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NAME

       BACKUPNINJA - A lightweight, extensible meta-backup system
       "a silent flower blossom death strike to lost data."

SYNOPSIS

       backupninja  [  -h  ]  [  -d  ]  [  -n ] [ -t ] [ -f filename ] [ --run
       filename ]

DESCRIPTION

       Backupninja allows you to coordinate system backups by dropping  a  few
       simple configuration files into /etc/backup.d/. Most programs you might
       use for making backups don’t have their own configuration file  format.
       Backupninja provides a centralized way to configure and coordinate many
       different backup utilities.

FEATURES

       - easy to read ini style configuration files.

       - you can drop in scripts to handle new types of backups.

       - backup actions can be scheduled.

       - you can choose when status report emails are mailed to  you  (always,
         on warning, on error, never).

       - console-based  wizard  (ninjahelper)  makes  it easy to create backup
         action configuration files.

       - passwords are never sent via the command line to helper programs.

       - in order to backup a db or  sql  database,  you  cannot  simply  copy
         database  files.  backupninja  helps  you safely export the data to a
         format which you can backup.

       - works with Linux-Vservers.

         Backup types include:

       - secure, remote,  incremental  filesytem  backup  (via  rdiff-backup).
         incremental data is compressed. permissions are retained even with an
         unpriviledged backup user.

       - basic system and hardware information.

       - encrypted remote backups (via duplicity).

       - safe backup of MySQL, PostgreSQL, OpenLDAP, and subversion databases.

       - burn CD/DVDs or create ISOs.

OPTIONS

       -h, --help
              Show summary of options

       -d, --debug
              Run  in  debug  mode,  where  all log messages are output to the
              current shell.

       -f, --conffile CONF_FILE
              Use  CONF_FILE   for   the   main   configuration   instead   of
              /etc/backupninja.conf

       -t, --test
              Run in test mode, no actions are actually taken.

       -n, --now
              Perform actions now, instead of when they might be scheduled.

       --run ACTION_FILE
              Runs the action configuration ACTION_FILE and exits.

CONFIGURATION

       General  settings are configured in /etc/backupninja.conf. In this file
       you can set the log level and change the default  directory  locations.
       See backupninja.conf(5).

       To preform the actual backup actions, backupninja processes each action
       configuration file in /etc/backup.d according to the file’s suffix. See
       backup.d(5).

EXAMPLE USAGE

       Backupninja  can  be  used  to  impliment  whatever backup strategy you
       choose. It is intended, however, to be used like so:

       First, databases are safely copied or exported to /var/backups.  Often,
       you cannot make a file backup of a database while it is in  use,  hence
       the  need  to  use  special  tools  to  make a safe copy or export into
       /var/backups.

       Then,  vital  parts  of  the  file  system, including /var/backups, are
       nightly pushed to a remote, off-site, hard disk  (using  rdiff-backup).
       The  local  user  is  root,  but  the  remote  user  is not privileged.
       Hopefully, the remote filesystem is encrypted.

       In  order  for this to work (ie for diff-backup to run unattended), you
       must create ssh keys on the source server and copy the  public  key  to
       the remote user’s authorized keys file. For example:
              root@srchost# ssh-keygen -t dsa
              root@srchost#      ssh-copy-id      -i     /root/.ssh/id_dsa.pub
              backup@desthost

       Now, you should be able to ssh from user  ’root’  on  srchost  to  user
       ’backup’ on desthost without specifying a password. When prompted for a
       password by ssh-keygen, just leave it  blank  by  hitting  return.  The
       "wizard" ninjahelper(1) will walk you through these steps.

FILES

       /usr/sbin/backupninja        main script
       /etc/backupninja.conf        main configuration file; general options
       /etc/cron.d/backupninja      runs main script hourly
       /etc/logrotate.d/backupninja rotates backupninja.log
       /etc/backup.d                directory for configuration files
       /usr/share/backupninja       directory for handler scripts
       /usr/share/doc/backupninja/examples       example action  configuration
       files.

SEE ALSO

       ninjahelper(1), backupninja.conf(5), backup.d(5),

AUTHOR

       BACKUPNINJA was written by the riseup.net collective.