Executive Summary: I think that the script in the backuppc faq used to avoid client access as root has a bug. It should not use the --server and --sender arguments to rsync, but just pass the arguments it gets from the server.
Details: I'm trying to rebuild a machine whose hard disk failed. It had been backed up using backuppc with rsync. I apologize is this note is a tad confused. I actually started writing it looking for help, but I think that I figured out the problem in the course of writing it. I've managed to get it back to the point where ssh, and rsync are working between the client and the server without prompting for passwords, and backuppc has actually succeeded in backing it up once again. I've got it set up so as to avoid root login per http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/faq/ssh.html#how_can_client_access_as_root_be_avoided Actually since both machines run Ubuntu, logging into root is difficult. The faq led me to making a shell script which is the only program which the backuppcclient user is allowed to execute as root via sudo. #!/bin/sh -f exec /usr/bin/rsync --server --sender $* I'm a little confused about the --server and --sender arguments on the rsync command. I can't find this in the backuppc config file as an rsync argument, and I can't figure out what it does. The rsync man page doesn't seem to mention it. The logs for both the successful backup and the failed restore showed that both --server and --sender are being used on the rsync command sent to the client via ssh for a backup, and --server is being used on a restore. So I wondered why they were in the script recommended by the faq. To make a long story short, I removed them from the script, and a single file restore seems to work. I'm now attempting a full restore of one users home directory, and then I guess I'll have to try another backup. How I got there: The xfer log for the backups showed that --server and --sender were used on the rsync command This had been working for backups since before the client machine died, and as I said I got to the point where I could backup the machine after I rebuild it. The problem was that I couldn't successfully restore. I first tried to restore a backed up home directory, but this failed with what looks like a broken pipe. Here's the log of that attempt, i've added three lines starting with ----- to indicate where the log starts, where I've removed some stuff and the end: ------- start of log ----- Contents of file /var/lib/backuppc/pc/bill/RestoreLOG.1, modified 2005-10-25 13:36:23 Running: /usr/bin/ssh -q -l backuppcclient bill sudo ~/bin/rsyncSend --server --numeric-ids --perms --owner --group --devices --links --times --block-size=2048 --relative --ignore-times --recursive . /home/rick/restored/ Xfer PIDs are now 17821 Got remote protocol 29 restore d 755 500/500 4096 /rick/restored/rick restore l 777 500/500 30 /rick/restored/rick/.DCOPserver_bill_:0 restore 644 500/500 51 /rick/restored/rick/.DCOPserver_bill__0 restore d 755 500/500 4096 /rick/restored/rick/.GalleryRemote ---- Long list of similar lines removed --- restore 644 500/500 168 /rick/restored/rick/.beagle/Log/2005-10-06-09-05-53-IndexWebContent restore 644 500/500 168 /rick/restored/rick/.beagle/Log/2005-10-06-09-06-11-IndexWebContent exiting after signal PIPE Restore failed: aborted by signal=PIPE ---- End of Log ---- I thought that, perhaps the problem was that I was trying to restore too many files at once, so I decided to try just one small text file. This time it fails differently. ---- Start of Log ---- Running: /usr/bin/ssh -q -l backuppcclient bill sudo ~/bin/rsyncSend --server --numeric-ids --perms --owner --group --devices --links --times --block-size=2048 --relative --ignore-times --recursive . /home/rick/restore/ Xfer PIDs are now 18183 Got remote protocol 29 restore 600 500/500 3843 /rick/restore/nivex.asc Remote[1]: ERROR: buffer overflow in recv_rules Remote[1]: rsync error: error allocating core memory buffers (code 22) at util.c(126) Read EOF: Tried again: got 0 bytes Done: 1 files, 3843 bytes Restore failed: Unable to read 4 bytes ---- end of log ---- -- Rick DeNatale Visit the Project Mercury Wiki Site http://www.mercuryspacecraft.com/ ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the JBoss Inc. Get Certified Today * Register for a JBoss Training Course Free Certification Exam for All Training Attendees Through End of 2005 Visit http://www.jboss.com/services/certification for more information _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/
