Title: Configure BackupPC Client
Course: CIS 208: Linux/UNIX III: Intermediate System Administration, Networking, and Security ~ For IGNITE Review > Section: Learning Modules

Configure BackupPC Client

Whenever a new server is to be added, run the following commands to enable ssh connections to the root account on the new host.

This example sets up and then tests connections to the localhost.

su -- backuppc -s /bin/sh
cat id_rsa.pub | ssh root@localhost "cat >>
~/.ssh/authorized_keys"
ssh root@localhost date
exit

The admin account will have access to manage backups on all hosts.  However it may be necessary to create user accounts for a specific server.

In this example, an account is created for the user webadmin.

htpasswd -c /etc/BackupPC/apache.users webadmin

Using the web interface, set up a new host using the rsync over ssh method.  Select which files to backup, or which files to not backup.  For example, on a typical database server, it would be desirable to backup everything except /tmp, /mnt, /media, /proc and /sys.  For a fileserver, each user would have an account in which only their home directory is selected.

Be sure to include a valid email address for each host, since email notifications can and will be sent when needed.  The email will be sent to the owner of the host in the host's configuration.

After ensuring that a backup can be performed successfully, test that files can be restored.  As the system administrator, test restoring both to an alternate location and to the original location.  Verify that permissions and ownership are correct.  If desired, test a zip and tarball archive as well.