rsync over ssh server to server backup

Question

I have a server that holds all my backups and I would like to back them up to another server. I was just wondering the best way to do this.

do I setup rsync or use scp? I would also like to keep everything secure and use ssh if possible.

I keep the files under /home/servername/daily

Answer 1

I would recommend using rsync+ssh for security reasons. You can use either pull or push backup. For instance, if you decide to use pull based backup, first generate ssh key on the remote server. You will then pull the files to the remote server from the original backup server.

1. Remote('another') server: generate private/public key

   ssh-keygen -t rsa -b 2048
   

   Take the public key generated, say /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, to the Backup server.

2. Backup server - add public key of remote server to the authorized_keys of the backup server.

    cat id_rsa.pub >> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
   

3. Remote server -Test public key ssh connection

    ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_rsa root@backupserver-hostname
   

   Add the following command to your crontab

   rsync -avz -e "ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_rsa" root@backupserver:/backupdir /thisdir
   

You can change the username, hostnames, private/public key file names, directories etc. based on your setup.

Answer 2

crontab:

0 0 * * * rsync -av /home/servername/daily otherserver:/home/servername/dailyreplica

Midnightly crontab to rsync between the two servers.

Requires the root's (or whomever the crontab runs as)'s ssh key putting in the remote host's /home/$user/.ssh/authorized_keys file