BackupPC

On Wed, 2011-03-23 at 08:37 -0500, Michael Conner wrote:
> I am using rsync xfer and have tried setting things up as I did for the linux machine: created a public key in /var/lib/backuppc/.ssh. For the linux machine, I copied that to root on the client with ssh-copy-id and everything worked fine. One the Mac, root is not enabled, so I copied the key to the user's home directory. That worked in that I can ssh from the BPC server to the Mac user without a password. 
> 
> But when I try to run a backup on it, it fails with a "Unable to read 4 bytes" error. I've tried a lot changes to user and share in the host config file, but nothing works (/ vs /user/home, backuppc vs mac user as user) and nothing has worked. From some web searching I may have to get a key from the Mac onto the BPC server, but there is also this 
> http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/backuppc/index.php?title=MacOS_X_secure_setup
> in the wiki about setting up a backuppc user on the Mac.

You have two choices:

1. Enable the root account and put the key on the root account.

2. Back up via any user with sudo access, similar to the guide you
posted.

Regards,
Tyler

-- 
"Scientific theories can be altered by publishing a paper with
reproducible results, and political principles can be changed every two
to four years with an election, but if you want to change religious
principles you usually have to wait for a whole generation of clergy
to die."
   -- Soren Ragsdale

> I'm a newbie with limited Linux experience, but I've had BPC running for
> about a week on a test machine running Centos 5.5. So far I've
> successfully gotten backups for a Windows machine over SMB and another
> linux (CentOS) with rsync; however, I'm having trouble getting things to
> work for a Mac client running 10.6.6 and am hoping for some help.
>
> I am using rsync xfer and have tried setting things up as I did for the
> linux machine: created a public key in /var/lib/backuppc/.ssh. For the
> linux machine, I copied that to root on the client with ssh-copy-id and
> everything worked fine. One the Mac, root is not enabled, so I copied the
> key to the user's home directory. That worked in that I can ssh from the
> BPC server to the Mac user without a password.

You probably want to just enable root, in which case, you can essentially
do the same thing as you did with Linux:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528

> But when I try to run a backup on it, it fails with a "Unable to read 4
> bytes" error. I've tried a lot changes to user and share in the host
> config file, but nothing works (/ vs /user/home, backuppc vs mac user as
> user) and nothing has worked. From some web searching I may have to get a
> key from the Mac onto the BPC server, but there is also this
> http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/backuppc/index.php?title=MacOS_X_secure_setup
> in the wiki about setting up a backuppc user on the Mac.

You probably want to shorten your steps and test ssh in this manner --

On the BackupPC box:
su - backuppc
ssh testbox -l root

In the above example, "testbox" is the box you want to make sure works
with BackupPC, and "root" is the username in the RsyncClientCmd.  If it
doesn't work, get it working first before bothering with BackupPC backups
-- it's almost certainly the source of your "Unable to read 4 bytes"
error.

> Can someone give me guidance on the best way to get the Mac set up?
>
> Thanks
>
> Mike

On Mar 23, 2011, at 9:25 AM, Michael Stowe wrote:

>> I'm a newbie with limited Linux experience, but I've had BPC running for
>> about a week on a test machine running Centos 5.5. So far I've
>> successfully gotten backups for a Windows machine over SMB and another
>> linux (CentOS) with rsync; however, I'm having trouble getting things to
>> work for a Mac client running 10.6.6 and am hoping for some help.
>> 
>> I am using rsync xfer and have tried setting things up as I did for the
>> linux machine: created a public key in /var/lib/backuppc/.ssh. For the
>> linux machine, I copied that to root on the client with ssh-copy-id and
>> everything worked fine. One the Mac, root is not enabled, so I copied the
>> key to the user's home directory. That worked in that I can ssh from the
>> BPC server to the Mac user without a password.
> 
> You probably want to just enable root, in which case, you can essentially
> do the same thing as you did with Linux:
> http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1528
> 
>> But when I try to run a backup on it, it fails with a "Unable to read 4
>> bytes" error. I've tried a lot changes to user and share in the host
>> config file, but nothing works (/ vs /user/home, backuppc vs mac user as
>> user) and nothing has worked. From some web searching I may have to get a
>> key from the Mac onto the BPC server, but there is also this
>> http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/backuppc/index.php?title=MacOS_X_secure_setup
>> in the wiki about setting up a backuppc user on the Mac.
> 
> You probably want to shorten your steps and test ssh in this manner --
> 
> On the BackupPC box:
> su - backuppc
> ssh testbox -l root
> 
> In the above example, "testbox" is the box you want to make sure works
> with BackupPC, and "root" is the username in the RsyncClientCmd.  If it
> doesn't work, get it working first before bothering with BackupPC backups
> -- it's almost certainly the source of your "Unable to read 4 bytes"
> error.
> 

Thanks to Mike and Tyler Wagner. Enabling root (and making sure my include files path had the proper case) worked. Now on to the next step, once I figure what that is.

Mike

Michael Conner wrote at about 08:37:33 -0500 on Wednesday, March 23, 2011:
 > I'm a newbie with limited Linux experience, but I've had BPC running for about a week on a test machine running Centos 5.5. So far I've successfully gotten backups for a Windows machine over SMB and another linux (CentOS) with rsync; however, I'm having trouble getting things to work for a Mac client running 10.6.6 and am hoping for some help.
 > 
 > I am using rsync xfer and have tried setting things up as I did for the linux machine: created a public key in /var/lib/backuppc/.ssh. For the linux machine, I copied that to root on the client with ssh-copy-id and everything worked fine. One the Mac, root is not enabled, so I copied the key to the user's home directory. That worked in that I can ssh from the BPC server to the Mac user without a password. 

Did you change the rsync line in the config.pl file to tell rsync to
login as that user rather than to root? Otherwise how would rsync know
which user to log in as.

e.g.,
$Conf{RsyncClientCmd} = '$sshPath -q -x -l mac-user-name $host $rsyncPath $argList+';

Also, if you are using a non-root user, you need to make sure
that the stated user has permission to read all the files you want to
backup (or use sudo to elevate permissions).

 > 
 > But when I try to run a backup on it, it fails with a "Unable to read 4 bytes" error. I've tried a lot changes to user and share in the host config file, but nothing works (/ vs /user/home, backuppc vs mac user as user) and nothing has worked. From some web searching I may have to get a key from the Mac onto the BPC server, but there is also this 
 > http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/backuppc/index.php?title=MacOS_X_secure_setup
 > in the wiki about setting up a backuppc user on the Mac.
 > 

Did you test the ssh login running as user backuppc? e.g., sudo -u
backuppc ssh -l <mac-username> mac-machine-name

On Mar 23, 2011, at 12:12 PM, Jeffrey J. Kosowsky wrote:

> Michael Conner wrote at about 08:37:33 -0500 on Wednesday, March 23, 2011:
>> I'm a newbie with limited Linux experience, but I've had BPC running for about a week on a test machine running Centos 5.5. So far I've successfully gotten backups for a Windows machine over SMB and another linux (CentOS) with rsync; however, I'm having trouble getting things to work for a Mac client running 10.6.6 and am hoping for some help.
>> 
>> I am using rsync xfer and have tried setting things up as I did for the linux machine: created a public key in /var/lib/backuppc/.ssh. For the linux machine, I copied that to root on the client with ssh-copy-id and everything worked fine. One the Mac, root is not enabled, so I copied the key to the user's home directory. That worked in that I can ssh from the BPC server to the Mac user without a password. 
> 
> Did you change the rsync line in the config.pl file to tell rsync to
> login as that user rather than to root? Otherwise how would rsync know
> which user to log in as.
> 
> e.g.,
> $Conf{RsyncClientCmd} = '$sshPath -q -x -l mac-user-name $host $rsyncPath $argList+';
> 
That looks promising, thanks for noting it and expanding my understanding of one the parameters I've just glossed over so far because it seemed out of my league. I'll give this a try as well at some point. As I noted in another post, enabling root on the mac and copying the ssh key to it got things going before you suggested this.


> 
>> 
>> But when I try to run a backup on it, it fails with a "Unable to read 4 bytes" error. I've tried a lot changes to user and share in the host config file, but nothing works (/ vs /user/home, backuppc vs mac user as user) and nothing has worked. From some web searching I may have to get a key from the Mac onto the BPC server, but there is also this 
>> http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/backuppc/index.php?title=MacOS_X_secure_setup
>> in the wiki about setting up a backuppc user on the Mac.
>> 
> 
> Did you test the ssh login running as user backuppc? e.g., sudo -u
> backuppc ssh -l <mac-username> mac-machine-name
> 

Yes I did, though a little more clumsily. Some info on installing BPC under CentOS I have has you call up a shell for backuppc, do the key generation and copying within that, which is also where I tested the ssh originally.

Mike