OZO Rdiff Backup Installation and Configuration

Overview

This script automates the use of rdiff-backup to perform incremental backups of remote linux systems over SSH. It will mount a dedicated volume to /srv/ozo-rdiff, generate an increment, perform increment maintenance, and unmount the volume. It runs with no arguments. When executed, it iterates through the CONF files in /etc/ozo-rdiff-backup.conf.d and performs the job.

Installation and Configuration

Choose an rdiff-backup system for running the script and storing the incremental backups. The hosts that are backed up are the remote system(s).

Installation

To install this script on your rdiff-backup system, you must first register the One Zero One repository.

AlmaLinux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Rocky Linux 10 (RPM)

rpm -Uvh https://repositories.onezeroone.dev/el/10/noarch/onezeroone-release-latest.el10.noarch.rpm
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-ONEZEROONE
dnf repolist
dnf -y install ozo-rdiff-backup

AlmaLinux 9, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Rocky Linux 9 (RPM)

rpm -Uvh https://repositories.onezeroone.dev/el/9/noarch/onezeroone-release-latest.el9.noarch.rpm
rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/RPM-GPG-KEY-ONEZEROONE
dnf repolist
dnf -y install ozo-rdiff-backup

Debian (DEB)

PENDING.

Configuration

Designate a Partition for Rdiff-Backup Operations

This script requires a dedicated volume that is mounted before running rdiff-backup jobs and unmounted when they are complete. On the rdiff-backup system (as root):

• Designate a partition (this could be on an external device) for storing rdiff increments and format it with the filesystem of your choice.

• Obtain the UUID of your filesystem with the blkid command.

• Test mounting the partition by UUID with with e.g., where "xxx..." is your UUID:

  mount UUID="xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" /srv/ozo-rdiff

• Unmount the partition

  umount /srv/ozo-rdiff

• Add a noauto entry in /etc/fstab for your UUID, e.g.:

  UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx /srv/ozo-rdiff xfs noauto 0 0

Configure ozo-rdiff-backup.conf

Edit /etc/ozo-rdiff-backup.conf and set LUUID to the UUID you identified above. Review the remaining variables:

Variable	Value	Description
LBACKUP_DIRNAME	backup	Name of the subdirectory of /srv/ozo-rdiff where rdiff increments will be stored.
LRESTORE_DIRNAME	restore	Name of the subdirectory of /srv/ozo-rdiff that can be used for restore operations.
RDEF_INCLUDES	/etc,/home,/root,/usr/local,/var	Directories that will be included in backup jobs for all remote systems.
RDEF_EXCLUDES	/,/var/lib/mysql	Directories that will be excluded from backup jobs for all remote systems.
LFSCK_DAY	1	Day to run fsck, Sunday=0, Monday=1, Tuesday=2, Wednesday=3, Thursday=4, Friday=5, and Saturday=6.

Create Remote Host Configuration File(s)

In /etc/rdiff-backup.conf.d, using ozo-rdiff-remote-host.conf.example as a template, create a CONF file for each remote system. Configuration file names must end in .conf.

Variable	Example Value	Description
RHOSTUSER	root	User that performs rdiff-backup on the remote system.
RHOSTFQDN	"rdiff-host.example.com"	Fully qualified domain name of the remote system.
RSSHPORT	22	SSH port for establishing a connection to the remote host.
RHOST_INCLUDES	"/srv/plex,/usr/lib/plexmediaserver"	Comma-separated list of additional inclusions for this remote system.
RHOST_EXCLUDES	"/var/lib/pgsql"	Comma-separated list of additional exclusions for this remote system.
RAGE	180	How many increments to keep (days)

Configure Cron

Modify /etc/cron.d/ozo-rdiff-backup to suit your scheduling needs. The default configuration runs ozo-rdiff-backup.sh every day at 6:00am.

Configure Local and Remote SSH

Rdiff-Backup System

On the rdiff-backup system (as root):

• Generate SSH keys for the root user:

  # ssh keygen

• Install your root user SSH keys to each of the Remote System(s) with e.g.:

  ssh-copy-id -i root@rdiff-host.example.com

Remote System(s)

On the remote system(s) (as root), install rdiff-backup.

• AlmaLinux, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Rocky Linux (DNF): dnf install rdiff-backup
• Debian (APT): apt-get install rdiff-backup

Edit /root/.ssh/authorized_keys and prepend the shared key with:

command="rdiff-backup server --restrict-mode read-only"

Notes

Please visit One Zero One to learn more about other work.