backups using rsync over ssh

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#1 Mon, 02/13/2006 - 05:18
ChrisBlackwell

backups using rsync over ssh

Hi all,

Just wondered if someone with more linux experience than myself could give me a little help.

I'm backing up all my Virtualmin domains nightly with a scheduled back, and i want to rsync them to another server after that has completed. I know i need to setup rsa keys so that ssh can login without a password but i'm kind of confused over which user gets the key.

Here is the command that works manually.

rsync -ave ssh /root/backups/ backupuser@my.remote.host:/home/backupuser/backups/

As Virtualmins backups are owned by root, i need to run rsync as root in order to read the files, but i want to access the remote machine as "backupuser"... I've tried creating keys for root, but this doesnt seem to work, do i need to create the backupuser account locally, even if i'm rsync'ing as root.

I'm sure this should be simple, once you know how :)

Cheers, Chris

Mon, 02/13/2006 - 14:41
Joe
Joe's picture

Hey Chris,

You have several options, depending on which machine is more "trusted". But I think the best bet, and what you're specifically describing, is this:

Create a public/private key pair for root on your Virtualmin machine using ssh-keygen.

Copy the <i>public</i> key (/root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub, probably) into a file called authorized_keys on the backup machine in the directory /home/backupuser/.ssh (make sure it is owned by backupuser).

This should allow you to ssh to the backup machine as backupuser when logged in as root on the Virtualmin machine without a password. Now your script, when run as root, will be able to run without a password.

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