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aneuryzm
Asked: 2011-01-10 00:54:46 +0800 CST

rsnapshot for remote backups?

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I want to use rsnapshot to make backups from my production server to a remote backups server.

Should I install rsnapshot on the remote backup server and not the production one, right ?

rsnapshot is going to pull the files to backup from the production server and store them locally on the backup server ?

I've just realized that I don't have sudo privilegies on the backup server. Does this mean I cannot use rsnapshot for remote backups ?

By the way, isn't a pity I can't use rsnapshot with a backup space service offered by my hosting provider, just because I have not full control on the backup server, but only on the production one ?

rsnapshot

2 Answers

  1. You can run rsnapshot as any user. You will need to copy the /etc/rsnapshot.conf file to somewhere that you can edit it eg ~/rsnapshot/ . You will need to change the lockfile directive as you most likely wont be able to write to write to it's default as a standard user.

    lockfile        /home/patrick/rsnapshot/rsnapshot.pid

    You then invoke rsnapshot thus

    rsnapshot -c /home/patrick/rsnapshot/rsnapshot.conf hourly

    Do you have access to cron as a standard user on the server ?

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  2. Best Answer

    You'll have to cron the rsnapshot job on the backup server, as well as set up a remote connection to the production server in order to pull the relevant data. If you can perform these jobs without sudo (perhaps a portal service like cPanel?), then rsnapshot is still viable.

    Without any way to cron the rsnapshot jobs, you'll be out of luck.

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