Backup_Rsync

This ansible role allows you to back up remote files to some place on your machine.

you need to customise this a bit before it works for you.

Usage

This assumes you have ssh access to the server with a user that has sudo capabilities.

What to edit before running

Ansible inventory

Adjust the content of the inventories/ directory according to The documentation.

The file here contains a single group server with a single host.

You can rename the file and adjust the content to your servers host name. If your hostname is my.example.com:

mv inventories/torbridge inventories/my.example.com
cat inventories/my.example.com
[server]
my.example.com

This file is used with the --inventory parameter when running, if you renamed the file, you have to adjust the ansible-playbook run command accordingly.

Ansible variables

There are two variables in site.yml and restore.yml that you need to adjust:

user_name

this is the remote user.

backup_target

this is the target of the backup (on your local machine).

Careful with trailing / (see manpages)

rsync config

backup_source

This file lists all files/directories you want to back up and is used as the --files-from parameter value for rsync (see manpages)

Careful with trailing / (see manpages)

rsync-excludes.txt

This file lists all files/file patterns you want to exclude from the backup and is used as the --exclude-from parameter value for rsync (see manpages)

A good starting point might be rsync-homedir-excludes

How to run

Backup

Depending on your inventory, you have to adjust the parameter for --inventory.

This asks for your remote user sudo password.

ansible-playbook --inventory inventories/torbridge --ask-become-pass site.yml

Restore

Depending on your inventory, you have to adjust the parameter for --inventory.

This asks for your remote user sudo password.

ansible-playbook --inventory inventories/torbridge --ask-become-pass restore.yml

Details

How it works

This role temporarily places a file into /etc/sudoers.d/ that enables password less sudo rsync (only sudo rsync) on the remote machine.

Then it runs rsync on the local machine with some flags (see manpages) - some of them mentioned here:

• --files-from=backup_source reads which files to back up from backup_source
• --exclude-from=rsync-excludes.txt reads which files to exclude from rsync-excludes.txt
• --log-file=/tmp/rsync_log.txt logs rsync to /tmp/rsync_log.txt
• --fake-super stores privileged file properties

After rsync, the file in /etc/sudoers.d/ is removed again (so password-less sudo rsync is disabled again).

Backup

The rsync command (with variable $user, $remote and $backup_target) is

rsync -arq --delete --fake-super --rsync-path="sudo rsync" --files-from=backup_source --exclude-from=rsync-excludes.txt --log-file=/tmp/rsync_log.txt $user@$remote:/ $backup_target

Restore

The rsync command (with variable $user, $remote and $backup_target) is

rsync -arq --delete --fake-super --rsync-path="sudo rsync" --files-from=backup_source --exclude-from=rsync-excludes.txt --log-file=/tmp/rsync_log.txt $backup_target $user@$remote:/

Files

• backup_source configures which files to back up
• inventories/ the ansible inventory
• README.md this file
• roles/backup_rsync/ the ansible role files
• rsync-excludes.txt configures which files/file patterns to exclude with rsync
• site.yml the main ansible file
• restore.yml the restore ansible file