planb 1.6.post1

PlanB automates remote SSH+rsync backups

PlanB backs up your remote SSH-accessible files using rsync to a local ZFS storage. Manage many hosts and host groups. Automate daily, weekly, monthly and yearly backups with snapshots.

How it looks

At the moment, the interface is just a Django admin interface:

The files are stored on ZFS storage, using snapshots to keep earlier versions of tiles. See this example shell transscript:

# zfs list | grep mongo2
rpool/BACKUP/experience-mongo2         9,34G  1,60T   855M  /srv/backups/experience-mongo2

# ls -l /srv/backups/experience-mongo2/data/srv/mongodb
total 646610
-rw------- 1 planb nogroup   67108864 jun 17 17:03 experience.0
-rw------- 1 planb nogroup  134217728 jun  9 16:01 experience.1
...

Those are the “current” files in the workspace. But you can go back in time:

# zfs list -r -t all rpool/BACKUP/experience-mongo2 | head -n4
NAME                                                  USED  AVAIL  REFER  MOUNTPOINT
rpool/BACKUP/experience-mongo2                       9,34G  1,60T   855M  /srv/backups/experience-mongo2
rpool/BACKUP/experience-mongo2@daily-201706031147        0      -   809M  -
rpool/BACKUP/experience-mongo2@monthly-201706031147      0      -   809M  -

# cd /srv/backups/experience-mongo2/.zfs/
# ls -1
daily-201706031147
daily-201706031211
daily-201706040001
daily-201706050002
...

# ls daily-201706031147/data/srv/mongodb -l
total 581434
-rw------- 1 planb nogroup   67108864 jun  2 18:21 experience.0
-rw------- 1 planb nogroup  134217728 mei 29 14:38 experience.1
...

Requirements / setup

PlanB can be installed as a standalone Django application, or it can be integrated in another Django project.

See requirements.txt or setup.py for up-to-date dependencies/requirements.

Basically, you’ll need: ZFS storage, ssh and rsync, a webserver (nginx), python hosting (uwsgi), a database (mysql), a communication/cache bus (redis) and a few python packages.

For more detailed steps, see Setting it all up below.

TODO

• Fix logrotate sample.

• Add uwsgi-uid==djangoq-uid check?

• Re-add some form of “list-stale-mounts” (!). # contrib/list-stale-mounts | mail -E -s “[$HOSTNAME] Stale ZFS mounts?” ^– document this in FAQ below..

• Re-add non-INFO output from planb_custom.daily… # run_backupinfo | grep -vFB1 INFO/ /var/log/osso-backup/billing.log | # mail -E -s “[$HOSTNAME] Backup billing push”

• Alter HostGroup: - use fs-name and human-name - use asciifield for fs-name?

• Alter HostConfig: - use fs-name and optionally human-name - use asciifield for fs-name?

• Replace the exception mails for common errors (like failing rsync) to use mail_admins style mail.

• After using mail_admins style mail, we can start introducing mail digests instead: daily summary of backup successes and failures.

• Fix admin “Planb” name as “PlanB”.

• Split off the subparts of the HostConfig to separate configs: - include-config - transport-config - retention-config - host-status (use this as main enqueue-view?)

• Use hostgroup+hostname in more places. Right now the friendly_name is too short. Also, use unique_together, so the friendlyname can be reused.

• BUG: Items added to /exclude list are not deleted from destination if they have already been backed up once.

• Replace the “daily report” hack with a signal-receiver.

WARNING

The Django-Q task scheduler is highly configurable from the /admin/-view. With a little effort it will run user-supplied python code directly. Any user with access to the schedulers will have tremendous powers

Recommendation: don’t give your users powers to edit the schedulers. Use the fine-grained permissions of the Django-admin systems to limit them to Hosts and HostGroups only.

Perhaps we should disable web-access to it altogether.

Setting it all up

If you follow the HOWTO below, you’ll set up PlanB as a standalone project. Those familiar with Django will know how to integrate it into their own project.

The setup below assumes you’ll be using the planb user. You’re free to change that consistently of course.

Setting up a ZFS pool

TODO: Document this briefly.

Setting up the project

Setting up a virtualenv (optional):

mkdir -p /srv/virtualenvs
echo 'WORKON_HOME=/srv/virtualenvs' >>~/.bashrc
apt-get install python3-virtualenv python3-pip virtualenvwrapper
# you may need to log in/out once after this

mkvirtualenv planb --python=$(which python3) --system-site-packages

mkdir /etc/planb
cd /etc/planb
pwd >$VIRTUAL_ENV/.project

workon planb

Installing PlanB using pip:

apt-get install mysql-server redis-server
pip3 install planb

Installing PlanB without pip:

apt-get install mysql-server redis-server python3-mysqldb python3-redis \
  python3-setproctitle
pip install git+https://github.com/ossobv/planb.git@master

Setting up a local planb user:

adduser planb --disabled-password --home=/var/spool/planb \
  --shell=/bin/bash --system

sudo -H -u planb ssh-keygen -b 8192

Note

You may want to back that ssh key up somewhere.

Setting up the local environment:

cat >/etc/planb/envvars <<EOF
USER=planb
PYTHONPATH=/etc/planb
DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE=settings
EOF

Note

During development, you can use a local ./envvars in your development directory or set PLANB_ENVFILE to a specific path. You can set PYTHONPATH to /etc/planb:/home/yourname/src/planb to develop on the production machine.

Setting up the local configuration:

cp ${VIRTUAL_ENV:-/usr/local}/share/planb/example_settings.py \
  /etc/planb/settings.py
${EDITOR:-vi} /etc/planb/settings.py

Replace all *FIXME* entries in the ``settings.py``

Make sure the SQL database exists. How to do that is beyond the scope of this readme.

At this point, you should be able to run the planb script.

Set up the database and a web-user:

planb migrate
planb createsuperuser

Setting up uwsgi planb.ini:

[uwsgi]
plugin = python3
workers = 4

chdir = /
virtualenv = /srv/virtualenvs/planb
wsgi-file = /srv/virtualenvs/planb/share/planb/wsgi.py

uid = planb
gid = www-data
chmod-socket = 660

for-readline = /etc/planb/envvars
   env = %(_)
endfor =

Set up static path, static files and log path:

# see the STATIC_ROOT entry in your settings.py
install -o planb -d /srv/http/YOURHOSTNAME/static

planb collectstatic

install -o planb -d /var/log/planb

Setting up nginx config:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name YOURHOSTNAME;

    root /srv/http/YOURHOSTNAME;

    location / {
        uwsgi_pass unix:/run/uwsgi/app/planb/socket;
        include uwsgi_params;
    }

    location /static/ {
    }
}

Giving PlanB access to ZFS tools and paths:

cat >/etc/sudoers.d/planb <<EOF
planb ALL=NOPASSWD: /sbin/zfs, /bin/chown
EOF

zfs create rpool/BACKUP -o mountpoint=/srv/backups
chown planb /srv/backups
chmod 700 /srv/backups

Setting up qcluster for scheduled tasks:

# (in the source, this file is in rc.d)
cp ${VIRTUAL_ENV:-/usr/local}/share/planb/planb-queue.service \
  /etc/systemd/system/

${EDITOR:-vi} /etc/systemd/system/planb-queue.service

systemctl daemon-reload &&
  systemctl enable planb-queue &&
  systemctl start planb-queue &&
  systemctl status planb-queue

Installing automatic jobs:

planb loaddata planb_jobs

Configuring a remote host

Create a remotebackup user on the remote host (or encbackup for encrypted backups, which is beyond the scope of this document):

adduser --disabled-password remotebackup

Configure sudo access using visudo -f /etc/sudoers.d/remotebackup:

# Backup user needs to be able to get the files
remotebackup ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/rsync --server --sender *
remotebackup ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ionice -c2 -n7 /usr/bin/rsync --server --sender *
remotebackup ALL=NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/ionice -c3 /usr/bin/rsync --server --sender *

Observe how the --server --sender makes the rsync read-only.

Set up the ssh key like you’d normally do:

mkdir -p ~remotebackup/.ssh
cat >>~remotebackup/.ssh/authorized_keys <<EOF
... ssh public key from /var/spool/planb/.ssh/id_rsa.pub goes here ...
EOF

chmod 640 ~remotebackup/.ssh/authorized_keys
chown remotebackup -R ~remotebackup/.ssh

When you use this pattern, you can tick use_sudo and set the remote user to remotebackup.

Adding post-backup notification

Do you want a notification when a backup succeeds? Or when it fails?

You can add something like this to your settings:

from datetime import datetime
from subprocess import check_call
from django.dispatch import receiver
from planb.signals import backup_done

@receiver(backup_done)
def notify_zabbix(sender, hostconfig, success, **kwargs):
    if success:
        key = 'planb.get_latest[{}]'.format(hostconfig.identifier)
        val = datetime.now().strftime('%s')
        cmd = (
            'zabbix_sender', '-c', '/etc/zabbix/zabbix_agentd.conf',
            '-k', key, '-o', val)
        check_call(cmd)

That combines nicely with a backup host discovery rule using blist:

# Machine discovery (redirects stderr to mail).
UserParameter=planb.discovery, \
  ( planb blist --zabbix 3>&2 2>&1 1>&3 \
  | mail -E -s 'ERROR: planb.discovery (zabbix)' root ) 2>&1

Doing daily jobs

A quick hack to get daily reports up and running is by placing something like this in /etc/planb/planb_custom.py:

from planb.contrib.billing import BossoBillingPoster, daily_hostgroup_report

def daily_billing_report():
    """
    This function is added into: Home >> Task Queue >> Scheduled task
    As: "Report to Billing" <planb_custom.daily_bosso_report>
    """
    daily_hostgroup_report(BossoBillingPoster('http://my.url.here/'))

F.A.Q.

Can I use the software and customize it to my own needs?

It is licensed under the GNU GPL version 3.0 or higher. See the LICENSE file for the full text. That means: probably yes, but you may be required to share any changes you make. But you were going to do that anyway, right?

The uwsgi log complains about “No module named site”.

If your uwsgi fails to start, and the log looks like this:

Python version: 2.7.12 (default, Nov 19 2016, 06:48:10)
Set PythonHome to /srv/virtualenvs/planb
ImportError: No module named site

Then your uWSGI is missing the Python 3 module. Go install uwsgi-plugin-python3.

The mkvirtualenv said locale.Error: unsupported locale setting.

You need to install the right locales until perl -e setlocale is silent. How depends on your system and your config. See locale and e.g. locale-gen en_US.UTF-8.

Rsync complains about Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character.

If rsync returns with code 23 and says this:

rsync: recv_generator: failed to stat "...\#351es-BCS 27-09-11.csv":
  Invalid or incomplete multibyte or wide character (84)

Then you might be backing up old hosts with legacy Latin-1 encoding on the filesystem. Adding --iconv=utf8,latin1 to the hostconfig flags should fix it.

You may need rsync version 3 or higher for that.

Right now we opt to not implement any of these workarounds:

• Patch rsync to cope with EILSEQ (84) “Illegal byte sequence”.

• Cope with error code 23 and pretend that everything went fine.

Instead, you should install a recent rsync and/or fix the filenames on your remote filesystem.

Rsync complains about failed to stat or mkdir failed.

If rsync returns these messages:

rsync: recv_generator: failed to stat "...": Permission denied (13)
rsync: recv_generator: mkdir "..." failed: Permission denied (13)

Then you may be looking at parent directories with crooked permissions, like 077. Fix the permissions on the remote end.

However, many of these problems have likely been fixed by the addition of the –chmod=Du+rwx rsync option.

Backup success mail are sent, but failure mails are not.

Check the DEBUG setting. At the moment, error-mails are sent through the logging subsystem and that is disabled when running in debug-mode.

Authors

PlanB was started in 2013 as “OSSO backup” by Alex Boonstra at OSSO B.V. Since then, it has been evolved into PlanB. When it was Open Sourced by Walter Doekes in 2017, the old commits were dropped to ensure that any private company information was not disclosed.

Changes

v1.6.post1 - 2019-03-20

Web interface

• Show last snapshot size distribution, and first backup success date, in hostconfig edit-view.

• Show real-used-size instead of apparent-used-size in snapshot data distribution. If you have ZFS compression enabled, you’ll see a drop in the snapshot size summaries (not in the total disk usage).

• Hide last-error message in hostconfig edit-view for hosts that are disabled.

Other

• Single Sign-On (Discourse style) can be enabled (using the optional kleides-dssoclient dependency). See KLEIDES_DSSO_ENDPOINT option.

• Tweak permissions so you don’t need is_superuser powers anymore.

• Update BossoBillingPoster for posting backup data counts to (internal) Bosso system.

v1.5 - 2018-06-13

Web interface

• Show “time since last backup” in listing, instead of just OK/FAIL.

Tasks

• Add locking to dutree scanner, so the filesystem isn’t raped. Only do one dutree scan at a time.

• Change scheduler: jobs are now scheduled ahead of time by deducting the expected duration.

• Fix rsync issue when remote directory permissions are wrong (unreadable by user). In that case, the download (as root user) would succeed, but later changes would fail locally (planb user).

Other

• Change schema, removing unnecessary weekly/monthly booleans.

• Fix total_size_mb in report, which was too large.

• Improve breport command to output to stdout by default.

v1.4 - 2018-04-06

Web interface

• Show job failures in hostconfig detail view.

• Reduce clutter in hostconfig list view, using smaller items and less clutter.

• Show average run time, instead of last run time.

Other

• Fix bug with sending of breport emails.

• Use git version for pip-install if available; add makefile for quick commands.

• Update qcluster argv so it’s still considered busy while doing the dutree scan.

v1.3 - 2018-03-19

Web interface

• Disallow deletion of non-empty host groups.

CLI

• Add breport command to send out backup reports. See the template in templates/planb/report_email_body.txt. Note that the report is still in alpha stage. NOTE: To get e-mail reports as well, you need to have rst2html installed.

• Add --with-disabled to confexport command to get complete exports.

• Fix that planb runserver can be used for development (through PYTHONPATH propagation).

Other

• Dependency updates to Django 2.0+.

• Add backup history record keeping, for better logging and averages.

v1.2 - 2017-09-18

• Fix release, this time without pyc files and with wheel package. Run this for upload: python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel upload

v1.1 - 2017-09-18

Settings

• Add PLANB_DEFAULT_INCLUDES.

• Rename ZFS_BIN, SUDO_BIN and RSYNC_BIN to PLANB_<setting>.

• Fix allowing use of alternate DJANGO_SETTINGS_MODULE.

Web interface

• Add hosts to hostgroup listing.

• Allow ordering hosts by enabled/queued/running.

CLI

• Add “stale mounts” listing (planb slist).

• Create “hostconfig” export in YAML or JSON format (planb confexport).

Queue

• Fix so long running jobs don’t suffer from lost DB connections.

Other

• Misc refactoring/cleanup.

v1.0 - 2017-07-11

• Initial release.