Off-site Backup with Backupninja

Goal: Setup a remote machine that will be used for incremental backup of critical parts of the LURK servers.

Requirements

This document assumes you already have:

• A configure Linux/BSD machine to work as off-site backup
• A lurk user created on the off-site backup that will be used specifically by the backup scripts
• Debian based servers (not sure Backupninja will run otherwise without some slight modifications)
• All the machines (servers and the backup machine) on a working Tinc VPN
• Enough space on the off-site backup machine :)

On the Off-site machine

• As lurk create directories for each server

mkdir /media/lurk_backup/douglas /media/lurk_backup/agnesbaxter

On each server

Installation

• As root

apt install backupninja

Configuration

/etc/backupninja.conf

Some changes:

reportemail = some@where.nice
when = everyday at 05:55

MySQL local backups

• As root run the command:

ninjahelper

• create a new backup action
• mysql database backup
• path:

/var/backups/mysql # adjust if this location does not have much free space

• all the databases to backup.
• select the debian maintenance user for access
• compress the sql output file
• select the action and test/run/review the config
• leave ninjahelper

PostgreSQL local backups

• As root run the command:

ninjahelper

• create a new backup action
• postgresql database backup
• path:

/var/backups/postgres # adjust if this location does not have much free space

• backup the whole cluster
• compress the backups
• custom
• select the action and test/run/review the config
• leave ninjahelper

Rdiff backup

This is the action that will not only allow you to select which part of your local filesystem to remotely send and rotate to the off-site backup machine, but it will also make sure the local backups above are sent as well!

• As root run the command:

ninjahelper

• create a new backup action
• rdiff-backup
• choose file to include & exclude, add paths, wildcard accepted
• configure backup destination:
  • keep 120D (you can adjust if you will run out of space! Keep in mind this is incremental though, so don't panic)
  • dest_directory /media/lurk_backup/name-of-server-to-backup
  • dest_host 10.0.1.2 Adjust to the Tinc IP of the off-site backup machine.
  • dest_user lurk
  • dest_type remote
• set up ssh keys and test remote connection
• select the action and test/run/review the config
• check that everything is showing up nicely on the backup server in the destination directory!

Fine tuning

Edit/Change the local filesystem path to include/exclude

By default Babckupninja will backup some folder and exclude some others. This can be changed during the initial configuration of the rdiff action but can also be done later.

• As root, edit /etc/backup.d/90.rdiff
• Make changes in the section # files to include in the backup
• Optional: run ninjahelper, select the 90.rdiff action and run it to make sure it's being sent to the off-site machine. If you're sure of your changes, you can also wait the next backup to happen to see if it worked.