Linux - CottageDATA Inc.
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1. fetch I homelsavel log Page 5 Backup series Your account on the OBS server holds multiple copies of your data fetch d going back several weeks This makes it possible for you to restore a file as it was a few days ago or even a few weeks ago Series Backup date The OBS server maintains an a series of backups which are one day Son JA Dera apart and a b series which are approximately one week apart To al Jul 03 i 2014 display what series are available in your account execute fetch with a2 Jul 02 2014 the d option for display to show the list of your backup dates with a3 Jul 01 2014 their associated series label as in this example a4 Jun 30 2014 In the example on the right you can see that series a0 to a7 contain copies of your backup data for the past 8 days then the b series holds older backups which are 8 days apart from each other This bO Jun 26 2014 makes it possible for you to restore files as old as two months if b1 Jun 18 2014 needed b2 Jun 10 2014 By default fetch retrieves files from the most recent backup series b3 Jun 02 2014 which is a0 However if you wish to restore or list files from a different series simply specify the desired series label with the s option for series as in fetch s b3 home john important doc Other options may be used in conjunction with s For example to z simply get a listing of certain files2. 3 644 Portland St Suite 250 CottageDATA Inc EEEE info CottageDATA com Information Technology Consulting 902 835 4994 Off site Backup Solution OBS for Linux User Manual IMPORTANT Although you don t need to be a guru to restore files or customize your OBS configuration you do need to be familiar with Linux directory structures and entering commands at the shell prompt If you are not comfortable with this please seek assistance from a qualified professional since errors in restoring data can have serious consequences Given the technical nature of system backups this user manual is aimed at a trained and technical audience Your OBS software When your system is initially set up CottageDATA installs the following utilities and configuration file in home bin on your Linux system obs_backup The program which uploads your data to the OBS server fetch A simple utility to restore files when needed or to list files you currently have stored on the off site backup server Note that a link named fetch is also created as a synonym for this program obs conf A configuration file used by the above programs to specify settings customized for your site such as which directories to back up where to send error logs etc OBS For Linux User Manual 2014 Page 1 The obs_backup program is customized to back up only the relevant directory structures on your system such as your correspondence and database data an
3. d avoids wasting valuable resources backing up programs and system files which never change and could be restored from their respective distribution media if needed As part of your initial installation we have configured your system to invoke obs_backup automatically at night with all appropriate command options You should never have to run this program manually The fetch program is your tool to restore files to your system You can use this utility to restore a single file or a set of files matching a wild card pattern like home sales Feb The next sections cover both of these utilities in detail Our Backup Technology OBS maintains a mirror image of the directory structures you have specified in your configuration file on the remote server There is no concept of full backup versus incremental backup in OBS because every backup updates this mirror image to be a true reflection of your system including removing files which you have deleted on your system without having to actually copy all the files or guessing which files should get updated based on the date of your last backup To accomplish this we use a combination of utilities such as rsync and ssh and we compress the data before it is uploaded in order to maximize efficiency Doing a Backup Manual backup Simply invoking the command obs_backup as the superuser root will trigger a system backup Normally however this is done automat
4. e it is run or upon failure only respectively Another variable you might want to modify is DIR_LIST which specifies the directory structures to back up NOTE Keep in mind that only user created files such as documents database data and email correspondence need to be backed up regularly It is wasteful to back up programs and static files which never change or can be restored from distribution media Backing up unwarranted directory structures may cause you to require a higher disk quota than you really need The file obs conf also contains parameters to specify certain directory structures to be excluded from the backup For example you could specify that you want to back up the entire home structure except for home tmp and home junk If you would like to receive an email message upon a backup failure simply edit the variable EMAIL to the desired address Of course this will only work if your server is configured as an email server which is something CottageDATA can set up for you upon request Note that by default backup failures will generate a hard copy report on your system printer to notify the staff to report the problem The file obs conf features other parameters you can tweak if desired please read the ample comments in that file if you wish to learn more Restoring files with fetch Restoring one file To restore files simply login as root the system administrator on your Linux system then enter the c
5. from that series without actually extracting them you could use the l option as in fetch I s b3 home john doc Handling Backup Failures Notifications In rare cases your backup may fail due to a drop in your Internet connection or to some other technical problem If this happens an error log will be sent to your printer or an alert message will be sent to you by email depending on how your OBS software was configured If you are notified of a failure please contact CottageDATA immediately to report the problem Positive Confirmation of Success By default obs_backup only sends an alert if an error has been detected However if the backup program did not run at all for some reason a failure in the task scheduler for example then no alert would be generated since the program never started In this theoretical scenario you might not realize that your backups are not being done If you wish to avoid this potential situation you can opt to have a positive confirmation printed each time the backup completes regardless of whether the backup succeeded or failed This way if the log does not print one morning or you do not receive an email notification you will know Page 6 that something has gone wrong and you can notify CottageDATA immediately to have the matter investigated To have a notification generated every time obs_backup runs regardless of success or failure simply edit the file obs conf to set the va
6. ically through a crontab entry crontab is the Linux task scheduler This will have been set up by CottageDATA when the software was initially installed so you should never need to manually do a backup except for testing or maintenance purposes Scheduling backups The following crontab entry will invoke obs_backup at 3 AM every day and will redirect any output to a file in home save for reference purposes 03 homelbiniobs_backup gt homelsavelobs cron 2 gt amp 1 NOTE If your OBS software was installed by CottageDATA when you subscribed to the service a suitable crontab entry has already been created for you so there is no further action required on your part Page 2 Checking logs The obs_backup program maintains logs on the Linux system in the directory specified in the configuration file obs conf typically this directory will be home save backups The file Day log ex Thu log for Thursday s log contains a summary of the backup process and is the file printed by the obs_backup program when configured to generate a status print out Customizing your backups It is possible for qualified system administrators to customize the backup process by editing the configuration file obs conf located in the same directory as obs_backup typically in home bin For instance by setting the variable PRINT_ON_SUCCESS to either yes or no you can get the program to print a confirmation report each tim
7. ommand fetch with the full pathname of the file you wish to restore For example to restore the file home mary stuff enter fetch home mary stuff Page 3 The program will then present you with the following prompts Preparing to restore file home mary stuff Where would you like to restore to 1 Original location 2 In tmp 3 Current directory root Q Quit and do nothing Your choice If you select Original location the restored files will replace the existing file of the same name overwriting its contents If you would like to examine the restored file before overwriting the existing one with it it is best to restore that file to a separate location such as tmp or your current directory Important Files are always restored with full pathnames under the location you selected For example if you are restoring the file home mary stuff to tmp the software will create the file as tmp home mary stuff not tmp stuff Restoring multiple files If you wish to restore a group of files such as the entire contents of a directory simply use the wild card character always in quotes as in this example fetch apps datal In this example everything below the directory apps data including all subdirectories and their contents will be restored Important Whenever you use wild card expressions you must quote the expression as we have done in the above example to protect i
8. riable PRINT_ON_SUCCESS to yes or contact CottageDATA to have this done for you If you need help If you need to restore files or perform maintenance on your OBS account but are not comfortable enough with Linux to do the job yourself you would be wise to hire competent help rather than risk damaging your system If you need help in managing your system please consider getting expert assistance from CottageDATA Please remember however that your OBS subscription fees cover only the automated use of the service through the programs provided to you as part of your OBS subscription and not additional technical services which would have to be charged separately Page 7
9. t against interpretation by the shell either single or double quotes will do If you don t quote the expression you will either get an error message from fetch or get the wrong results depending on how the shell matches the wild card expression on your system Also note that fetch accepts only one parameter so you cannot specify multiple files in a single invocation For example the following command is not supported fetch home johnimemo apps data myfile Won t work Page 4 If you need to restore two or more files that cannot be matched with a single wild card expression just issue the command twice as in this example fetch home johnimemo fetch apps data myfile Options to the fetch command The fetch command supports the following options l Obtain a list of files d Display dates of backups series on the server S Specify which series to retrieve from default is latest These options are described in detail below Obtaining a listing of files You can use fetch with the option to obtain a listing of the files contained on the backup server without actually restoring them For instance to see a list of all files from home bin on the backup server issue this command fetch I homel bin Again when using wild card characters you must quote the expression or you may not get accurate results To view all the files ending with log that have been backed up from home save use
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