To backup to remote destinations you can use ssh. rsyncbackup provides an easy way to create passwordless ssh-keys. Of course, you could do this manually, if you know what to do. You can also use ssh with password, but then the script would require interactivity and could not be run from crontabs. To invoke the remote destination wizard type rsyncbackup -r. The wizard will start with asking you for some details regarding the destination:
Enter the hostname of the remote computer (or IP-address): backuphost.mysecondcomputer.com Enter the backup directory on the remote computer [Backup]: Enter your username on the remote computer: andreas Enter an unique tag for the destination [backuphost.mysecondcomputer.com]: backuphost2nd
The first time the wizard is run it will create a key-pair specific for rsyncbackup, named respectively ~/.ssh/rsyncbackup
(private key) and ~/.ssh/rsyncbackup.pub
(public key). Additionally the wizard will copy the public key to a remote destiantion and add a destination in destinations.conf
.
********************************************************************* * SECURITY Warning * * * * You are about to create a ssh-keyset without password for logging * * in to a remote host. That means hackers who attack your computer * * also can log in to the remote computer. Do clearify if this is * * OK with the local IT-administration of the remote host. * ********************************************************************* Press enter to create the keys, or Control+C to quit Generating public/private dsa key pair. Your identification has been saved in /Users/andrs/.ssh/rsyncbackup. Your public key has been saved in /Users/andrs/.ssh/rsyncbackup.pub. The key fingerprint is: 9d:68:64:f1:86:65:70:be:f0:29:34:ad:82:ac:2e:37 andrs@Snow.local The public key will now be distributed to the remote computer. You will have to enter your ssh account password on the remote computer. Public key is now distributed to the remote computer successfully
Look for error messages, and check your destinations.conf
file. To check if your keys are working you can type:
ssh -i ~/.ssh/rsyncbackup user@remotehost.com echo "This works!!! juhu!"
You should not be asked for password. If This works!!! juhu!
is echoed, then thing is OK. Now you can setup backup sets in a source file to backup to this destination using the tag specified in the wizard.