up using ssh and rsync only.

Backup data is stored in separated folders for each machine, so it's very easy to recover them (you just need to copy them to target machine using standard "cp" command). Backups are incremental thanks to rsync's built in "--link-dest" option, and they are regullary deduplicated between machines thanks to hardlink.py.

Features

• keeping backups from last 7 days for each backed machine
• incremental backups
• backup Windows, Linux and Mac OS machines
• support for shadow copies on Windows (backing up files that are already opened, like Microsoft Outlook .pst files)
• support for simultaneous backup of multiple drives on Windows machines
• deduplication (thanks to hardlink.py and rsync's "--link-dest" option)

Requirements

Backlava was created and tested on Ubuntu, but should work as well on other Linux platforms.

Other requirements:

• python 2.7
• flock 2.20.1
• rsync 3.1.0
• hardlinks-friendly filesystem for backup data (tested on EXT4). FAT isn't supported here!

Client machines need to have ssh server installed with certificate based authentication (backup server needs to login via ssh to client machines without a password). In order to avoid problems with access permisions, usage of root account is recommended.

Installation

Linux

1. Clone Backlava repository

    git clone https://github.com/Axadiw/Backlava.git
   

2. Provide general configuraion (according to next section)

    cd Backlava
    vim backlava.sh
   

3. Create configuration files for each backed machine (and set execution flag for each)

   cd ..
   cd Machines
   vim sample-machine.sh				
   <edit configuraion>		
   chmod +x sample-machine.sh
   

4. Add Backlava to cron

    crontab -e	
   

at the end of crontab add:

	* * * * * /<path_to_backlava>/backlava.sh

General configuration

General configuration is stored at the beginning of backlava.sh file:

	export LOCAL_BACKUP_PATH="path_to_backup_path"
	export LOGS_PATH="path_to_logs_path"
	SCRIPTS_FOLDER="./Machines/"
	MAX_TIME_BETWEEN_DEDUPLICATIONS=60*60*24*7

LOCAL_BACKUP_PATH - path to directory where backup data will be stored

LOGS_PATH - path to directory where log files will be stored

SCRIPTS_FOLDER - path to directory with configuration files for backed machines

MAX_TIME_BETWEEN_DEDUPLICATIONS - time interval (in seconds) that specifies how often deduplication should take place

Clients configuration

Sample configuration files can be found in Samples directory. For each machine you need to adjust variables located at the beginning of each configuration file.

Unix (OSX / Linux / etc.)

Sample config:

	export FRIENDLY_NAME='SampleUnix'
	export HOST='SampleUnixHost'
	export REMOTE_ADDRESS="root@SampleUnixHost:/"
	export EXCLUDED_FILE="path_to_excluded_files_list"

Variables:

FRIENDLY_NAME - backup data and log files for this machine will be stored using this name

HOST - hostname or IP address of a backed machine

REMOTE_ADDRESS - full ssh-like path to backed files: <username>@<host>:<path_to_backup>

For example REMOTE_ADDRESS provided in sample configuration will log in to "SampleUnixHost" machine as "root" , and back up every directory that is present under "/" directory.

EXCLUDED_FILE - path to file with list of files / directories that will be excluded from backups on remote machine

Windows

In addition to Unix config files, windows machines contains these variables:

REMOTE_ADDRESS_WINDOWS - address to directory where snapshots of backed drives will be stored

DRIVES_BACKED_UP - space separated list of drives that will be backed up

Please take not that unlike on Unix machines REMOTE_ADDRESS variable contains path to the same directory as REMOTE_ADDRESS_WINDOWS, but represented in unix style.

Sample config:

	export FRIENDLY_NAME='SampleWin'
	export HOST='SampleWinHost'
	export USERNAME='user'
	export REMOTE_ADDRESS="/cygdrive/c/RsyncBackup"
	export REMOTE_ADDRESS_WINDOWS="C:\\\RsyncBackup"
	export DRIVES_BACKED_UP="c e"
	export EXCLUDED_FILE="path_to_excluded_files_list"

Additional configuration on WIndows machines

Vshadow

In order to create shadow copy snapshots of backed drives you need to download vshadow.exe (available here) and place it in C:\Windows directory (please make sure to rename downloaded file to vhsadow.exe))

SSH

In order to use Backlava you need to be able to log into your Windows host via ssh protocol. Here's simplified tutorial how to do it using Cygwin:

1. Install cygwin

2. Run cyglsa-config command in cygwin terminal

3. Reboot

4. Open Windows explorer, and go to cygwin installation directory

5. Right click "var" directory, and go to Properties -> Security tab.

6. Add access for "Administrator" group

7. Open cygwin terminal and run these commands:

    setfacl -b /var
    chown :Users /var
    chmod 757 /var
    chmod ug-s /var
    chmod +t /var
    chmod 775 /var/*
   

8. Run ssh-host-config and respond to asked questions:

   Privilege Separation: yes
   New local account "sshd": yes
   Install sshd as service: yes
   CYGWIN value: ntsec tty
   Different name for "cyg_server": no
   Create new privileged user account "cyg_server": yes
   Set "cyg_server" password and keep in a safe place
   

9. Run net start sshd

10. Add /usr/sbin/sshd.exe to Windows firewall

Links

http://www.goodjobsucking.com/?p=62

http://www.michaelstowe.com/backuppc/

Thanks

Logo: Baklava by Amelia Wattenberger from the Noun Project

LICENSE

The MIT License (MIT)

Copyright (c) 2015 Michał Mizera

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.