Getting started

Requirements

The very first requirement is rsync. The WABAC Machine is just a smart wrapper around this wonderful program. Hopefully, it is a free software, included in most Linux distribs. If you run OSX, you should read Running on OSX before getting started.

You will also need to run the WABAC Machine as root.

You will need to be able to understand and edit a configuration file, which shouldn't be too difficult.

Basic knowledge in permissions and Bash can be useful, but not required.

Downloading the WABAC Machine

To download the WABAC Machine, you can either download it directly from the github repository or you can :

cd /the/directory/of/your/choice
git clone https://github.com/Frzk/WABACMachine.git
chmod u+x ./WABACMachine.sh

Understanding source and destination

To get started, you will need to define 2 things : a source and a destination.

Remember : files are copied from source to destination.

Source

The source is the directory that contains the data you want to backup.

The source can be either :

• a local directory,
• a remote directory mounted locally (NFS, SMB, AFP, ...),
• a remote directory accessible through SSH or an rsync module.

⚠️ Specifying the source is a little bit tricky.

If you put a trailing slash, the WABAC Machine will backup the content of the directory.

If you omit the trailing slash, the WABAC Machine will backup the directory AND its content.

Here is a little example, so you might understand better :

With a trailing slash :

source=/home/john/    # Notice the trailing slash
destination=/media/backups

You will end up with :

$ tree /media/backups
2015-06-05-152031
  - Documents
     - ...
  - Music
     - ...
  - Photos
     - ...
  - Videos
     - ...

Without a trailing slash :

source=/home/john    # Notice : no trailing slash
destination=/media/backups

You will end up with :

$ tree /media/backups
2015-06-05-152031
  - john             # The difference is HERE !
     - Documents
        - ...
     - Music
        - ...
     - Photos
        - ...
     - Videos
        - ...

Destination

The destination is the directory that contains the backups.

The destination must be :

• a local directory,
• or a remote directory mounted locally (NFS, SMB, AFP, ...).

Initializing the WABAC Machine

If both source and destination are local, you should go on and read the page about local backups.

If your source or your destination is distant, you should go on and read the page about remote backups.