Remote backups

Due to its internals, the WABAC Machine only supports remote backups in a precise way. In fact, the WABAC Machine will run properly only if the destination is local. But, obvisously, and thanks to UNIX, a local destination can be a remote share mounted in the local filesystem tree.

Sadly, if you plan to use a rsync module or SSH, you can't use mount. But you may use another trick (not ideal, but still working) which consists in pulling the data (the server runs the WABAC Machine and connects to the client(s)) instead of pushing it (the client runs the WABAC Machine).

Protocol	Support
AFP	✅     if mounted locally
SMB	✅     if mounted locally
NFS	✅     if mounted locally
rsync module	✅     if pulling data
SSH	✅     if pulling data

Working with AFP, SMB or NFS

There are basically 2 ways of getting this working. You can either:

• Create an entry in your /etc/fstab file,
• Mount the share point on the fly (and unmount it when the backup is done).

The first method isn't covered by this documentation. You will easily find help about this subject on the Internet.

The second method makes use of preflight/postflight scripts. The idea is to mount the share via a preflight script, and to unmount it via a postflight script. The WABAC Tools provides some functions that might help you get done with this strategy.

Working with SSH or a rsync module

It's pretty straightforward. You just have to put the SSH or rsync module connexion string as your source.

rsync module

For a rsync module, it means that your source should match one of the following template :

• [USER@]HOST::SRC
• rsync://[USER@]HOST[:PORT]/SRC

SSH

For SSH, your source should match this template :

• [USER@]HOST:SRC

⚠️ If you plan to use SSH, you should really consider using keys along with ssh_config.

For example, in your /etc/ssh/ssh_config, you could specify :

Host client1
    HostName client1.domain.com
    Port 22000
    User backup
    IdentityFile ~/.ssh/backup-client1.key

Which would allow you to set your source (in your WABAC Machine configuration file) as such :

source=client1:/home

The manpages for rsync, ssh_config and ssh-keygen should help you here.

Initialization

If you have a preflight script to mount a remote share, it's time to run it !

Once done, initialize the WABAC Machine :

sudo WABACMachine.sh init <source> <destination>

Please replace <source> and <destination> with the actual source and destination.

For example, if you want to backup your home directory (/home/john) to a remote NFS share mounted in /media/nfs-backups, you would type :

sudo WABACMachine.sh init /home/john/ /media/nfs-backups

If you want to backup the home directories from a distant host called client1 through SSH, you would type :

sudo WABACMachine.sh init client1:/home/ /backups

If everything runs fine, you should see something like this :

The WABAC Machine has been successfully initialized.

Run 'WABACMachine.sh backup' as root to create a new backup.
Run 'WABACMachine.sh help' to get some help.

The WABAC Machine has created a default configuration file called WABACMachine.conf in your current working directory. You can edit it to suit your needs.

The WABAC Machine has also created a file called .wabac_machine_is_present in <destination>. This will make sure we use this destination and not something such as an empty mount point.

You should now edit your configuration file and fill the preflight and postflight preferences if you have to.

And that's it ! You are ready to go !

If you are not really confident, you can set the WABAC Machine to conduct a dry run.

Once everything is OK and checked, you will probably want to automate the backup process.