Usage

Quickstart

The following minimal setup simply creates a backup copy of your precious /etc/hosts file. Obviously you may choose more interesting sources and targets.

Start with installing bdsync-manager and its dependencies.

Create a simple configuration file (e.g. bdsync-manager.conf):

[DEFAULT]
local_bdsync_bin = /usr/local/bin/bdsync
create_target_if_missing = True
apply_patch_in_place = True

[example-hosts-file]
source_path = /etc/hosts
target_path = ~/hosts-file-backup

Start the synchronization:

bdsync-manager --config bdsync-manager.conf --log-level info

This operation should obviously be finished within seconds due to its simplicity. Hopefully it gives you a feeling for the procedures of bdsync-manager.

Supported source and target combinations

Local and remote synchronization

Currently the following combinations are supported:

• local source and local target
• local source and remote target

All operations for local targets are usable with remote targets, as well.

Source and target storage types

Both the source and the target may be a blockdevice or a file.

A few special operations are currently limited to specific kinds of targets (e.g. files):

• create target storage if missing: only files
• resize target storage: only files

Some more target types will be supported for the above operations in the future (e.g. resize for LVM volumes).

Workflows

Replicate a virtualization server remotely

Setup:

• you are running a virtualization server
• the virtual guests are stored on blockdevices (e.g. LVM volumes)
• you want to copy all your blockdevices every night to a remote server

Usage:

1. write a bdsync-manager configuration file containing all blockdevices that should be synchronized
2. define how to access the remote server in the DEFAULT section of the config file (e.g. ssh bar@foo.baz)
3. add a lvm_snapshot_enabled to the DEFAULT section of the config file if you want to backup a time-consistent state of your blockdevics
4. create the target files (e.g. touch TARGET) or blockdevices (e.g. lvcreate) on the target server
5. run bdsync-manager as a nightly cron-job

Backup an encrypted volume to an untrusted backup storage

Setup:

• one of your local blockdevices is encrypted (e.g. via cryptsetup)
• you can access a remote backup storage via ssh and run software on the other side
• the backup storage is not completely under your control and encrypted / you do not trust it fully

Usage:

1. write a bdsync-manager configuration file with a single task definition (your local source and the remote target)
2. transfer an initial copy of your blockdevice or create an empty dummy file on the target host
3. create a cron-job for unattended synchronization or run bdsync manually from time to time