Ubuntu Manpage: vbackup - A modular backup program

NAME

       vbackup - A modular backup program

SYNOPSIS

          vbackup [OPTIONS] [ --check ] [strategy] level
          vbackup [OPTIONS] { --list | --help [module] | --version | --init }
          vbackup [OPTIONS] --rc --list [strategy] [level]
          vbackup [OPTIONS] --rc --init strategy
          vbackup [OPTIONS] --rc { --add | --delete } [strategy] config
          vbackup [OPTIONS] --rc { --enable | --disable } [strategy] config

DESCRIPTION

       vbackup  is  a  program  that  performs  system  backups.  The backup strategy is specified with a set of
       minimal configuration files that exist in directories under /etc/vbackup. See the quickstart section  for
       quick first-time setup.

       The full documentation of vbackup is available online at http://vbackup.readthedocs.org

OPTIONS

       -d <level>
              Set  the  message  level to <level> (default level is 8): 1: Fatal, 2: Error, 3: Warning, 4: Note,
              5-7: Information (5: Rare messages, 6: Useful message, 7: Not so useful),  10-14:  Debug  messages
              that don't flood, 15-19: Debug messages that flood

        --dir <directory>
              Set  the  configuration  directory.  This is only useful in case you want to implement (e.g.) user
              backups, so each user may have her own configuration directory.

COMMANDS

       In all commands below: <strategy> refers to the name of a  backup  strategy  (e.g.  test,  remote,  etc).
       <level>  refers to the backup level that is to be performed. <config> refers to a configuration file name
       and it is in the form XX-NAME.TYPE or XX-NAME-LEVEL.TYPE, where XX is a  number  indicating  a  priority,
       NAME  is  an arbitrary name, LEVEL is an optional backup level (0-9) and TYPE is the corresponding module
       name (e.g. xfsdump) (example: 50-home.xfsdump, 20-mbr-0.mbr, 10-remote.nfsmount, etc). <module> refers to
       a module name (e.g. xfsdump)

       --check [<strategy>] [<level>]
              Check configuration files for a specific backup strategy. Each module checks its own configuration
              file. If strategy is omitted then the default strategy will be checked. If level is provided  then
              only config files that apply to that level will be checked.

       --list List all available modules, their version and a brief description.

       --help [<module>]
              Show  some  help.  If  a  module  is  passed as argument then it will display some help about that
              module. This is where the module configuration parameters are shown.

       --version
              Guess what...

       --init Shortcut for --rc --init.

       --rc --list [<stategy>] [<level>]
              List the configuration of a certain  backup  strategy.  If  level  is  specified  then  only  list
              configuration  that  applies  to  that  level.  If  strategy  is  omitted the look for the default
              strategy. This similar to looking at the directories with ls.

       --rc --init <strategy>
              Create/initialize a new backup strategy. It will ask a couple of questions and then it will create
              the directory and populate it with a vbackup.conf file based on the answers.

       --rc --add [<strategy>] <config>
              Add a new configuration file to a certain backup strategy (or to the default). config is the  file
              name and must be in the form XX-NAME.TYPE or XX-NAME-LEVEL.TYPE, as described above.

       --rc --delete [<strategy>] <config>
              Delete an existing configuration file from a strategy.

       --rc --enable [<strategy>] <config>
              Enable a previously disabled configuration file by removing the .off extension.

       --rc --disable [<strategy>] <config>
              Disable a configuration file for a backup strategy by appending the .off extension.

QUICKSTART

       Use the vbackup-wizard(8) for quickstarting. Most probably that's what you will do the first time.

CONFIGURATION

       The  backup  strategy  is  specified  with a set of minimal configuration files that exist in directories
       under /etc/vbackup. Each directory is named rc.XXXXX.d where XXXXX is the name of  the  backup  strategy.
       There's also the default strategy that's using the directory rc.d.

       For most setups the default strategy should suffice.

       Each  strategy  must contain a vbackup.conf file that specifies some global configuration options (like a
       destination directory).  Next, it must contain one or more module  configuration  files.   The  available
       modules  can  be seen using the --list parameter.  The files in there are in the form XX-NAME.TYPE or XX-
       NAME-LEVEL.TYPE, where XX is a number indicating order, NAME is an arbitrary name, LEVEL is  an  optional
       level  and  TYPE  is the name of the module that will be invoked.  If LEVEL is specified then this config
       file will only apply to that LEVEL.

BACKUP

       After having defined at least one strategy you can perform that backup by running  "vbackup  <level>"  or
       "vbackup  <strategy>  <level>".   This  will  first  source  the  vbackup.conf and it will then check for
       existing configuration files.  For each one that is found,  it  will  determine  the  appropriate  backup
       module and run it.

MODULES

dpkg Backup the debian package list. Small space requirement and very useful for restoring a debian
system.

exec Execute shell commands. Allows custom things to happen between steps (e.g. creating a tar of the
whole backup directory or removing old backups).

exist Check whether a file or directory exists. This can be used to determine whether a filesystem is
actually mounted or not. It is strongly advised to use this when you're not using mount or
nfsmount!

gpg Encrypt a file or a directory using with GPG using a symmetric key. It can be used to encrypt the
whole backup before uploading the results to a remote system.

ftar (DEPRECATED)
Use tar to backup a filesystem but use find to locate the files to backup. This is similar to the
tar method but is not that good for incremental backups. If you restore a system that was
incrementally backed up using this method it will have all files that were deleted between
intermediate backups too. The advantage of this method is that you can use regular expressions to
filter files that will be backed up.

mbr Backup MBRs from all disks and their Partition Tables. It will also backup MD and LVM information
if any of those is detected. Extremely useful with very low space requirements.

md5 Calculate the md5sum of certain files. Can be used to store checksums of the backed up files in
order to be able to verify that they are not corrupted. If can also be used to store checksums of
system files.

mount Mount a local filesystem, in case you have an unmounted filesystem to perform backups (for example
a spare or external disk).

mysql Backup some or all MySQL databases.

nfsmount
Mount a remote filesystem using NFS.

off Don't do anything at all. Used for disabling configuration files. For example, if you rename
50-main.pgsql to 50-main.pgsql.off it will remain in the configuration directory by will be
disabled.

openldap
Backup OpenLDAP database and configuration (if it's stored in LDAP).

pgsql Backup some or all PostgreSQL databases.

rm Remove a directory recursively. Useful when storing the backup to a temporary directory before
(e.g.) moving it to another system or compressing it. It can be used to cleanup the directory
tree, both before and after a backup.

rpm Backup RPM database.

scp Copy files to a remote system using scp. It will copy directories recursively so it can be used to
copy a full backup.

tar Perform incremental backups using the listed-incremental format of GNU tar. Make sure to use the
--noplugin parameter when editing tar configuration files with vim.

umount Umount a filesystem that was previously mounted. This can be used for local and remote mounts. The
configuration of this module is compatible with the configuration of mount and nfsmount modules.
This means that you can just create a link to the coresponding mount configuration file to have it
unount the filesystem. (For example, link 00-remote.nfsmount to 99-remount.umount)

x509 Encrypt a file or a directory using an x509 certificate. This way backups can be safely stored in
remote systems.

xfsdump
Perform incremental backups using xfsdump. This is by far the very best way to backup an XFS
filesystem (as a whole). It works extremely well, it is very reliable and it is able to do live
backups. It is also very easy to restore all or part of the backed-up data using the interactive
xfsrestore utility (xfsrestore -i).

EXTENDING

       You can extend vbackup by writing simple scripts that will be combined with other scripts. See the online
       documentation for more information.

AUTHOR - COPYRIGHT

       vbackup is written and maintained by Stefanos Harhalakis.  Copyright (c) 2006-2016 Harhalakis Stefanos

CONTACT

       For bugs, requests, ideas, comments and anything else (except spam) contact <v13@v13.gr>

LICENSE

       This  program  is  free  software;  you  can  redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU
       General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License,  or
       (at your option) any later version.

       This  program  is  distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even
       the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General  Public
       License for more details.

       If  GPLv3 doesn't fit your needs (BSD?) feel free to contact me and I may release it with another license
       too.