stressfree - backup

A handy backup script for remote hosting

David — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 11:22:12 +0000

I use Media Temple for hosting of websites and Subversion repositories. The quality of service they provide is solid (especially considering the price) and the ability to SSH into the server and dig around at the command line is a huge plus. Unfortunately one of the areas they are lacking in is backups.

Media Temple provide a backup service but it is very limited in terms of capacity and granularity. Their backup function also does not provide any Subversion repository dump support which is crucial if you have ever experienced the pain of recovering from a Berkeleydb corruption.

Below is a script I use to backup my web domains, databases and Subversion repositories to compressed tar archives. Once these have been generated they are uploaded to the Amazon S3 storage cloud to create an off-site backup of off-site resources. The ability to backup directly from Media Temple to Amazon is great because it removes the middle-man (me) and maximises bandwidth usage. Pulling a tonne of data from the United States to New Zealand just to send it back again is certainly not an economical use of Internet resources.

Edit the variables at the top of the file to suit your hosting environment. Remember to set the file's execute permission bit otherwise it is not going to run (e.g. chmod a+x backup_server.sh).

backup_server.sh

#!/bin/sh

# A list of website directories to back up
websites="website1.com website2.com website3.com website4.com"

# A list of subversion repositories to back up
svnrepos="repo1 repo2 repo3 repo4"

# The destination directory to backup the files to
destdir=/var/backups

# The directory where all website domain directories reside
domaindir=/srv/www/vhosts

# The directory where all subversion repositories reside
svndir=/srv/svn

# The MySQL database hostname
dbhost=example.mysqldatabase.com

# The MySQL database username - requires read access to databases
dbuser=exampleuser

# The MySQL database password
dbpassword=examplepassword

echo `date` ": Beginning backup process..." > $destdir/backup.log

# remove old backups
rm $destdir/*.tar.gz

# backup databases
for dbname in `echo 'show databases;' | /usr/bin/mysql -h $dbhost -u$dbuser -p$dbpassword`
do
if [ $dbname != "Database" ];
then
echo `date` ": Backing up database $dbname..." >> $destdir/backup.log
/usr/bin/mysqldump --opt -h $dbhost -u$dbuser -p$dbpassword $dbname > $destdir/$dbname.sql
tar -czf $destdir/$dbname.sql.tar.gz $destdir/$dbname.sql
rm $destdir/$dbname.sql
fi
done

# backup web content
echo `date` ": Backing up web content..." >> $destdir/backup.log
for website in $websites
do
echo `date` ": Backing up website $website..." >> $destdir/backup.log
tar -czf $destdir/$website.tar.gz $domaindir/$website
done

# backup subversion repositories
echo `date` ": Backing up subversion data..." >> $destdir/backup.log
for svnrepo in $svnrepos
do
echo `date` ": Backing up svn repo $svnrepo..." >> $destdir/backup.log
svnadmin dump -q $svndir/$svnrepo > $destdir/$svnrepo.svn
tar -czf $destdir/$svnrepo.svn.tar.gz $destdir/$svnrepo.svn
rm $destdir/$svnrepo.svn
done

echo `date` ": Backup process complete." >> $destdir/backup.log

Once the backup process is complete the archives can be uploaded to Amazon's S3 via the s3backup tool. Follow the instructions as described in Paul Stamatiou's excellent how-to post entitled 'Bulletproof Server Backups with Amazon S3'.

Below is a small script I use to run s3backup which uploads the previously created archives.

s3_backup.sh (again remember to set execute permissions on the file)

#!/bin/sh

# The directory where s3sync is installed
s3syncdir=/usr/local/s3sync

# The directory where the backup archives are stored
backupdir=/var/backups

# The S3 bucket a.k.a. directory to upload the backups into
s3bucket=backups

cd $s3syncdir
./s3sync.rb $backupdir/ $s3bucket:

Once both scripts have been tested they can be added as cron jobs and left to themselves. If you wanted with a bit of tweaking to the s3_backup.sh script (or cron) you could create multiple remote backup versions on S3 just in case an archive gets corrupted or there is a need to restore something overridden in your previous backup.

Large file support with an Unslung NSLU2

David — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 04:03:57 +0000

I have written previously on how cool the little NSLU2 is as a customisable NAS device. I have set mine up as a little backup device, it silently backs up my server files (using rsync), creates tar files from all the files and then presents these archives to Retrospect on my Mac for backing up to external media and taking off-site. Unfortunately the default 'ls' and 'tar' programs that come with the Unslung distribution do not support large file sizes or long filenames to fix this problem download the far more up-to-date versions using ipkg:

# Whilst logged in as root (or use sudo)
ipkg install coreutils
ipkg install tar
mv /bin/ls /bin/ls.old
mv /bin/tar /bin/tar.old
ln -s /opt/bin/ls /bin/ls
ln -s /opt/bin/tar /bin/tar

Running these commands will replace the outdated programs with their newer counterparts which results in far smoother backups.

Backups, the bane of computers

David — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 01:10:57 +0000

After having my fair share of backup dilemmas and stress Tim Bray's post at least gives hope that I am not alone. It is strange that there really are not that many decent backup products considering how simple the task really is.

The most effective backup system I have used is the one I wrote myself for Linux servers. It is simple, flexible, non-proprietary and most importantly it seems to work without hassle. It comprises of a bash script and some configuration files.

The bash script compresses gzipped tar archives onto a removable hard drive. In most cases I use two removeable drives for redundancy. Typically all user data is stored in the /home directory with a few special directories: media (music/movies), temp and data shared amoungst the users. The /home/data directory holds most of the office data and as such the backup script breaks archiving of this data into smaller pieces in order to facilitate easier restoration.
The backup script stores multiple backups on disk to ensure that a corrupted backup does not lead to significant loss of data. The backup usually runs every night with the removable disks swapped during the day. On completion (or failure) of a backup an automated email is sent out to interested parties.

Below is the bash script (typically /usr/local/sbin/backup_script):

#!/bin/bash
# configure variables for script
servername=`awk '/^servername/{print $2}' $1`
serveremail=`awk '/^serveremail/{print $2}' $1`
destdir=`awk '/^backupdir/{print $2}' $1`
movedir=`awk '/^movedir/{print $2}' $1`
lockfile=`awk '/^lockfile/{print $2}' $1`
endofweek=`awk '/^endofweek/{print $2}' $1`
eowflag=`awk '/^eowflag/{print $2}' $1`
device=`awk '/^device/{print $2}' $1`
volume=`awk '/^volume/{print $2}' $1`
email=`awk '/^email/{print $2}' $1`
dbhost=`awk '/^dbhost/{print $2}' $1`
dbuser=`awk '/^dbuser/{print $2}' $1`
dbpassword=`awk '/^dbpassword/{print $2}' $1`
processexists=`awk '/^processexists/{print $2}' $1`
mountfailure=`awk '/^mountfailure/{print $2}' $1`

if [ -e $lockfile ]
then
echo "Backup task already operating, please try again later"
mail -s "Backup of $servername Failed: Process already running" -r $serveremail $email < $processexists
exit
else
# See if device is plugged in and available
umount $device
mount $device $mount
if [[ $? -eq 0 ]] ;
then
echo "Media available and ready to go..."
else
echo "Backup task could not continue, media unmountable"
mail -s "Backup of $servername Failed: Media Unavailable" -r $serveremail $email < $mountfailure
exit
fi

# Perform backup
/bin/touch $lockfile
echo "Performing data backup"
# Change directory to a safe place just in case anything bad happens
cd /tmp
if [ endofweek != "true" ]
then
# Delete end of week flag if it exists
/bin/rm $eowflag
/bin/rm -fr $volume$movedir/*
/bin/mv $volume$destdir/* $volume$movedir/
echo "Beginning daily backup: " `date` > $volume$destdir/backup.log
else
# Does the end of week flag exist? If it does do not move files
if [ -e $eowflag ]
then
# Flag exists - weekly backup already made, just delete existing files
/bin/rm -fr $volume$destdir/*
echo "Beginning daily backup: " `date` > $volume$destdir/backup.log
else
# Move files
/bin/rm -fr $volume$movedir/*
/bin/mv $volume$destdir/* $volume$movedir/
/bin/touch $eowflag
echo "Beginning weekly backup: " `date` > $volume$destdir/backup.log
fi
fi
# note time
echo "Backup started: " `date` > $volume$destdir/backup.log
echo "-------------------------------------------------------" >> $volume$destdir/backup.log

# backup project data
cd $volume$destdir
mkdir data
# Change to data directory for file listing
cd /home/data
for datadir in *
do
echo `date` ": Backing up data folder $datadir..." >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
tar czf "$volume$destdir/data/$datadir.tar.gz" "$datadir"
done
# Jump back into backup directory
cd $volume$destdir

# backup home directories
for homedir in `ls /home`
do
if [ $homedir != ".cpan" ]
then
if [ $homedir != "backup" ]
then
if [ $homedir != "temp" ]
then
if [ $homedir != "media" ]
then
if [ $homedir != "data" ]
then
echo `date` ": Backing up home directory of $homedir..." >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
tar zcf $volume$destdir/home_$homedir.tar.gz /home/$homedir
fi
fi
fi
fi
fi
done

# Backup Apache Files
echo `date` ": Backing up Web Server Files" >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
tar zcf $volume$destdir/server.tar.gz /srv

# backup databases
for dbname in `echo 'show databases;' | /usr/bin/mysql -h $dbhost -u$dbuser -p$dbpassword`
do
if [ $dbname != "Database" ];
then
echo `date` ": Backing up database $dbname..." >> $destdir/backup.log
/usr/bin/mysqldump --opt -h $dbhost -u$dbuser -p$dbpassword $dbname > $destdir/$dbname.sql
fi
done
# Now compress backed up databases into archive
tar cf - $destdir/*.sql | gzip > $destdir/db_backup.tar.gz
# Remove SQL
rm $destdir/*.sql

# Backup LDAP Data
echo `date` ": Backing up LDAP data" >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
ldapsearch -x > $volume$destdir/ldap.ldif

# Backup Configuration Files
echo `date` ": Backing up configuration files" >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
tar zcf $volume$destdir/server_configs.tar.gz /etc

# Backup completed
echo "-------------------------------------------------------" >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
echo "Backup completed: " `date` >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
echo "Backup size: " `du -smh $volume$destdir` >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
echo "-------------------------------------------------------" >> $volume$destdir/backup.log
echo df $device -h
echo "Backup process completed"
rm $lockfile
mail -s "Backup of $servername Completed" -r $serveremail $email < $volume$destdir/backup.log
fi
umount $device
exit

The backup script pulls data from a few configuration files, the main file is normally named backup-daily.conf and stored in /etc/backup

servername SomeServer
serveremail email@someserver.com
backupdir /backupA
movedir /backupB
lockfile /var/run/backup_script.pid
endofweek false
eowflag /var/run/backup_eow
device /dev/sda1
volume /media/backup_daily
dbhost localhost
dbuser user
dbpassword password
email notifyme@someplace.com
processexists /etc/backup/processexists
mountfailure /etc/backup/mountfailure

Here is a definition of the configuration options:

servername - name of server
serveremail - From email address for server emails
backupdir - directory on backup drive to backup to
movedir - directory on backup drive to move previous backup to
lockfile - name of lock file to create whilst backup is taking place
endofweek - true/false whether this is an end of week backup
eowflag - name of flag to set if this is an end of week backup
device - removable media device address
volume - location removable media is mounted to
email - addresses to send backup notification email to
processexists - message to email if the process is still running and a new process cannot begin
mountfailure - message to send if there was a problem mounting the backup drive

The backup can then be run using the following command:

/usr/local/sbin/backup_script /etc/backup/backup-daily.conf

Multiple backup configurations can be created and executed just by substituing /etc/backup/backup-daily.conf with the location of the desired configuration file.