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Setting up Boxbackup

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I have been looking into getting a remote backup. I run TimeMachine backups in my Mac-environment, but I need a remote backup of eg. my digital pictures.

So I have been working on a server in our cottage that could be a backup server, and my NAS back home could be a client to that server :-) Belov is a description of my installation of the server and a client of a [Boxbackup] (http://www.boxbackup.org/) setup.  For the base installation of the client and server software, please consult the [wiki] (http://www.boxbackup.org/wiki/Installation). I will describe my configuration only.

##Server configuration

The server is a Dell OptiPlex-760 running Linux Mint Maya. I have reserved 2 disks (1TB each) in the server. These will act as disks in the backup storage. I have made a directory on each of the disks to put the backup files into:

OptiPlex-760 ~ # mkdir /mnt/backup1/box
OptiPlex-760 ~ # mkdir /mnt/backup2/box

Boxbackup stores on RAID only - and I dont have RAID. But the configuration handles this nicely:

OptiPlex-760 ~ # raidfile-config /etc/boxbackup 4096 /mnt/backup1/box
WARNING: userland RAID is disabled.
Config file written.

This added one of the disks. To add another, you need to edit the raid-config file (/etc/boxbackup/raidfile.conf). Below disc0 was generated by the tool, and the disc1 was added by hand.

disc0
{
            SetNumber = 0
            BlockSize = 4096
            Dir0 = /mnt/backup1/box
            Dir1 = /mnt/backup1/box
            Dir2 = /mnt/backup1/box
}

disc1
{
            SetNumber = 1
            BlockSize = 4096
            Dir0 = /mnt/backup2/box
            Dir1 = /mnt/backup2/box
            Dir2 = /mnt/backup2/box
}

Remember to let the backup daemon have rights to the backup directories:

OptiPlex-760 ~ # chown -R bbstored:bbstored box

We are ready to configure bbstored to run as the user bbstored on the server backupserver (changed to prevent misuse), with configuration file in /etc/boxbackup:

OptiPlex-760 ~ # bbstored-config /etc/boxbackup backupserver bbstored

In order for the server and the client to be able to communicate secure, a PKI infrastructure is [established](https://www.boxbackup.org/wiki/CertificatesAndAccountsManagement\):

OptiPlex-760 ~ # bbstored-certs /root/certs init
OptiPlex-760 ~ # bbstored-certs /root/certs sign-server /etc/boxbackup/bbstored/backupserver-csr.pem
OptiPlex-760 ~ # cp /root/certs/servers/backup.rasta.dk-cert.pem /etc/boxbackup/bbstored/
OptiPlex-760 ~ # cp /root/certs/roots/clientCA.pem /etc/boxbackup/bbstored/

Now the clients can be configured. A client needs an account on the server:

OptiPlex-760 ~ # bbstoreaccounts create 0 0 970G 1000G

This creates the account 0 on the disk set 0 with a soft limit at 970GB and a hard limit at 1000GB.

##Client configuration

On the client we need to create a configuration and a certificate that we can send to the administrator of the server (in order to get it signed and registered).

[jesper@tranquil ~]$ sudo bbackupd-config /usr/local/etc/boxbackup snapshot 0 backupserver /var/bbackupd /home

This creates a configuration in /usr/local/etc/boxbackup, uses snapshot backup as the account 0 against the server backupserver. It uses a working dir /var/bbackupd and initially backs up /home. I need more paths in my backup, and this is accomplished by editing the configuration /usr/local/etc/boxbackup/bbackupd.conf. Below I have added /root, /etc and my photos /data1/photo

BackupLocations
{
            home
            {
                        Path = /home
            }
            root-dir
            {
                        Path = /root
            }
            etc
            {
                        Path = /etc
            }
            photo
            {
                        Path = /data1/photo
            }
}

We have with the bbackupd-config command created a certificate to be signed by the administrator of the server. So send /usr/local/etc/boxbackup/bbackupd/0-csr.pem to the administrator, and he will

OptiPlex-760 ~ # bbstored-certs certs sign 0-csr.pem

and send back 0-cert.pem and serverCA.pem which on the client can be installed under /usr/local/etc/boxbackup/bbackupd/

On the client (re)start the daemon bbackupd and on the server (re)start the daemon bbstored.

Remember to make a copy of the private key on the client in order to be able to read the backups. It is located in /usr/local/etc/boxbackup/bbackupd/0-FileEncKeys.raw

This should be a secure offsite backup. Without it, you cannot restore backups. Everything else can be replaced. But this cannot.  KEEP IT IN A SAFE PLACE, OTHERWISE YOUR BACKUPS ARE USELESS.

To make a backup initiated from the client run:

/usr/local/bin/bbackupctl -q sync

This should be part of a cron-job.