The FreeBSD Diary

27 November 1999 - I've added my backup script to the end of the article.

I was faced with the problem of saving all the kewl things I have done in certain directories but at the time, had only a DAT in my NTWS...

First - Lets assume you have a small network at home, like I do, and lets also assume you have added a nice FBSD firewall to keep things safe... You will need to be able to FTP into your NTWS (or Server).

So - with all that as a given, here is what I did:

I installed Peer Web Services on my NTWS, added a secure login account. Peer Web Services for NTWS is just a 10 user version of IIS - I disabled the web service, along with gopher.  All I needed was the FTP abilities.

I created a script that tars certain directories on my FBSD box.  I put this script in /etc/periodic/daily/ and gave it a name: in this case, 990.backup-makeworld and chmoded it with +x

After the tarring is complete, another within the same script, it logs into the NT box and "bin" and "put" the tarball there where my DAT then at 7:00 AM, calls up my ArcServe.

Notice, I add the tar routing to /etc/periodic/daily so that it run each night at 2:00 am - where the actual filename is based on the box name, and the current date, i.e.:

makeworld.'date +%m%d%y'.tgz

Which becomes: makeworld.101199.tgz

Yes - the permissions are kept, and putting it back is as easy as ftp'ing back into the FBSD box.

This works well for me even though I have since put a DAT on my BSD box.

Below is the scripting I use...

#!/bin/sh -
#
# $Id: ntbackup.php,v 1.24 2007-08-27 16:34:47 dan Exp $
#
# To be placed as /etc/periodic/daily/990.backup-makeworld
# And chmod +x

echo ""
echo ====== `date`: Backing up /usr/home/bitsurfer on makeworld.com
        cd /home/bitsurfer/backups
        rm *.tgz
        cd /usr/home
        tar -zcvf makeworld.`date +%m%d%y`.tgz bitsurfer/
        mv *.tgz /usr/home/bitsurfer/backups

echo ""
echo ====== `date`: Putting tarball to NTWS

	cd /home/bitsurfer/backups
	ftp -n -v 10.3.1.10 <<EoF
	user (some user) (some password)
	bin
	prompt
	mput *.tgz

[Ed. Note: 10.3.1.10 is the IP address of Chris' NT workstation]

Hope this helps...

Best regards, Chris

WARNING: only you can decide what is important to backup on your box.  This is what I decided was important to me.

[root@ducky:/usr/backups] # more backup.sh 
#!/bin/sh
tar -zpcvf /usr/backups/archives/backup.`date +%Y.%m.%d.at.%H.%M.%S`.tgz \
        -X /usr/backups/exclude.txt             \
        /etc                                    \
        /usr/local/                             \
        /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/                 \
        /sbin/                                  \
        /usr/home/                              \
        /pub/

Don't forget the '\' at the end of each line as specified.  This script creates a file with a name similar to this:

/usr/backups/archives/backup.1999.11.26.at.14.33.24.tgz

Everything in the indicated directories (/etc, /usr/local, etc) are included in the backup.  With the exception of those files/directories specified in /usr/backups/exclude.txt.  At present, this file contains:

/usr/backups/archives/*

This excludes any previous backups from being included within this backup.  I will add to this list should discover other sub-directories which I do not wish to archive.

I have yet to set up an automated FTP of this file to another box.  But that will come.