Re: [rdiff-backup-users] Backing up the backup server

[Maarten Bezemer]

Hi,

If you need the backup to have correct ownership of the files,
rdiff-backup needs to run as root at the backup side. For most
installations I know, this is not the case.
At the backed-up side however, rdiff-backup usually needs to run as root
to have access to all files in the backed-up tree.

For local backup, you could also use the TCP/IP loopback to split backup
and backup-up userid's.

Regarding your second question:
- Does it work when you run `ssh address@hidden' when logged in as the
  backup user? If not, maybe /root/.ssh has wrong permissions?
- Do you use the same rsa/dsa key for both backup-server and
  dns-server? If not, maybe the private or public keys are mixed up?


Regards,
 Maarten


On Thu, 19 Jan 2006, Brian C wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I have a backup server running OpenSUSE, call it 'backup-server' and a 
> dns server running Debian, call it 'dns-server'. They are on the same 
> subnet. Last night I got rdiff-backup 1.0.4 installed on both so that 
> backup-server backs up dns-server via a cron job, basically following 
> the instructions at http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_rdiff_backup.
> 
> However, I cannot similarly get backup-server to backup itself via the 
> backup user's cron job. Instead I have to let root run the cron job. 
> Every time the backup user runs rdiff-backup it requests a password 
> rather than running without requiring interaction.
> 
> Question 1: For a purely local backup such as this, is there any reason 
> (security concerns, for instance) to prefer that it not run as root, and 
> instead to have it run as the backup user?
> 
> If the answer to question 1 is yes, then:
> 
> Question 2: Why does rdiff-backup keep asking me for a password, instead 
> of working without interaction as it does when it backs up dns-server? 
> What are the things I should check?
> 
> I already looked at /home/backup/.ssh/config and 
> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys and /etc/ssh/sshd_config and everything looks 
> just as good as it did for the server that works.
> 
> I also tried the sudoers method described here:
> http://www.arctic.org/~dean/rdiff-backup/unattended.html
> 
> and I also get asked for a password by sudo! Aack!?!
> 
> Thanks for any help.
> 
> Brian
> 
> 
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