VBACKUP(8)						      System Manager's Manual							VBACKUP(8)

NAME

       vbackup - A modular backup program

SYNOPSIS

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

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.

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 bellow: <name> refers to the name of a backup strategy (e.g. 0, 5, test0, test5, etc). <config> refers to  a  configuration
       file  name  and	it is in the form XX-NAME.TYPE where XX is a number indicating a priority, NAME is an arbitrary name and TYPE is the core-
       sponding module name (e.g. xfsdump) (example: 50-home.xfsdump, 20-mbr.mbr, 10-remote.nfsmount, etc). <module> refers to a module name (e.g.
       xfsdump)

       --check <name>
	      Check configuration files for a specific backup strategy (name). Each module checks its own configuration file.

       --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 config-
	      uration parameters are shown.

       --version
	      Guess what...

       --rc --list [<name>]
	      List available backup types in the rc.d directory or (if name is specified) list enable scripts in a backup strategy. This is  simi-
	      lar to browser the directories with ls.

       --rc --init <name>
	      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 <config>
	      Add a new configuration file to the rc.d directory. It will ask a number of questions and the create the configuration file based on
	      the sample file.

       --rc --delete <config>
	      Delete an existing configuration file from the rc.d directory.

       --rc --enable <config> <name>
	      Enable a configuration file for a backup strategy by creating a symlink.

       --rc --disable <config> <name>
	      Disable a configuration file for a backup strategy by remove the symlink.

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 backup.XXXXX where XXXXX is the name of the backup strategy.

       For example, a simplistic backup strategy may have two directories named backup.0 and backup.5. Each of	them  will  include  configuration
       files that describe level 0 and level 5 system backups.

       It is advised to have a directory named rc.d under /etc/vbackup that will hold all configuration files. After that, individual backup.XXXXX
       directories will only contain links to those files. It is absolutely sure that some files will be the same among different  backup  strate-
       gies and trying to keep them synchronized will be an uneeded pain.

       Each  configuration  file 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. Each configura-
       tion file is in the form something.modulename. It is suggested that something is in the form of NN-string where NN is a two (or more) digit
       number and string is a descriptive string. For example, a good name is "00-myserver.nfsmount". This clearly shows that a path  in  myserver
       will  be mounted using nfs and it will help you when 2 years later you'll attempt to edit those files. The number prefix helps in determin-
       ing the sorting order. All configuration files are examined in a sorted order.

       The complete documentation is in the README files.

BACKUP

       After having created at least one backup.XXXXX directory in /etc/vbackup, you can perform that backup by running "vbackup XXXXX". 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!

       ftar   Use tar to backup a filesystem but use find to locate the files to backup. This is simillar 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 expression 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.

       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.  Very  useful  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.

       rpm    Backup RPM database.

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

       tar    Perform incremental backups using the listed-incremental format of GNU tar. Use the --noplugin parameter when editing tar configura-
	      tion files (!!!).

       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 very simple scripts that will be combined with other scripts. Read the README.dev file for more  informa-
       tion and have a look at other modules.

AUTHOR - COPYRIGHT
       vbackup is written and maintained by Stefanos Harhalakis.  Copyright (c) 2006-2012 Harhalakis Stefanos

CONTACT

       For bugs, requests, ideas, comments or 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  MER-
       CHANTABILITY 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.

SEE ALSO

       vbackup-wizard(8)

								   Mar 06, 2012 							VBACKUP(8)