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|
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE book PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd" [
<!ENTITY __ExceptionCodes__elfjz3fu SYSTEM "ExceptionCodes.xml">
]>
<book>
<title>Box Backup administrator's guide</title>
<preface>
<title>License</title>
<para>Copyright © 2003 - 2007, Ben Summers and contributors. All rights
reserved.</para>
<para>Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are
met:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above
copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer
in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the
distribution.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>All use of this software and associated advertising materials
must display the following acknowledgement: This product includes
software developed by Ben Summers and contributors.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The names of the Authors may not be used to endorse or promote
products derived from this software without specific prior written
permission.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>[Where legally impermissible the Authors do not disclaim liability
for direct physical injury or death caused solely by defects in the
software unless it is modified by a third party.]</para>
<para>THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN
NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL,
SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED
TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR
PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING
NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS
SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.</para>
</preface>
<chapter>
<title>Configuration</title>
<section>
<title>System configuration</title>
<section>
<title>Server</title>
<para>After you've downloaded and compiled the programs you need to
install the programs on your server. As root do the following:</para>
<programlisting>make install-backup-server</programlisting>
<para>This assumes that you are installing on the same server that you
compiled the software on. If not, copy the
boxbackup-x.xx-backup-server-OSNAME.tgz file to the server you want to
run on, and install there. For example (on Mac OS X):</para>
<programlisting>tar zxvf boxbackup-0.10-server-darwin8.5.0.tgz
cd boxbackup-0.10-server-darwin8.5.0
./install-backup-server</programlisting>
<para>Then create the user for the backup daemon on the server:</para>
<programlisting>useradd _bbstored</programlisting>
<para>Box Backup has a built-in software RAID facility (redundant
array of inexpensive disks) for the backup store. This allows you to
spread the store data over three disks, and recover from the loss of
any one disk without losing data. However, this is now deprecated, and
you are recommended to use the software or hardware RAID facilities of
your operating system instead. Use the following command if you want
to create a simple server without Box Backup RAID:</para>
<programlisting>mkdir /tmp/boxbackupRepository # Create the directory
chown _bbstored /tmp/boxbackupRepository/ # Change the owner to the new boxbackup daemon user
/usr/local/sbin/raidfile-config /etc/box/ 1024 /tmp/boxbackupRepository
#substitute 1024 with the desired blocksize
#substitute /tmp/boxbackupRepository with a directory that exists where you want the backup store located
#/usr/local/sbin/raidfile-config --help shows you the options</programlisting>
<para>Then create the configuration file /etc/box/bbstored.conf The
hostname is tricky as it is used for two things: The name of the
server in the certificate and the address the server is listening on.
Since you might be using NAT, might move the server around or the
domain name might change, choose a name that describes the server.
When the network address of the server changes, you need to update the
<literal>ListenAddresses</literal> directive in the
<filename>/etc/box/bbstored.conf</filename> file.</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstored-config /etc/box hostname _bbstored</programlisting>
<para>This last step outputs 5 instructions that you must execute to
the letter. A lot of questions are raised on the mailing list because
these steps have not been followed properly.</para>
<para>TODO: Expand on this. Explain the 5 steps in detail.</para>
<para>If you want to run the server as a non-root user, look <link
linkend="WORoot">here</link>.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Certificate Management</title>
<para>There are two steps involved to create an account. You need to
create the account on the server, and sign a certificate to give the
client permission to connect to the server.</para>
<para>Running a Certification Authority for TLS (SSL) connections is
not trivial. However, a script to does most of the work in a way which
should be good enough for most deployments.</para>
<important>
<para>The certificate authority directory is intended to be stored
on another server. It should not be kept on the backup server, in
order to limit the impact of a server compromise. The instructions
and the script assume that it will be kept elsewhere, so will ask
you to copy files to and from the CA.</para>
</important>
<warning>
<para>SSL certificates contain validity dates, including a "valid
from" time. If the clock on the machine which signs the certificates
is not syncronised to the clocks of the machines using these
certificates, you will probably get strange errors until the start
time is reached on all machines. If you get strange errors when
attempting to use new certificates, check the clocks on all machines
(client, store and CA). You will probably just need to wait a while
until the certificates become valid, rather than having to
regenerate them.</para>
</warning>
<section>
<title>Set up a Certificate Authority</title>
<para>It is recommended that you keep your Certificate Authority on
a separate machine than either the client or the server, preferably
without direct network access. The contents of this directory
control who can access your backup store server.</para>
<para>To setup the basic key structure, do the following:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstored-certs ca init</programlisting>
<para>(See <ulink url="instguide.xml">OpenSSL notes</ulink> if you
get an OpenSSL error)</para>
<para>This creates the directory called <filename>ca</filename> in
the current directory, and initialises it with basic keys.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Sign a server certificate</title>
<para>When you use the <command>bbstored-config</command> script to
set up a config file for a server, it will generate a certificate
request (CSR) for you. Transfer it to the machine with your CA, then
do:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstored-certs ca sign-server hostname-csr.pem</programlisting>
<para>This signs the certificate for the server. Follow the
instructions in the output on which files to install on the server.
The CSR file is now no longer needed. Make sure you run this command
from the directory above the directory 'ca'.</para>
<para>TODO: Explain instructions in output.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Set up an account</title>
<para>Choose an account number for the user. This must be unique on
the server, and is presented as a 31 bit number in hex greater than
0, for example, 1 or 75AB23C. Then on the backup store server,
create the account with:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstoreaccounts create 75AB23C 0 4096M 4505M</programlisting>
<para>This looks complicated. The numbers are, in order:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The account number allocated (hex)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>The RAID disc set (0 if you use raidfile-config and don't
add a new set)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Soft limit (size)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Hard limit (size)</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>The sizes are are specified in Mb, Gb, or blocks, depending on
the suffix. 1M specifies 1 Mb, 1G specifies 1 Gb, and 1B specifies 1
block, the size of which depends on how you have configured the
raidfile system with raidfile-config.</para>
<para>In this example, I have allocated 4Gb (assuming you use 2048
byte blocks as per my example) as the soft limit, and 4Gb + 10% as
the hard limit.</para>
<para>NOTE The sizes specified here are pre-RAID. So if you are
using userland RAID, you are actually allocating two-thirds of this
amount. This means that, when you take compression into account,
that if you allocate 2Gb on the server, it'll probably hold about
2Gb of backed up files (depending on the compressability of those
files).</para>
<para>The backup client will (voluntarily) try not to upload more
data than is allowed by the soft limit. The store server will refuse
to accept a file if it would take it over the hard limit, and when
doing housekeeping for this account, try and delete old versions and
deleted files to reduce the space taken to below the soft
limit.</para>
<para>This command will create some files on disc in the raid file
directories (if you run as root, the utility will change to the user
specified in the bbstored.conf file to write them) and update the
accounts file. A server restart is not required.</para>
<para>NOTE If you get a message saying 'Exception: RaidFile (2/8)',
the directories you specified in the raidfile.conf are not writable
by the _bbstored user -- fix it, and try again.</para>
<para>Finally, tell the user their account number, and the hostname
of your server. They will use this to set up the backup client, and
send you a CSR. This has the account number embedded in it, and you
should be sure that it has the right account number in it.</para>
<para>Sign this CSR with this command:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstored-certs ca sign 75AB23C-csr.pem</programlisting>
<para>Don't forget to check that the embedded account number is
correct! Then send the two files back to the user, as instructed by
the script.</para>
<para>Please read the Troubleshooting page if you have
problems.</para>
<para>TODO: Link to troubleshooting...</para>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>Log Files</title>
<para>You may wish to see what's going on with the server. Edit
/etc/syslog.conf, and add:</para>
<programlisting>local6.info /var/log/box
local5.info /var/log/raidfile</programlisting>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> Separators must be tabs,
otherwise these entries will be ignored.</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Note2:</emphasis> The packaged
debian and ubuntu versions of boxbackup do not log to local6,
but to the more standard 'daemon' facility. This means you
should not have anything to do to your syslog configuration,
since it is configured to be logged by default.</para>
<programlisting>touch /var/log/box
touch /var/log/raidfile</programlisting>
<para>Set up log rotation for these new log files. For example, if you
have <filename>/etc/newsyslog.conf</filename>, add the following lines
to it:</para>
<programlisting>/var/log/box 644 7 2000 * Z
/var/log/raidfile 644 7 2000 * Z</programlisting>
<para>If you have <filename>/etc/logrotate.d</filename>, create a new
file in there (for example
<filename>/etc/logrotate.d/boxbackup</filename>) containing the
following:</para>
<programlisting>/var/log/box /var/log/raidfile {
weekly
create
compress
rotate 52
}</programlisting>
<para>Then restart syslogd, for example:</para>
<programlisting>/etc/init.d/syslogd restart</programlisting>
</section>
<section>
<title>Configuring a client</title>
<para>Before you can do any configuration, you need to know the
hostname of the server you will be using, and your account number on
that server.</para>
<para>Later in the process, you will need to send a certificate
request to the administrator of that server for it to be
signed.</para>
<para>Installation is covered in the compiling and installing section.
You only need the backup-client parcel.</para>
<para>It is important that you read all the output of the config
scripts. See the end of this page for an example.</para>
<para>The backup client has to be run as root, because it needs to
read all your files to back them up, although it is possible to back
up a single user's files by running it as that user. (Tip: specify a
directory other than <filename>/etc/box</filename>, and then give the
alternate config file as the first argument to
<command>bbackupd</command>). However, it will fall over if you don't
give yourself read access to one of your files.</para>
<section>
<title id="BasicConfig">Basic configuration</title>
<para>Run the <command>bbackupd-config</command> script to generate
the configuration files and generate a private key and certificate
request.</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupd-config /etc/box lazy <emphasis
role="bold">999 hostname</emphasis> /var/bbackupd <emphasis
role="bold">/home</emphasis></programlisting>
<para>(See <ulink url="instguide.xml">OpenSSL notes</ulink> if you
get an OpenSSL error)</para>
<para>The items in bold need to be changed. In order, they are the
account number, the hostname of the server you're using, and
finally, the directories you want backed up. You can include as many
you want here.</para>
<para>However, the directories you specify must not contain other
mounted file systems within them at any depth. Specify them
separately, one per mount point. No checks are currently made to
catch bad configuration of this nature!</para>
<para>You may also want to consider changing the mode from lazy to
snapshot, depending on what your system is used for:</para>
<glosslist>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>Lazy Mode</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>This mode regularly scans the files, with only a rough
schedule. It uploads files as and when they are changed, if
the latest version is more than a set age. This is good for
backing up user's documents stored on a server, and spreads
the load out over the day.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>Snapshot Mode</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>This mode emulates the traditional backup behaviour of
taking a snapshot of the filesystem. The backup daemon does
absolutely nothing until it is instructed to make a backup
using the bbackupctl utility (probably as a cron job), at
which point it uploads all files which have been changed since
the last time it uploaded.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
</glosslist>
<para>When you run the config script, it will tell you what you need
to do next. Don't forget to read all the output. An example is shown
at the end of this page, but the instructions for your installation
may be different.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Certificates</title>
<para>After you have sent your certificate request off to the server
administrator and received your certificate and CA root back,
install them where instructed by the bbackupd-config script during
basic bbackupd configuration.</para>
<para>You can then run the daemon (as root) by running
<command>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupd</command>, and of course, adding it
to your system's startup scripts. The first time it's run it will
upload everything. Interrupting it and restarting it will only
upload files which were not uploaded before - it's very
tolerant.</para>
<para>If you run in snapshot mode, you will need to add a cron job
to schedule backups. The config script will tell you the exact
command to use for your system.</para>
<para>Please read the Troubleshooting page if you have
problems.</para>
<para>Remember to make a traditional backup of the keys file, as
instructed. You cannot restore files without it.</para>
<para>It is recommended that you backup up all of /etc/box as it
will make things easier if you need to restore files. But only the
keys are absolutely essential.</para>
<para>If you want to see what it's doing in more detail (probably a
good idea), follow the instructions in the server setup to create
new log files with syslog. </para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Adding and removing backed up locations</title>
<para>By editing the /etc/box/bbackupd.conf file, you can add and
remove directories to back up - see comments in this file for help.
Send bbackupd a HUP signal after you modify it.</para>
<para>When you remove a location, it will not be marked as deleted
immediately. Instead, bbackupd waits about two days before doing so,
just in case you change your mind. After this, it will be eventually
removed from the store by the housekeeping process. Run as
root.</para>
<para>The backup client is designed to be run as root. It is
possible to run without root, but this is not recommended. Clock
synchronisation for file servers.</para>
<para>If you are using the backup client to backup a filesystem
served from a fileserver, you should ideally ensure that the
fileserver clocks are synchronised with the fileserver.</para>
<para>bbackupd will cope perfectly well if the clocks are not
synchronised. Errors up to about half an hour cause no problems.
Larger discrepancies cause a loss of efficiency and the potential to
back up a file during a write process.</para>
<para>There is a configuration parameter MaxFileTimeInFuture, which
specifies how far in the future a file must be for it to be uploaded
as soon as it is seen. You should not need to adjust this (default
is 2 days). Instead, get those clocks synchronised. Excluding files
and directories from the backup.</para>
<para>Within the bbackupd.conf file, there is a section named
BackupLocations which specifies which locations on disc should be
backed up. It has subsections, each of which is in the
format:</para>
<programlisting> name
{
Path = /path/of/directory
(optional exclude directives)
}</programlisting>
<para><emphasis role="bold">name</emphasis> is derived from the Path
by the config script, but should merely be unique.</para>
<para>The exclude directives are of the form:</para>
<programlisting>[Exclude|AlwaysInclude][File|Dir][|sRegex] = regex or full pathname</programlisting>
<para>(The regex suffix is shown as 'sRegex' to make File or Dir
plural)</para>
<para>For example:</para>
<programlisting> ExcludeDir = /home/guest-user
ExcludeFilesRegex = *.(mp3|MP3)\$
AlwaysIncludeFile = /home/username/veryimportant.mp3</programlisting>
<para>This excludes the directory /home/guest-user from the backup
along with all mp3 files, except one MP3 file in particular.</para>
<para>In general, Exclude excludes a file or directory, unless the
directory is explicitly mentioned in a AlwaysInclude
directive.</para>
<para>If a directive ends in Regex, then it is a regular expression
rather than a explicit full pathname. See</para>
<programlisting> man 7 re_format</programlisting>
<para>for the regex syntax on your platform.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Example configuration output</title>
<para>This is an example of output from the bbstored-config
script.</para>
<important>
<para>Follow the instructions output by your script, not the ones
here -- they may be different for your system.</para>
</important>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupd-config /etc/box lazy 51 server.example.com /var/bbackupd /home /etc/samba
Setup bbackupd config utility.
Configuration:
Writing configuration file: /etc/box/bbackupd.conf
Account: 51
Server hostname: server.example.com
Directories to back up:
/home
/etc/samba
Note: If other file systems are mounted inside these directories, then problems may occur
with files on the store server being renamed incorrectly. This will cause efficiency
problems, but not affect the integrity of the backups.
WARNING: Directories not checked against mountpoints. Check mounted filesystems manually.
Creating /etc/box...
Creating /etc/box/bbackupd
Generating private key...
[OpenSSL output omitted]
Generating keys for file backup
Writing notify script /etc/box/bbackupd/NotifyStoreFull.sh
Writing configuration file /etc/box/bbackupd.conf
===================================================================
bbackupd basic configuration complete.
What you need to do now...
1) Make a backup of /etc/box/bbackupd/51-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.
2) Send /etc/box/bbackupd/51-csr.pem
to the administrator of the backup server, and ask for it to
be signed.
3) The administrator will send you two files. Install them as
/etc/box/bbackupd/51-cert.pem
/etc/box/bbackupd/serverCA.pem
after checking their authenticity.
4) You may wish to read the configuration file
/etc/box/bbackupd.conf
and adjust as appropraite.
There are some notes in it on excluding files you do not
wish to be backed up.
5) Review the script
/etc/box/bbackupd/NotifyStoreFull.sh
and check that it will email the right person when the store
becomes full. This is important -- when the store is full, no
more files will be backed up. You want to know about this.
6) Start the backup daemon with the command
/usr/local/sbin/bbackupd
in /etc/rc.local, or your local equivalent.
Note that bbackupd must run as root.
===================================================================</programlisting>
<para>Remember to make a secure, offsite backup of your backup keys,
as described in <link linkend="BasicConfig">Basic
configuration</link> above. If you do not, and that key is lost, you
have no backups.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>Configuration Options</title>
<para>Box Backup has many options in its configuration file. We will
try to list them all here.</para>
<para>First of all, here is an example configuration file, for
reference:</para>
<example>
<title>Example Configuration File</title>
<programlisting>StoreHostname = localhost
AccountNumber = 0x2
KeysFile = /etc/box/2-FileEncKeys.raw
CertificateFile = /etc/box/2-cert.pem
PrivateKeyFile = /etc/box/2-key.pem
TrustedCAsFile = /etc/box/serverCA.pem
DataDirectory = /var/run/boxbackup
NotifyScript = /etc/box/NotifySysadmin.sh
CommandSocket = /var/run/box/bbackupd.sock
UpdateStoreInterval = 86400
MinimumFileAge = 3600
MaxUploadWait = 7200
FileTrackingSizeThreshold = 65536
DiffingUploadSizeThreshold = 65536
MaximumDiffingTime = 20
ExtendedLogging = no
LogAllFileAccess = yes
Server
{
PidFile = /var/run/bbackupd.pid
}
BackupLocations
{
etc
{
Path = /etc
}
home
{
Path = /home
ExcludeDir = /home/shared
ExcludeDir = /home/chris/.ccache
ExcludeDir = /home/chris/.mozilla/firefox/vvvkq3vp.default/Cache
}
}</programlisting>
</example>
<para>As you can see from the example above, the configuration file
has a number of subsections, enclosed in curly braces {}. Some options
appear outside of any subsection, and we will refer to these as <link
linkend="RootOptions">root options</link>. The available options in
each section are described below.</para>
<para>Every option has the form <quote>name = value</quote>. Names are
not case-sensitive, but values are. Depending on the option, the value
may be:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>a path (to a file or directory);</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>a number (usually in seconds or bytes);</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>a boolean (the word Yes or No);</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>a hostname (or IP address).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Paths are specified in native format, i.e. a full Windows path
with drive letter on Windows clients, or a full Unix path on Unix
clients.</para>
<para><example>
<title>Example:</title>
<para>StoreObjectInfoFile =
/var/state/boxbackup/bbackupd.dat</para>
<para>StoreObjectInfoFile = C:\Program Files\Box
Backup\data\bbackupd.dat</para>
</example>The use of relative paths (which do not start with a
forward slash on Unix, or a drive specification on Windows) is
possible but not recommended, since they are interpreted relative to
the current working directory when bbackupd was started, which is
liable to change unexpectedly over time.</para>
<para>Numbers which start with "0x" are interpreted as hexadecimal.
Numbers which do not start with "0x" are interpreted as
decimal.</para>
<section>
<title id="RootOptions">Root Options</title>
<para>These options appear outside of any subsection. By convention
they are at the beginning of the configuration file.</para>
<para>Some options are required, and some are optional.</para>
<glosslist>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>StoreHostname (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The Internet host name (DNS name) or IP address of the
server. This is only used to connect to the server.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>AccountNumber (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The number of the client's account on the server. This
must be provided by the server operator, and must match the
account number in the client's certificate, otherwise the
client will not be able to log into the server.</para>
<para>The account number may be specified in hexadecimal
(starting with 0x, as in the example above) or in decimal, but
since the server operator works in hexadecimal, that format is
highly recommended and is the default.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>KeysFile (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The path to the file containing the encryption key used
for data encryption of client file data and filenames. This is
the most important file to keep safe, since without it your
backups cannot be decrypted and are useless. Likewise, if an
attacker gets access to this key and to your encrypted
backups, he can decrypt them and read all your data. </para>
<para>Do not change the encryption key without deleting all
files from the account on the server first. None of your old
files on the store will be readable if you do so, and if you
change it back, none of the files uploaded with the new key
will be readable.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>CertificateFile (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The path to the OpenSSL client certificate in PEM
format. This is supplied by the server operator in response to
the certificate request which you send to them. Together with
the PrivateKeyFile, this provides access to the store server
and the encrypted data stored there.</para>
<para>It is not critical to protect this file or to back it up
safely, since it can be regenerated by creating a new
certificate request, and asking the server operator to sign
it. You may wish to back it up, together with the
PrivateKeyFile, to avoid this inconvenience if you lose all
your data and need quick access to your backups.</para>
<para>If you do back them up, you should keep them in a
separate location to the KeysFile, since any person holding
the KeysFile and the PrivateKeyFile can gain access to your
encrypted data and decrypt it.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>PrivateKeyFile (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The path to the OpenSSL private key in PEM format. This
is generated at the same time as the certificate request, but
there is no need to send it to the server operator, and you
should not do so, in case the communication is intercepted by
an attacker. Together with the CertificateFile, this provides
access to the store server and the encrypted data stored
there.</para>
<para>See the notes under CertificateFile for information
about backing up this file.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>TrustedCAsFile (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The path to the OpenSSL certificate of the Client
Certificate Authority (CCA), in PEM format. This is supplied
by the server operator along with your account details, or
along with your signed client certificate. This is used to
verify that the server which you are connecting to is
authorised by the person who signed your certificate. It
protects you against DNS and ARP poisoning and IP spoofing
attacks.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>DataDirectory (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The path to a directory where bbackupd will keep local
state information. This consists of timestamp files which
identify the last backup start and end times, used by
<command>bbackupquery</command> to determine whether files
have changed, and optionally a database of inode numbers,
which are used to check for files being renamed. The database
is only saved if Box Backup is built with Berkeley Database
(BDB) support.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>NotifyScript (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The path to the script or command to run when the Box
Backup client detects an error during the backup process. This
is normally used to notify the client system administrator by
e-mail when a backup fails for any reason.</para>
<para>The script or command is called with one of the
following additional arguments to identify the cause of the
problem:</para>
<glosslist>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>store-full</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The backup store is full. No new files are being
uploaded. If some files are marked as deleted, they
should be removed in due course by the server's
housekeeping process. Otherwise, you need to remove some
files from your backup set, or ask the store operator
for more space.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>read-error</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>One or more files which were supposed to be backed
up could not be read. This could be due to:<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>running the server as a non-root user;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>backing up a mounted filesystem such as
NFS;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>access control lists being applied to some
files;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>SELinux being enabled;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>trying to back up open files under
Windows;</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>strange directory permissions such as 0000 or
0400.</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>Check the client logs, e.g.
/var/log/bbackupd on Unix, or the Windows Event Viewer
in Control Panel > Administrative Tools, for more
information about which files are not being backed up
and why.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>backup-error</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>There was a communications error with the server,
or an unexpected exception was encountered during a
backup run. Check the client logs, e.g.
<filename>/var/log/box</filename> on Unix, or the
Windows Event Viewer in Control Panel >
Administrative Tools, for more information about the
problem.</para>
<para>You may wish to check your Internet access to the
server, check that the server is running, and ask your
server operator to check your account on the
server.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
</glosslist>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>CommandSocket (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The path to the Unix socket which
<command>bbackupd</command> creates when running, and which
<command>bbackupctl</command> uses to communicate with it, for
example to force a sync or a configuration reload. If this
option is omitted, no socket will be created, and
<command>bbackupctl</command> will not function.</para>
<para>Unix sockets appear within the filesystem on Unix, as a
special type of file, and must be created in a directory which
exists and to which bbackupd has write access, and bbackupctl
has read access. </para>
<para>On Windows, the path is ignored, and a <glossterm>named
pipe</glossterm> is created instead. This does not currently
have any security attached, so it can be accessed by any user.
Unlike a Unix socket it can also be accessed remotely. Please
use this option with extreme caution on Windows, and only on
fully trusted networks.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>AutomaticBackup (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>Enable or disable the client from connecting
automatically to the store every
<glossterm>UpdateStoreInterval</glossterm> seconds. When
enabled (set to <quote>Yes</quote>), the client is in
<glossterm>Lazy Mode</glossterm>. When disabled (set to
<quote>No</quote>), it is in <glossterm>Snapshot
Mode</glossterm>. This setting is optional, and the default
value is <quote>Yes</quote>.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>UpdateStoreInterval (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The approximate time between successive connections to
the server, in seconds, when the client is in <glossterm>Lazy
Mode</glossterm>. The actual time is randomised slightly to
prevent "rush hour" traffic jams on the server, where many
clients try to connect at the same time.</para>
<para>This value is ignored if the client is in
<glossterm>Snapshot Mode</glossterm>. However, it is still
required. It can be set to zero in this case.</para>
<para>You will probably need to experiment with the value of
this option. A good value to start with is probably 86400
seconds, which is one day.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>MinimumFileAge (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The number of seconds since a file was last modified
before it will be backed up. The reason for this is to avoid
repeatedly backing up files which are repeatedly changing. A
good value is about 3600 seconds (one hour). If set to zero,
files which have changed will always be backed up on the next
backup run. </para>
<para>The <glossterm>MaxUploadWait</glossterm> option
overrides this option in some circumstances.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>MaxUploadWait (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The number of seconds since a file was last uploaded
before it will be uploaded again, even if it keeps changing.
The reason for this is to ensure that files which are
continuously modified are eventually uploaded anyway. This
should be no less than the value of
<glossterm>MinimumFileAge</glossterm>. A good value is about
14400 seconds (4 hours).</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>MaxFileTimeInFuture (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The maximum time that a file's timestamp can be in the
future, before it will be backed up anyway. Due to clock
synchronisation problems, it is inevitable that you will
occasionally see files timestamped in the future. Normally,
for files which are dated only slightly in the future, you
will want to wait until after the file's date before backing
it up. However, for files whose dates are very wrong (more
than a few hours) you will normally prefer to back them up
immediately.</para>
<para>A good value is about 7200 seconds (2 hours) to cope
with potential problems when moving in and out of daylight
saving time, if applicable in your timezone. The default
value, if this setting is not provided, is 172800 seconds (2
days).</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>FileTrackingSizeThreshold (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The minimum size of files which will be tracked by inode
number to detect renames. It is not worth detecting renames of
small files, since they are quick to upload again in full, and
keeping their inode numbers in memory increases the client's
memory usage and slows down searches. Larger files should be
tracked to avoid wasting space on the store and long
uploads.</para>
<para>A good value is about 65536 bytes (64 kilobytes).</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>DiffingUploadSizeThreshold (required)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The minimum size of files which will be compared to the
old file on the server, and for which only changes will be
uploaded. It is not worth comparing small files, since they
are quick to upload again in full, and sending the entire file
reduces the risk of data loss if the store is accidentally
corrupted. Larger files should have only their differences
uploaded to avoid wasting space on the store and long
uploads.</para>
<para>A good value is about 65536 bytes (64 kilobytes).</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>MaximumDiffingTime (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The maximum time for which the client will attempt to
find differences between the current version and the old
version in the store, before giving up and uploading the
entire file again. Very large files (several gigabytes) may
take a very long time to scan for changes, but would also take
a very long time to upload again and use a lot of space on the
store, so it is normally worth omitting this value. </para>
<para>Use this option only if, for some bizarre reason, you
prefer to upload really large files in full rather than spend
a long time scanning them for changes.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>KeepAliveTime (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The interval (in seconds) between sending Keep-Alive
messages to the server while performing long operations such
as finding differences in large files, or scanning large
directories. </para>
<para>These messages ensure that the SSL connection is not
closed by the server, or an intervening firewall, due to lack
of activity.</para>
<para>The server will normally wait up to 15 minutes (900
seconds) before disconnecting the client, so the value should
be given and should be less than 900. Some firewalls may time
out inactive connections after 10 or 5 minutes. </para>
<para>A good value is 300 seconds (5 minutes). You may need to
reduce this if you frequently see TLSReadFailed or
TLSWriteFailed errors on the client.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>StoreObjectInfoFile (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>Enables the use of a state file, which stores the
client's internal state when the client is not running. This
is useful on clients machines which are frequently shut down,
for example desktop and laptop computers, because it removes
the need for the client to recontact the store and rescan all
directories on the first backup run, which may take some time.
This feature is somewhat experimental and not well tested.
</para>
<para>This is option is disabled by default, in which case the
state is stored in memory only. The value is the path to the
state file.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>ExtendedLogging (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>Enables the connection debugging mode of the client,
which writes all commands sent to or received from the server
to the system logs. This generates a <emphasis>lot</emphasis>
of output, so it should only be used when instructed, or when
you suspect a connection problem or client-server protocol
error (and you know how to interpret the output).</para>
<para>This is a boolean value, which may be set to
<quote>Yes</quote> or <quote>No</quote>. The default is of
course <quote>No</quote>.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>ExtendedLogFile (optional, new in 0.11)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>Enables the same debugging output as
<glossterm>ExtendedLogging</glossterm>, but written to a file
instead of the system logs. This is useful if you need
extended logging, but do not have access to the system logs,
for example if you are not the administrator of the
computer.</para>
<para>The value is the path to the file where these logs will
be written. If omitted, extended logs will not be written to a
file. This is entirely independent of the
<glossterm>ExtendedLogging</glossterm> option. It does not
make much sense to use both at the same time.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>LogAllFileAccess (optional, new in 0.11)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>Enables logging of all local file and directory access,
file uploads (full and differential), and excluded files. This
may be useful if the client is failing to upload a particular
file, or crashing while trying to upload it. The logs will be
sent to the system log or Windows Event Viewer.</para>
<para>This generates a <emphasis>lot</emphasis>
of output, so it should only be used when instructed, or when
you suspect that bbackupd is skipping some files and want to
know why. Because it is verbose, the messages are hidden by
default even if the option is enabled. To see them, you must
run bbackupd with at least one -v option.</para>
<para>This is a boolean value, which may be set to
<quote>Yes</quote> or <quote>No</quote>. The default is of
course <quote>No</quote>.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>SyncAllowScript (optional)</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>The path to the script or command to run when the client
is about to start an automatic backup run, and wishes to know
whether it is safe to do so. This is useful for clients which
do not always have access to the server, for example laptops
and computers on dial-up Internet connections.</para>
<para>The script should either output the word
<quote>now</quote> if the backup should proceed, or else a
number, in seconds, which indicates how long the client should
wait before trying to connect again. Any other output will
result in an error on the client, and the backup will not
run.</para>
<para>This value is optional, and by default no such script is
used.</para>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
</glosslist>
</section>
<section>
<title>Server Section</title>
<para>These options appear within the Server subsection, which is at
the root level.</para>
<glosslist>
<glossentry>
<glossterm>PidFile</glossterm>
<glossdef>
<para>This option enables the client to write its processs
identifier (PID) to the specified file after starting. The
file will be deleted when the client daemon exits for any
reason. This is disabled by default, but is recommended
whenever you run the client daemon as a daemon (in the
background), which is usually the case. This file can be used
by scripts to determine whether the daemon is still running,
and to send it messages to reload its configuration or to
terminate.</para>
<example>
<title>Example Server Section</title>
<programlisting>Server
{
PidFile = /var/state/boxbackup/bbackupd.pid
}</programlisting>
</example>
</glossdef>
</glossentry>
</glosslist>
</section>
<section>
<title>Backup Locations Section</title>
<para>This section serves only as a container for all defined backup
locations.</para>
<example>
<title>Example Backup Locations Section</title>
<programlisting>BackupLocations
{
etc
{
Path = /etc
}
home
{
Path = /home
ExcludeDir = /home/shared
ExcludeDir = /home/chris/.ccache
ExcludeDir = /home/chris/.mozilla/firefox/vvvkq3vp.default/Cache
}
}</programlisting>
</example>
<para>Each subsection is a backup location. The name of the
subsection is the name that will be used on the server. The root
directory of the account on the server contains one subdirectory per
location. The name should be simple, not containing any spaces or
special characters.</para>
<para>If you do not define any locations, the client will not back
up any files!</para>
<para>It is currently not recommended to back up the root directory
of the filesystem on Unix. Box Backup is designed to back up
important data and configuration files, not full systems.
Nevertheless, nothing prevents you from doing so if you
desire.</para>
<para>On Windows, it is currently not possible to back up files
which are open (currently in use), such as open documents in
Microsoft Office, and system files such as the registry and the
paging file. You will get an error for each open file which the
client attempts to back up. Once the file has been closed, it will
be backed up normally. System files will always be open, and should
be excluded from your backups.</para>
</section>
</section>
</section>
</chapter>
<chapter>
<title>Administration</title>
<para>This chapter deals with the dauily running and management of the Box
Backup system. It explains most day-to-day tasks.</para>
<section>
<title>Regular Maintenance</title>
<para>The steps involved in maintaining and keeping the backup sets
healthy are outlined in this section.</para>
<section>
<title>Controlling a backup client</title>
<para>The bbackupctl program sends control commands to the bbackupd
daemon. It must be run as the same user as the daemon, and there is no
exception for root.</para>
<para>The command line syntax is:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupctl [-q] [-c config-file] command</programlisting>
<para>The -q option reduces the amount of output the program emits,
and -c allows an alternative configuration file to be
specified.</para>
<para>Valid commands are:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">terminate</emphasis></para>
<para>Stop the bbackupd daemon now (equivalent to kill)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">reload</emphasis></para>
<para>Reload the configuration file (equivalent to kill
-HUP)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">sync</emphasis></para>
<para>Connect to the server and synchronise files now</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para><emphasis role="bold">bbackupctl</emphasis> communicates with
the server via a UNIX domain socket, specified in bbackupd.conf with
the CommandSocket directive. This does not need to be specified, and
<emphasis role="bold">bbackupd</emphasis> will run without the command
socket, but in this case bbackupctl will not be able to communicate
with the daemon.</para>
<para>Some platforms cannot check the user id of the connecting
process, so this command socket becomes a denial of service security
risk. <emphasis role="bold">bbackupd</emphasis> will warn you when it
starts up if this is the case on your platform, and you should
consider removing the CommandSocket directive on these
platforms.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Using bbackupctl to perform snapshots</title>
<para><emphasis role="bold">bbackupctl</emphasis>'s main purpose is to
implement snapshot based backups, emulating the behaviour of
traditional backup software.</para>
<para>Use bbackupd-config to write a configuration file in snapshot
mode, and then run the following command as a cron job.</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupctl -q sync</programlisting>
<para>This will cause the backup daemon to upload all changed files
immediately. <emphasis role="bold">bbackupctl</emphasis> will exit
almost immediately, and will not output anything unless there is an
error.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Checking storage space used on the server</title>
<section>
<title>From the client machine</title>
<para>bbackupquery can tell you how much space is used on the server
for this account. Either use the usage command in interactive mode,
or type:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupquery -q usage quit</programlisting>
<para>to show the space used as a single command.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>On the server</title>
<para>bbstoreaccounts allows you to query the space used, and change
the limits. To display the space used on the server for an account,
use:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstoreaccounts info 75AB23C</programlisting>
<para>To adjust the soft and hard limits on an account, use:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstoreaccounts setlimit 75AB23C new-soft-limit new-hard-limit</programlisting>
<para>You do not need to restart the server.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>Verify and restore files</title>
<para>Backups are no use unless you can restore them. The bbackupquery
utility does this and more.</para>
<para>You don't provide any login information to it, as it just picks
up the data it needs from /etc/box/bbackupd.conf. You should run it as
root so it can find everything it needs.</para>
<para>Full documentation can be found in the <ulink
url="bbackupquery.xml">bbackupquery manual page</ulink>. It follows
the model of a command line sftp client quite closely.</para>
<para>TODO: Link to bbackupquery man-page here.</para>
<para>On systems where GNU readline is available (by default) it uses
that for command line history and editing. Otherwise it falls back to
very basic UNIX text entry.</para>
<para>TODO: Did the readline dependency change to editline?</para>
<section>
<title>Using bbackupquery</title>
<para>bbackupquery is the tool you use to verify, restore and
investigate your backup files with. When invoked, it simply logs
into the server using the certificates you have listed in
bbackupd.conf.</para>
<para>After you run bbackupquery, you will see a prompt, allowing
you to execute commands. The list (or ls) command lets you view
files in the store. It works much like unix ls, but with different
options. An example:</para>
<programlisting>[pthomsen@host bbackupquery]$ bbackupquery
Box Backup Query Tool v0.10, (c) Ben Summers and contributors 2003-2006
Using configuration file /etc/box/bbackupd.conf
Connecting to store...
Handshake with store...
Login to store...
Login complete.
Type "help" for a list of commands.
query > ls
00000002 -d---- mp3
00000003 -d---- video
00000004 -d---- home-pthomsen
00000005 -d---- root
query > </programlisting>
<para>The ls commands shows the directories that are backed up. Now
we'll take a closer look at the home-pthomsen directory:</para>
<programlisting>query > cd home-pthomsen
query > ls
00002809 f----- sample.tiff
0000280a f----- s3.tiff
0000280b f----- s4.tiff
0000280d f----- s2.tiff
0000280e f----- foo.pdf
0000286c f----- core.28720
0000339a -d---- .emacs.d
0000339d -d---- bbackup-contrib
00003437 f----- calnut.compare.txt
0000345d f----- DSCN1783.jpg
0000345e f----- DSCN1782.jpg
query ></programlisting>
<para>The ls command takes the following options;</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">-r </emphasis>-- recursively list
all files</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">-d</emphasis> -- list deleted
files/directories</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">-o</emphasis> -- list old versions
of files/directories</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">-I</emphasis> -- don't display
object ID</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">-F </emphasis>-- don't display
flags</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">-t </emphasis>-- show file
modification time (and attr mod time if has the object has
attributes, ~ separated)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para><emphasis role="bold">-s</emphasis> -- show file size in
blocks used on server (only very approximate indication of size
locally)</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>The flags displayed from the ls command are as follows:</para>
<simplelist>
<member>f = file</member>
<member>d = directory</member>
<member>X = deleted</member>
<member>o = old version</member>
<member>R = remove from server as soon as marked deleted or
old</member>
<member>a = has attributes stored in directory record which
override attributes in backup file</member>
</simplelist>
</section>
<section>
<title>Verify backups</title>
<para>As with any backup system, you should frequently check that
your backups are working properly by comparing them. Box Backup
makes this very easy and completely automatic. All you have to do is
schedule the <command>bbackupquery compare</command> command to run
regularly, and check its output. You can run the command manually as
follows:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupquery "compare -a" quit</programlisting>
<para>This command will report all the differences found between the
store and the files on disc. It will download everything, so may
take a while. You should expect to see some differences on a typical
compare, because files which have recently changed are unlikely to
have been uploaded yet. It will also tell you how many files have
been modified since the last backup run, since these will normally
have changed, and such failures are expected.</para>
<para>You are strongly recommended to add this command as a
<command>cron</command> job, at least once a month, and to check the
output for anything suspicious, particularly a large number of
compare failures, failures on files that have not been modified, or
any error (anything except a compare mismatch) that occurs during
the compare operation.</para>
<para>Consider keeping a record of these messages and comparing them
with a future verification.</para>
<para>If you would like to do a "quick" check which just downloads
file checksums and compares against that, then run:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupquery "compare -aq" quit</programlisting>
<para>However, this does not check that the file attributes are
correct, and since the checksums are generated on the client they
may not reflect the data on the server if there is a problem -- the
server cannot check the encrypted contents. View this as a quick
indication, rather than a definite check that your backup verifies
correctly.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Restore backups</title>
<para>You will need the keys file created when you configured the
server. Without it, you cannot restore the files; this is the
downside of encrypted backups. However, by keeping the small keys
file safe, you indirectly keep your entire backup safe.</para>
<para>The first step is to recreate the configuration of the backup
client. It's probably best to have stored the /etc/box directory
with your keys. But if you're recreating it, all you really need is
to have got the login infomation correct (ie the certs and
keys).</para>
<para>Don't run bbackupd yet! It will mark all your files as deleted
if you do, which is not hugely bad in terms of losing data, just a
major inconvenience. (This assumes that you are working from a blank
slate. If you want to restore some files to a different location,
it's fine to restore while bbackupd is running, just do it outside a
backed up directory to make sure it doesn't start uploading the
restored files.)</para>
<para>Type:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupquery</programlisting>
<para>to run it in interactive mode.</para>
<para>Type:</para>
<programlisting>list</programlisting>
<para>to see a list of the locations stored on the server.</para>
<para>For each location you want to restore, type:</para>
<programlisting>restore name-on-server local-dir-name</programlisting>
<para>The directory specified by local-dir-name must not exist yet.
If the restore is interrupted for any reason, repeat the above
steps, but add the <emphasis role="bold">-r</emphasis> flag to the
restore command to tell it to resume.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Retrieving deleted and old files</title>
<para>Box Backup makes old versions of files and files you have
deleted available, subject to there being enough disc space on the
server to hold them.</para>
<para>This is how to retrieve them using bbackupquery. Future
versions will make this far more user-friendly.</para>
<para>Firstly, run bbackupquery in interactive mode. It behaves in a
similar manner to a command line sftp client.</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbackupquery</programlisting>
<para>Then navigate to the directory containing the file you want,
using list, cd and pwd.</para>
<programlisting>query > cd home/profiles/USERNAME</programlisting>
<para>List the directory, using the "o" option to list the files
available without filtering out everything apart from the current
version. (if you want to see deleted files as well, use list
-odt)</para>
<programlisting>query > list -ot
00000078 f--o- 2004-01-21T20:17:48 NTUSER.DAT
00000079 f--o- 2004-01-21T20:17:48 ntuser.dat.LOG
0000007a f--o- 2004-01-21T17:55:12 ntuser.ini
0000007b f---- 2004-01-12T15:32:00 ntuser.pol
0000007c -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 Templates
00000089 -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 Start Menu
000000a0 -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 SendTo
000000a6 -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 Recent
00000151 -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 PrintHood
00000152 -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 NetHood
00000156 -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 My Documents
0000018d -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 Favorites
00000215 -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 Desktop
00000219 -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 Cookies
0000048b -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 Application Data
000005da -d--- 1970-01-01T00:00:00 UserData
0000437e f--o- 2004-01-24T02:45:43 NTUSER.DAT
0000437f f--o- 2004-01-24T02:45:43 ntuser.dat.LOG
00004380 f--o- 2004-01-23T17:01:29 ntuser.ini
00004446 f--o- 2004-01-24T02:45:43 NTUSER.DAT
00004447 f--o- 2004-01-24T02:45:43 ntuser.dat.LOG
000045f4 f---- 2004-01-26T15:54:16 NTUSER.DAT
000045f5 f---- 2004-01-26T15:54:16 ntuser.dat.LOG
000045f6 f---- 2004-01-26T16:54:31 ntuser.ini</programlisting>
<para>(this is a listing from a server which is used as a Samba
server for a network of Windows clients.) You now need to fetch the
file using it's ID, rather than it's name. The ID is the hex number
in the first column. Fetch it like this:</para>
<programlisting>query > get -i 0000437e NTUSER.DAT
Object ID 0000437e fetched successfully.</programlisting>
<para>The object is now available on your local machine. You can use
lcd to move around, and sh ls to list directories on your local
machine.</para>
</section>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title id="FixCorruptions">Fixing corruptions of store data</title>
<para>This section gives help on what to do if your server has suffered
corruption, for example, after an unclean shutdown or other operating
system or hardware problem.</para>
<para>In general, as updates to the store are made in an atomic manner,
the most likely result is wasted disc space. However, if really bad
things happen, or you believe that there is a lot of wasted space, then
these instructions will help to restore your data.</para>
<para>You know you will need to do something if you get strange errors,
and bbackupd attempts to contact the server every 100 seconds or so. Or
if one of the discs in your RAID disc set has failed.</para>
<para>After following these instructions, the end result will be that
bbackupquery will be able to see all the files which were stored on your
server, and retrieve them. Some of them may be in lost+found directories
in the root of the store (or in their original position if they have
been moved) but they will all be able to be retrieved.</para>
<para>After you have retrieved the files you want, bbackupd will upload
new versions where necessary, and after about two days, mark any
lost+found directories as deleted. Finally, those directories will be
removed by the housekeeping process on the server.</para>
<para>These instructions assume you're working on account 1234. Replace
this with the account number that you actually want to check (the one
that is experiencing errors). These steps will need to be repeated for
all affected accounts.</para>
<section>
<title>Stop bbackupd</title>
<para>First, make sure that bbackupd is not running on the client
machine for the account you are going to recover. Use
<command>bbackupctl terminate</command> to stop it. This step is not
strictly necessary, but is recommended. During any checks on the
account, bbackupd will be unable to log in, and after they are
complete, the account is marked as changed on the server so bbackupd
will perform a complete scan.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Are you using RAID on the server?</title>
<para>The raidfile recovery tools have not been written, and probably
will not be, since Box Backup RAID is deprecated. However, when two
out of three files are available, the server will successfully allow
access to your data, even if it complains a lot in the logs. The best
thing to do is to fix the accounts, if necessary, and retrieve any
files you need. Then move the old store directories aside (in case you
need them) and start afresh with new accounts, and let the clients
upload all their data again.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Check and fix the account</title>
<para>First, run the check utility, and see what errors it
reports.</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstoreaccounts check 1234</programlisting>
<para>This will take some time, and use a fair bit of memory (about 16
bytes per file and directory). If the output looks plausible and
reports errors which need fixing, run it again but with the fix
flag:</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstoreaccounts check 1234 fix</programlisting>
<para>This will fix any errors, and remove unrecoverable files.
Directories will be recreated if necessary.</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">NOTE</emphasis>: The utility may adjust
the soft and hard limits on the account to make sure that housekeeping
will not remove anything -- check these afterwards.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Grab any files you need with bbackupquery</title>
<para>At this point, you will have a working store. Every file which
was on the server, and wasn't corrupt, will be available.</para>
<para>On the client, use bbackupquery to log in and examine the store.
(type help at the prompt for instructions). Retrieve any files you
need, paying attention to any lost+found directories in the root
directory of the store.</para>
<para>You can skip this step if you are sure that the client machine
is fine -- in this case, bbackupd will bring the store up to
date.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Restart bbackupd</title>
<para>Restart bbackupd on the client machine. The store account will
be brought up to date, and files in the wrong place will be marked for
eventual deletion.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title id="Troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</title>
<para>If you are trying to fix a store after your disc has been
corrupted, see <link linkend="FixCorruptions">Fixing corruptions of
store data</link>.</para>
<para>Unfortunately, the error messages are not particularly helpful at
the moment. This page lists some of the common errors, and the most
likely causes of them.</para>
<para>When an error occurs, you will see a message like 'Exception:
RaidFile/OSFileError (2/8)' either on the screen or in your log files.
(it is recommended you set up another log file as recommended in the
server setup instructions.)</para>
<para>This error may not be particularly helpful, although some do have
extra information about probable causes. To get further information,
check the ExceptionCodes.txt file in the root of the distribution. This
file is generated by the ./configure script, so you will need to have
run that first.</para>
<para>Some common causes of exceptions are listed below.</para>
<para>Please email me with any other codes you get, and I will let you
know what they mean, and add notes here.</para>
<section>
<title>RaidFile (2/8)</title>
<para>This is found either when running bbstoreaccounts or in the
bbstored logs.</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Problem</emphasis>: The directories you
specified in the raidfile.conf are not writable by the _bbstored
user.</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Resolution</emphasis>: Change permissions
appropriately.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Common (1/2)</title>
<para>This usually occurs when the configuration files can't be
opened.</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Problem</emphasis>: You created your
configurations in non-standard locations, and the programs cannot find
them.</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Resolution</emphasis>: Explicitly specify
configuration file locations to daemons and programs. For
example</para>
<programlisting>/usr/local/sbin/bbstored /some/other/dir/bbstored.config /usr/local/sbin/bbackupquery -c /some/other/dir/bbackupd.config</programlisting>
<para>(daemons specify the name as the first argument, utility
programs with the -c option).</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Problem</emphasis>: bbstored can't find
the raidfile.conf file specified in bbstored.conf.</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Resolution</emphasis>: Edit bbstored.conf
to point to the correct location of this additional configuration
file.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Server (3/16)</title>
<para>The server can't listen for connections on the IP address
specified when you configured it.</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Problem</emphasis>: This probably means
you've specified the wrong hostname to bbstored-config -- maybe your
server is behind a NAT firewall?</para>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Resolution</emphasis>: Edit bbstored.conf
and correct the ListenAddresses line. You should replace the server
address with the IP address of your machine.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Connection (7/x)</title>
<para>These errors all relate to connections failing -- you may see
them during operation if there are network failures or other problems
between the client and server. The backup system will recover from
them automatically.</para>
<section>
<title>Connection (7/30) - SSL problems</title>
<para>Log snippet from client side:</para>
<programlisting>bbackupd[1904]: Opening connection to server xxxx.xxx...
bbackupd[1904]: SSL err during Connect: error:xxxxxxxx:rsa routines:RSA_padding_check_PKCS1_type_1:block type is not 01
bbackupd[1904]: SSL err during Connect: error:xxxxxxxx:rsa routines:RSA_EAY_PUBLIC_DECRYPT:padding check failed
bbackupd[1904]: SSL err during Connect: error:xxxxxxxx:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_verify:EVP lib
bbackupd[1904]: SSL err during Connect: error:xxxxxxxx:SSL routines:SSL3_GET_SERVER_CERTIFICATE:certificate verify failed
bbackupd[1904]: TRACE: Exception thrown: ConnectionException(Conn_TLSHandshakeFailed) at SocketStreamTLS.cpp(237)
bbackupd[1904]: Exception caught (7/30), reset state and waiting to retry...</programlisting>
<para>And from the server:</para>
<programlisting>bbstored[19291]: Incoming connection from xx.xxx.xx.xxx port xxxxx (handling in child xxxxx)
bbstored[21588]: SSL err during Accept: error:xxxxxxxx:SSL routines:SSL3_READ_BYTES:tlsv1 alert decrypt error
bbstored[21588]: in server child, exception Connection TLSHandshakeFailed (7/30) -- terminating child</programlisting>
<para><emphasis role="bold">Solution</emphasis>: Create a new CA on
the server side and re-generate the client certificate. Re-creating
the client certificate request is not necessary.</para>
</section>
</section>
<section>
<title>Advanced troubleshooting</title>
<para>If this really doesn't help, then using the DEBUG builds of the
system will give you much more information -- a more descriptive
exception message and the file and line number where the error
occurred.</para>
<para>For example, if you are having problems with bbstoreaccounts,
build the debug version with:</para>
<programlisting>cd boxbackup-0.0
cd bin/bbstoreaccounts
make</programlisting>
<para>Within the module directories, make defaults to building the
debug version. At the top level, it defaults to release.</para>
<para>This will build an executable in debug/bin/bbstoreaccounts which
you can then use instead of the release version. It will give far more
useful error messages.</para>
<para>When you get an error message, use the file and line number to
locate where the error occurs in the code. There will be comments
around that line to explain why the exception happened.</para>
<para>If you are using a debug version of a daemon, these extended
messages are found in the log files.</para>
</section>
</section>
</chapter>
&__ExceptionCodes__elfjz3fu;
<appendix>
<title id="WORoot">Running without root</title>
<para>It is possible to run both the server and client without root
privileges.</para>
<section>
<title>Server</title>
<para>The server, by default, runs as a non-root user. However, it
expects to be run as root and changes user to a specified user as soon
as it can, simply for administrative convenience. The server uses a port
greater than 1024, so it doesn't need root to start.</para>
<para>To run it entirely as a non-root user, edit the bbstored.conf
file, and remove the User directive from the Server section. Then simply
run the server as your desired user.</para>
</section>
<section>
<title>Client</title>
<para>The client requires root for normal operation, since it must be
able to access all files to back them up. However, it is possible to run
the client as a non-root user, with certain limitations.</para>
<para>Follow the installation instructions, but install the executable
files manually to somewhere in your home directory. Then use
bbackupd-config to configure the daemon, but use a directory other than
/etc/box, probably somewhere in your home directory.</para>
<para>All directories you specify to be backed up must be readable, and
all files must be owned by the user and readable to that user.</para>
<para>Important: If any file or directory is not readable by this user,
the backup process will skip that file or directory. Keep an eye on the
logs for reports of this failure.</para>
<para>Non-root operation of the backup client is recommended only for
testing, and should not be relied on in a production environment.</para>
</section>
</appendix>
</book>
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