Re: [BackupPC-users] Help with monthly schedule configuration

[Ray Frush]

Jamie-

Another source of advice is the listserv archives.   Assuming you're
running BackupPC 4.  If not, you'll want to upgrade!

Our organization wants to keep at least one month of daily backups

Here's a snippet of a post I did on this subject the last time someone
asked about schedules.

The values you'll want to check:
$Conf{IncrKeepCnt} = 26;  # This is the number of total 'unfilled'
backups kept.

$Conf{FillCycle} = 7;# This is how often a filled backup is kept (1 per
week) which strongly influences the next setting

$Conf{FullKeepCnt} = [  4,  3,  0, ];  # This defines how many 'filled'
backups are retained.

The combination of filled and unfilled backups result in ~32 days of daily
backups plus a couple of older ones just in case a user needs a file from
more than a month ago.



Remember, in BackupPC 4,  a "filled" backup is kinda equivalent to a 'full'
backup for the purposes of "FullKeepCnt", which should be renamed
"FilledKeepCnt".

Missing from that post was:
  $Conf{FullPeriod} = 90.97

This defines the time between 'full' backups where a full checksum is done
against the source.

But, as it turns out, my schedule above deletes the last 'full' backup
after about 70 days, and BackupPC ends up taking a full immediately after
that, so the "FullPeriod" never ends up being triggered.
If my "FullKeepCnt" looked like [4, 3, 1, ]then my FullPeriod would
trigger before the last full backup was aged out.  The Filled vs. Full
backups are a bit confusing.


--
Ray Frush


On Wed, Nov 15, 2017 at 2:59 PM, Jamie Burchell  wrote:

> Hi!
>
>
>
> Hoping someone can give me that “ah ha!” moment that I’m so desperately
> craving after pouring over the documentation, mailing lists and various
> forum posts.
>
>
>
> I want to move from BackupPC’s default schedule to keeping ~1 month’s
> worth of backups, but I cannot fathom if I should:
>
>
>
> -  Do a full backup every day and keep 30 of them
>
> -  Do a full backup every week and keep 4 of them, with
> incrementals in between
>
> -  Do a full backup each month and keep 30 incrementals.
>
>
>
> BackupPC is so efficient with storage and transferring only what is needed
> between backups that I don’t understand the difference between the three
> approaches. All backups can be browsed like full backups, BackupPC only
> ever transfers files it doesn’t have, all storage is deduplicated and rsync
> can detect changes, new files and deletions, so why does it matter? I am
> using rsync (over SSH), network speed and reliability is good and the
> drives are all SSD.
>
>
>
> The settings I currently have are:
>
>
>
> FullPeriod 6.97
>
> FullKeepCnt 4
>
> IncrPeriod 0.97
>
> IncrKeepCnt 24
>
>
>
> I **think** this will give me 4 full backups with incrementals in
> between, but I think I could have equally have gone with:
>
>
>
> FullPeriod 30
>
> FullKeepCnt 1
>
> IncrPeriod 0.97
>
> IncrKeepCnt 29
>
>
>
> I don’t understand what is meant by a “filled backup” either.
>
>
>
> Thanks for any clarity/help in advance!
>
>
>
> Regards
>
> Jamie
>
> 
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>
>


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Re: [BackupPC-users] error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) (Restoring)

[Bzzzz]

On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 23:29:58 -
Jamie Burchell  wrote:

> Because you'll seldom find any good advice that advocates doing
> anything as root.

You misread it.

Doing stuffs as root when it can be done by a regular user, or a sudo
user _can_ be a risk (although I don't know any real admin that hasn't
at least one or two consoles opened as root.)

Everybody with a large practice of Linux has been goofing at least one
time - I made a rm -r * as root on the root of the master disk (thanks
BPC !), but you can also do tough shit as a user (such as rm -r ~ /dir
watch the space between ~ and /dir, meaning you're removing your whole
$HOME + /dir !)

And in the particular scheme of BPC, where's the risk?
root does launch rsync and recover files or parts of files into a
controlled, so what?
This isn't a _console_ risky line command order, this is part of a known
automatic process !

In short: being root and (especially) removing directories is bad, on
the other hand, using root as part of a controlled process doesn't mean
that you'll be hacked or whatever - furthermore, doing some stuffs as
root is compulsory for some maintenance work.

Rule of thumb: don't get creative with a well known (and described)
process.

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Re: [BackupPC-users] error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) (Restoring)

[Jamie Burchell]

Because you'll seldom find any good advice that advocates doing anything
as root.

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Re: [BackupPC-users] error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) (Restoring)

[Bzzzz]

On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 22:48:01 -
Jamie Burchell  wrote:

> I followed the instructions to make a restricted backuppc user on
> client machines with limited sudo permission thus:
> backuppc ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/rsync --server --sender *

Why on earth did you use that instead of let it to root !?
in which case, restoration by a user doesn't cause any problem.

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[BackupPC-users] error in rsync protocol data stream (code 12) (Restoring)

[Jamie Burchell]

Hi!



I followed the instructions to make a restricted backuppc user on client
machines with limited sudo permission thus:



backuppc ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/rsync --server --sender *



This works fine for backing up, but I just discovered I can no longer
restore directly, as I’m getting the following error:



Restore failed on X (rsync error: error in rsync protocol data stream (code
12) at io.c(629) [sender=3.0.9.8])



I just logged in to the client, and sure enough have this in the secure
logs:



Nov 15 22:39:54 x sudo: backuppc : command not allowed ; TTY=unknown ;
PWD=/home/backuppc ; USER=root ; COMMAND=/usr/bin/rsync --server
-slHogDtprRe.iLsf



I’m assuming this is because the “--sender" parameter isn’t used here.



What’s the best way to fix this? Should I simply remove “--sender" from the
sudoers config and should this be added to the documentation?



TIA



Jamie
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Re: [BackupPC-users] Help with monthly schedule configuration

[Bzzzz]

On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 22:52:26 -
Jamie Burchell  wrote:

> I've gone with the schedule that looks correct for now and will see
> what happens!

Terrible things, you'll lose confidence in closed source softwares
(hence, in m$ "products"), your HD will fill with many little gremlins, 
and finally you'll end with usable backups on an almost full month !
As I said, terrible !!

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Re: [BackupPC-users] Help with monthly schedule configuration

[Jamie Burchell]

Thanks for the info. I can assure you I've read the docs, many times :) I'm
clearly just a bit of a slow learner...

I've gone with the schedule that looks correct for now and will see what
happens!

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Re: [BackupPC-users] Help with monthly schedule configuration

[Bzzzz]

On Wed, 15 Nov 2017 21:59:28 -
Jamie Burchell  wrote:

> Hi!

Ho¡

> Hoping someone can give me that “ah ha!” moment that I’m so desperately
> craving after pouring over the documentation, mailing lists and various
> forum posts.

Jiff chops a “ah ha!” moment from the (near) field,
cooks it and => Jamie Burchell a hot “ah ha!” moment.

> I want to move from BackupPC’s default schedule to keeping ~1 month’s
> worth of backups, but I cannot fathom if I should:
> -  Do a full backup every day and keep 30 of them
> -  Do a full backup every week and keep 4 of them, with
> incrementals in between
> -  Do a full backup each month and keep 30 incrementals.

For what it's worth (I'm not a BPC specialist, just a doc reader), I keep
several filled incrementals each day (~a month), plus some fulls every
sunday (5, with the last of them a real SOS as it is extra-old.)

This way, as incrementals looks complete (and fulls looks… full;),
I just use the last backup, pick what I need and restore it when needed.

> BackupPC is so efficient with storage and transferring only what is
> needed between backups that I don’t understand the difference between
> the three approaches.

IIRC, fulls are unconditionally full backups, meaning they do not care
about whatever took place formerly, meaning you either take disk place
for nothing if you do one/day (links are cheap but not free in term of
HD place.)

> All backups can be browsed like full backups,

Yep, but only if you said so, part of BPC black magic.

> BackupPC only ever transfers files it doesn’t have, all storage is
> deduplicated and rsync can detect changes, new files and deletions, so
> why does it matter?

All this takes time when an incremental take usually (much) less time 
(NB: we're NOT talking about very busy and large databases that have a
short rotation of the whole rows here, just regular data.)

> FullPeriod 6.97
> FullKeepCnt 4
> IncrPeriod 0.97
> IncrKeepCnt 24
> I **think** this will give me 4 full backups with incrementals in
> between, but I think I could have equally have gone with:

Looks correct.

> FullPeriod 30
> FullKeepCnt 1
> IncrPeriod 0.97
> IncrKeepCnt 29

No, as it will keep more fulls than necessary.

> I don’t understand what is meant by a “filled backup” either.

Reading the doc helps, a lot.

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[BackupPC-users] Help with monthly schedule configuration

[Jamie Burchell]

Hi!



Hoping someone can give me that “ah ha!” moment that I’m so desperately
craving after pouring over the documentation, mailing lists and various
forum posts.



I want to move from BackupPC’s default schedule to keeping ~1 month’s worth
of backups, but I cannot fathom if I should:



-  Do a full backup every day and keep 30 of them

-  Do a full backup every week and keep 4 of them, with
incrementals in between

-  Do a full backup each month and keep 30 incrementals.



BackupPC is so efficient with storage and transferring only what is needed
between backups that I don’t understand the difference between the three
approaches. All backups can be browsed like full backups, BackupPC only
ever transfers files it doesn’t have, all storage is deduplicated and rsync
can detect changes, new files and deletions, so why does it matter? I am
using rsync (over SSH), network speed and reliability is good and the
drives are all SSD.



The settings I currently have are:



FullPeriod 6.97

FullKeepCnt 4

IncrPeriod 0.97

IncrKeepCnt 24



I **think** this will give me 4 full backups with incrementals in between,
but I think I could have equally have gone with:



FullPeriod 30

FullKeepCnt 1

IncrPeriod 0.97

IncrKeepCnt 29



I don’t understand what is meant by a “filled backup” either.



Thanks for any clarity/help in advance!



Regards

Jamie
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