My way is a bit Mickey Mouse and not really recommended with systemd. Their preferred method is to write a proper unit file (in /usr/lib/systemd/system) with the relevant start up dependencies.

I know nothing about xinetd and it may be a good alternative.

There was an error in rsync xinetd config file. Once I corrected it all is working well.

The rsync xinetd config file is:

service rsync

{

    disable         = no

    socket_type     = stream

    port            = 873

    protocol        = tcp

    wait            = no

    user            = root

    server          = /usr/bin/rsync

    server_args     = --daemon

    log_on_failure  += USERID

}

This starts rsync --daemon automatically after boot. BTW the way Nick suggested to start it works too.

On the slave system /etc/rsyncd.conf contains:

[BACKUP]

path = /var/flexshare/shares/data-2

comment = Flexshare backup

uid = root

gid = root

use chroot = false

max connections = 4

pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid

log file = /var/log/rsyncd.log

exclude = lost+found/

transfer logging = yes

timeout = 900

ignore nonreadable = yes

hosts allow = 192.168.2.1

read only = no

list = yes

On master in /etc/crontab I put:

15 22 * * * root rsync -a /var/flexshare/shares/data/ root@192.168.2.2::BACKUP --exclude=.trash --delete

All is working well. First full backup was 2 days ago, then yesterday just incremental. Happy days I will change this and put a proper script in the future to backup more stuff and send email notification once completed. For now this will do and I can check /var/log/rsyncd.log if needed.

BTW there is a way to mount flexshares from another server by using mount -t cifs e.g.

mount -t cifs -o username=[username],password=[password] //192.168.2.1/data /mnt/source

and then backup that folder using rsync.

The problem is you need to use a username and password, and use fstab to mount flexshare on boot. This means fstab would contain a username and password of one of the users of the system. This doesn't sound secure to me even on closed networks like ours that's why I decided to go with the above solution. You can use "guest" account too - then you don't need a password, so if data you would like to backup doesn't need to be secured by password going with "mount - t cifs" makes perfect sense.

Hope this helps someone in the future.

What is the contents of your /etc/rsync.conf file on the backup device?

Also do you have any orphaned processes on your main server ("ps aux | grep rsync")?

Nick Howitt wrote:

tomas wrote:
Good progress here. Will post the full solution once I try to figure out how to automatically start rsync daemon on server reboot ...

Put the line in /etc/rc.d/rc.local and make the file executable.

I have installed on the slave xinetd and created rsync containing:

# default: off

service rsync

{

disable = no

socket_type = stream

port = 873

wait = no

user = root

server = /usr/bin/rsync

server_args = --daemon --config /etc/rsync.conf

log_on_failure += USERID

}

But now I get:

rsync: read error: Connection reset by peer (104)

when I start

rsync -a /var/flexshare/shares/data/ root@192.168.2.2::BACKUP --exclude=.trash --delete &

on the master for some reason no matter if I use xinetd to start rsync daemon or start it manually. It was working fine before - tested more than 5 times...

tomas wrote:
Good progress here. Will post the full solution once I try to figure out how to automatically start rsync daemon on server reboot ...

Put the line in /etc/rc.d/rc.local and make the file executable.

Good progress here. Will post the full solution once I try to figure out how to automatically start rsync daemon on server reboot ...

On my local slave (Pi running OSMC) my rsync.conf is much simpler so I don't know if your options will work. Start simple and build it up. Most of what you've added is not in the "Daemon Options" bit of the man page.

On your BDC did you remember to start the rsync daemon with an:

rsync --daemon

It may need an "&" after it to detach from the terminal. I put one in for safety. It should return a PID number when it starts manually. You can check it is running with a "ps aux | grep rsync".

The -r flag is not needed (even though you got it from me!) as -a also implies -r.

By default the following files are not compressed: gz/zip/z/rpm/deb/iso/bz2/t[gb]z/7z/mp[34]/mov/avi/ogg/jpg/jpeg but you have bot asked for any compression (-z) in your rsync line.

I also have the excluded on my rsync line and you will want a --delete or the backup will grow indefinitely

Hi

We have a similar problem - running Master (PDC; 192.168.2.1) and Slave (BDC; no firewall; 192.168.2.2) servers here and we need a flexshare backup solution.

I think this is doable using rsync and cron.

We have flexshares on the master running (/var/flexshare/shares/data) and I just created flexshare on the slave system (/var/flexshare/shares/data-2).

After reading Nick's suggestion I set up on the Slave the following in the /etc/rsyncd.conf file:

[BACKUP]

path = /var/flexshare/shares/data-2

comment = Flexshare backup

uid = root

gid = root

use chroot = false

max connections = 4

pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid

exclude = lost+found/

transfer logging = yes

timeout = 900

ignore nonreadable = yes

dont compress   = *.gz *.tgz *.zip *.z *.Z *.rpm *.deb *.bz2

hosts allow = 192.168.2.1

read only = no

list = yes

But when I try to run on the master system:

rsync -ra /var/flexshare/shares/data root@192.168.2.2::BACKUP/var/flexshare/shares/data-2

I get:

rsync: failed to connect to 192.168.2.2 (192.168.2.2): Connection refused (111)

rsync error: error in socket IO (code 10) at clientserver.c(122) [sender=3.0.9]

Hello Nick,
Thanks for your answer. I did what you said and everything went right, thanks

Not the answer you want but can I suggest you use rsync? You can run rsync as a daemon on the receiving server then push everything across from your sending server.

On the receiving server set up a file /etc/rsyncd.conf similar to mine (on a Pi):

lock file = /var/run/rsync.lock

log file = /var/log/rsyncd.log

pid file = /var/run/rsyncd.pid



[PI_Disk]

    path = /mnt/USBDisk

    comment = Raspberry Pi USB Disk

    uid = root

    gid = root

    read only = no

    list = yes

    hosts allow = 172.17.2.1

    use chroot = false

I don't think you need the first three lines or the "hosts allow" line. Set the path to the head of your flexshare data. Then a command on the old server similar to the next will push the files across:

rsync -ra /shares/shared/ root@172.17.2.114::PI_Disk/shared/ --exclude=.trash --delete &

Instead of /shares/shared you want your source folder and instead of my IP address you'll want your new server's LAN IP.

The great thing about rsync is that it will run incrementally only transferring the files which have changed. This means you can abort it. Or do a massive transfer days before you bring the server on line then do an rsync for any changes just before you take the old server offline.

The command I've given will run quietly in the background. If you want to see what is happening, remove the "&" and change the -ra to -rav.

On the receiving server to run rsync you just use the command "rsync --daemon". You can note the process ID. To kill it you'll need the command "kill rsync_process_id". If you lose the process ID a "ps aux | grep rsync" gives it as the second field in the correct line.