Backup server scripts
======================
The scripts in this directory implement a backup "server". While quite
primitive, it supports a rather flexible configuration and can be customised in
various ways (e.g. support for new types of data fetching).
Installation
-------------
1/ Copy the backup script to /usr/local/sbin
2/ Copy the share/ directory to /usr/local/share/backup (omit the
"postprocess" script if you don't need it - see below for more info)
3/ Copy backup.conf and backup.conf.d/ to /etc
4/ Configure the server
5/ Add cron jobs to execute backups (see crontab.example)
Configuration
--------------
The main configuration file, backup.conf, defines a few variables. You need to
modify some of these values for the system to function properly (e.g. title
for backup reports, main archive storage location, and possibly the log
directory). It also allows you to modify the location of the data fetching and
postprocessing scripts, as well as the location of the rest of the
configuration, should you need / want to do that.
The main configuration files (backup.conf.d/*.conf) include some documentation.
They are mostly self-explanatory, with the exception of the "fetch modes" thing.
Fetch modes
------------
A "fetch mode" associates a data acquisition script (share/fetch-*) and a
specific configuration for this script. Fetch modes must be listed in the
backup.conf.d/fetch-modes.conf file. Hosts are then associated to a fetch mode.
When the backup archives from a host need to be generated, the mode's
configuration will be read from backup.conf.d/fetch/<name of the mode>.conf if
it exists (otherwise defaults will be assumed). After that, the backup script
also attempts to load backup.conf.d/<name of the mode>/<name of the host>.conf
if it exists.
Two fetch scripts are provided:
fetch-local Fetch data from a mounted filesystem
BASE Base directory for all "hosts"
Default: /
ROOT Root directory of a host relative to the base
Default: /
fetch-ssh Fetch data through SSH (see ../ssh-client/)
SSH_HOST Host to connect to
SSH_KEY Private key to use
SSH_PORT Port to connect to
Default: 22
SSH_USER User to log in as
Default: user running the server script
Default postprocessing script
------------------------------
The default postprocessing script will encrypt all archives using a fixed key,
and send them to some remote server using FTP.
To enable the script, simply make sure the "share/postprocess" script is
present and executable.
The script's configuration includes the server's name or address, the
credentials needed to log in, and the amount of remote rotations; in addition,
a second file contains the encryption key.
Customisation - Fetch scripts
------------------------------
Fetch scripts must be written in Bash and must define a function named "FETCH".
The function will output the archive's data on its standard output; any error
should be written to the standard error stream.
When the function is called, all variables loaded from the fetch mode or host
configuration files will be present, as well as the following variables:
backup_directory The directory to backup, from types.conf
backup_exclude An array of directories to exclude from the
resulting archive, as defined in
exclude.conf
Customisation - Postprocessing
-------------------------------
The postprocessing script is launched by the main script when it starts. It
will be passed the name of a temporary directory in which its data resides.
The first thing a postprocessing script ought to do is create a file named "pid"
in that directory, writing its ... PID ... into it (thank you, Captain Obvious!)
The main script will then write a host name and backup type identifier whenever
it finishes fetching an archive.
Anything written to the standard output or standard error stream will end up in
the main report.
