rear(8) - bare metal disaster recovery and system migration tool.



  • REAR(8)                                                                         REAR(8)
    
    NAME
           rear - bare metal disaster recovery and system migration tool
    
    SYNOPSIS
           rear [-h|--help] [-V|--version] [-dsSv] [-D|--debugscripts SET] [-c DIR] [-C
           CONFIG] [-r KERNEL] [--] COMMAND [ARGS...]
    
    DESCRIPTION
           Relax-and-Recover is the leading Open Source disaster recovery solution. It is a
           modular framework with many ready-to-go workflows for common situations.
    
           Relax-and-Recover produces a bootable image. This image can repartition the
           system. Once that is done it initiates a restore from backup. Restores to
           different hardware are possible. Relax-and-Recover can therefore be used as a
           migration tool as well.
    
           Currently Relax-and-Recover supports various boot media (incl. ISO, PXE, OBDR
           tape, USB or eSATA storage), a variety of network protocols (incl. sftp, ftp,
           http, nfs, cifs) for storage and backup as well as a multitude of backup
           strategies (incl. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, HP DataProtector, Symantec
           NetBackup, EMC NetWorker, EMC Avamar, FDR/Upstream, NovaBACKUP DC, Bareos,
           Bacula, rsync, rbme, Borg). This results in a bootable image that is capable of
           booting via PXE, DVD/CD, bootable tape or virtual provisioning.
    
           Relax-and-Recover was designed to be easy to set up, requires no maintenance and
           is there to assist when disaster strikes. Its setup-and-forget nature removes
           any excuses for not having a disaster recovery solution implemented.
    
           Recovering from disaster is made very straight-forward by a 2-step recovery
           process so that it can be executed by operational teams when required. When used
           interactively (e.g. when used for migrating systems), menus help make decisions
           to restore to a new (hardware) environment.
    
           Extending Relax-and-Recover is made possible by its modular framework.
           Consistent logging and optionally extended output help understand the concepts
           behind Relax-and-Recover and help debug during development.
    
           Relax-and-Recover comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the GNU
           General Public License at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
    
    OPTIONS
       GLOBAL OPTIONS
           -h --help
               usage information
    
           -c DIR
               alternative config directory; instead of /etc/rear
    
           -C CONFIG
               additional config file; absolute path or relative to config directory
    
           -d
               debug mode (log debug messages to log file - also sets -v)
    
           -D
               debugscript mode (log executed commands via set -x - also sets -v and -d)
    
           --debugscripts SET
               same as -d -v -D but debugscript mode with set -SET
    
           -r KERNEL
               kernel version to use (by default use running kernel)
    
           -s
               simulation mode (show what scripts are run without executing them)
    
           -S
               step-by-step mode (acknowledge each script individually)
    
           -v
               verbose mode (show more output and run many commands in verbose mode)
    
           -V --version
               version information
    
       COMMANDS
           checklayout
               check if the disk layout has changed since the last run of mkbackup/mkrescue
    
           dump
               dump configuration and system information; please run this to verify your
               setup
    
           format
               format and label USB or tape media to be used with rear;
    
               first argument is the USB or tape device to use, eg.  /dev/sdX or /dev/stX
    
           help
               print full list of commands and options
    
           mkbackup
               create rescue media and backup the system (only for internal backup methods)
    
           mkbackuponly
               backup the system (only for internal backup methods) without creating rescue
               media
    
           mkrescue
               create rescue media only
    
           recover
               recover the system; can be used only when running from the rescue media
    
           restoreonly
               only restore the backup; can be used only when running from the rescue media
    
           mkopalpba
               create a pre-boot authentication (PBA) image to boot from TCG Opal
               2-compliant self-encrypting disks
    
           opaladmin
               administrate TCG Opal 2-compliant self-encrypting disks
    
           validate
               submit validation information
    
           Use rear -v help for more advanced commands.
    
    BACKGROUND INFORMATION
           The process of bare metal disaster recovery consists of two parts:
    
           ·   Recreate the system layout
    
           ·   Restore the data to the system
    
           Most backup software solutions are very good at restoring data but do not
           support recreating the system layout. Relax-and-Recover is very good at
           recreating the system layout but works best when used together with supported
           backup software.
    
           In this combination Relax-and-Recover recreates the system layout and calls the
           backup software to restore the actual data. Thus there is no unnecessary
           duplicate data storage and the Relax-and-Recover rescue media can be very small.
    
           For demonstration and special use purposes Relax-and-Recover also includes an
           internal backup method, NETFS, which can be used to create a simple tar.gz
           archive of the system. For all permanent setups we recommend using something
           more professional for backup, either a traditional backup software (open source
           or commercial) or rsync with hardlink based solutions, e.g. RSYNC BACKUP MADE
           EASY.
    
    RESCUE IMAGE CONFIGURATION
           The OUTPUT variable defines from where our bootable rescue image will be booted
           and the OUTPUT_URL variable defines where the rescue image should be send to.
           Possible OUTPUT settings are:
    
           OUTPUT=RAMDISK
               Create only the Relax-and-Recover initramfs.
    
           OUTPUT=ISO
               (Default) Create a bootable ISO9660 image on disk as rear-$(hostname).iso
    
           OUTPUT=PXE
               Create on a remote PXE/NFS server the required files (such as configuration
               file, kernel and initrd image
    
           OUTPUT=OBDR
               Create a bootable OBDR tape (optionally including the backup archive).
               Specify the OBDR tape device by using TAPE_DEVICE.
    
           OUTPUT=USB
               Create a bootable USB disk (using extlinux). Specify the USB storage device
               by using USB_DEVICE.
    
           OUTPUT=RAWDISK
               Create a bootable image file named "rear-$(hostname).raw.gz", which
    
               ·   supports UEFI boot if syslinux/EFI or Grub 2/EFI is installed,
    
               ·   supports Legacy BIOS boot if syslinux is installed,
    
               ·   supports UEFI/Legacy BIOS dual boot if syslinux and one of the supported
                   EFI bootloaders are installed.
    
           When using OUTPUT=ISO, RAMDISK, OBDR, USB, or RAWDISK you should provide the
           backup target location through the OUTPUT_URL variable. Possible OUTPUT_URL
           settings are:
    
           OUTPUT_URL=file://
               Write the image to disk. The default is in /var/lib/rear/output/.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=nfs://
               Write the image by mounting the target filesystem via NFS.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=cifs://
               Write the image by mounting the target filesystem via CIFS.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=fish://
               Write the image using lftp and the FISH protocol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=ftp://
               Write the image using lftp and the FTP protocol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=ftps://
               Write the image using lftp and the FTPS protocol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=hftp://
               Write the image using lftp and the HFTP protocol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=http://
               Write the image using lftp and the HTTP (PUT) procotol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=https://
               Write the image using lftp and the HTTPS (PUT) protocol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=sftp://
               Write the image using lftp and the secure FTP (SFTP) protocol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=rsync://
               Write the image using rsync and the RSYNC protocol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=sshfs://
               Write the image using sshfs and the SSH protocol.
    
           OUTPUT_URL=null
               Do not copy the rescue image from /var/lib/rear/output/ to a remote output
               location.  OUTPUT_URL=null is useful when another program (e.g. an external
               backup program) is used to save the rescue image from the local system to a
               remote place, or with BACKUP_URL=iso:///backup when the backup is included
               in the rescue image to avoid a (big) copy of the rescue image at a remote
               output location. In the latter case the rescue image must be manually saved
               from the local system to a remote place.  OUTPUT_URL=null is only supported
               together with BACKUP=NETFS.
    
           If you do not specify OUTPUT_URL variable then by default it will be aligned to
           what was defined by variable BACKUP_URL. And, the rescue image will then be
           copied to the same location as your backup of the system disk(s).
    
           The ISO_DEFAULT variable defines what default boot option is used on the rescue
           image. Possible values are manual, boothd or automatic. Manual will make you
           boot into the shell directly by default, boothd will boot to the first disk
           (default) or automatic will automatically start in recovery mode.
    
    RESCUE IMAGE KERNEL COMMAND LINE OPTIONS
           When booting the rescue image you can edit the kernel command line. There are
           some Relax-and-Recover specific kernel command line options:
    
           debug
               The rescue system start up scripts in /etc/scripts/system-setup.d/ are run
               one by one each one after pressing Enter and the scripts are run with set -x
               which prints commands and their arguments as they are executed.
    
           auto_recover or automatic
               Launch rear recover automatically (without automated reboot). Together with
               debug it runs rear recover in debug mode.
    
           unattended
               Launch rear recover automatically as with auto_recover plus automated reboot
               after successful rear recover.
    
           ip= nm= netdev= gw=
               If IP address plus optionally netmask (default 255.255.255.0), network
               device (default eth0), and a default gateway are specified only that single
               network device is set up. Example:
    
               ip=192.168.100.2 nm=255.255.255.0 netdev=eth0 gw=192.168.100.1
    
           noip
               Skip network devices setup by the rescue system start up scripts (overrides
               ip= nm= netdev= gw=).
    
    BACKUP SOFTWARE INTEGRATION
           Currently Relax-and-Recover supports the following backup methods. Please
           distinguish carefully between Relax-and-Recover support for 3rd party backup
           software and Relax-and-Recover internal backup methods. The latter also creates
           a backup of your data while the former will only integrate Relax-and-Recover
           with the backup software to restore the data with the help of the backup
           software without actually creating backups. This means that for all non-internal
           backup software you must take care of creating backups yourself (unless
           otherwise noted).
    
           Especially the rear mkbackup command can be confusing as it is only useful for
           the internal backup methods and has usually no function at all with the other
           (external) backup methods.
    
           The following backup methods need to be set in Relax-and-Recover with the BACKUP
           option. As mentioned we have two types of BACKUP methods - internal and
           external.
    
           The following BACKUP methods are external of Relax-and-Recover meaning that
           usually you are responsible of backups being made:
    
           BACKUP=REQUESTRESTORE
               (default) Not really a backup method at all, Relax-and-Recover simply halts
               the recovery and requests that somebody will restore the data to the
               appropriate location (e.g. via SSH). This method works especially well with
               an rsync based backup that is pushed back to the backup client.
    
           BACKUP=EXTERNAL
               Internal backup method that uses an arbitrary external command to create a
               backup and restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=DP
               Use HP Data Protector to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=FDRUPSTREAM
               Use FDR/Upstream to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=GALAXY
               Use CommVault Galaxy 5 to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=GALAXY7
               Use CommVault Galaxy 7 to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=GALAXY10
               Use CommVault Galaxy 10 (or Simpana 10) to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=NBU
               Use Symantec NetBackup to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=TSM
               Use IBM Tivoli Storage Manager to restore the data. The Relax-and-Recover
               result files (e.g. ISO image) are also saved into TSM. There is a (currently
               experimental) first draft implementation that a TSM backup is created by
               calling dsmc incremental during rear mkbackup.
    
           BACKUP=NSR
               Using EMC NetWorker (Legato) to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=AVA
               Using EMC Avamar to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=SESAM
               Using SEP Sesam to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=NBKDC
               Using Novastor NovaBACKUP DC to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=RBME
               Use Rsync Backup Made Easy (rbme) to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=BAREOS
               Use Open Source backup solution BAREOS (a fork a BACULA) to restore the
               data.
    
           BACKUP=BACULA
               Use Open Source backup solution BACULA to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=DUPLICITY
               Use encrypted bandwidth-efficient backup solution using the rsync algorithm
               to restore the data.
    
           BACKUP=BORG
               Use BorgBackup (short Borg) a deduplicating backup program to restore the
               data. Executing rear mkbackup will create a Borg backup, see the section
               ReaR with Borg back end in the ReaR user-guide Scenarios documentation.
    
           The following BACKUP methods are internal of Relax-and-Recover:
    
           BACKUP=NETFS
               Internal backup method which can be used to create a simple backup (tar
               archive).
    
           BACKUP=RSYNC
               Use rsync to restore data.
    
           If your favourite backup software is missing from this list, please submit a
           patch or ask us to implement it for you.
    
           When using BACKUP=NETFS you must provide the backup target location through the
           BACKUP_URL variable. Possible BACKUP_URL settings are:
    
           BACKUP_URL=file://
               To backup to local disk, use BACKUP_URL=file:///directory/path/
    
           BACKUP_URL=nfs://
               To backup to NFS disk, use BACKUP_URL=nfs://nfs-server-name/share/path
    
           BACKUP_URL=tape://
               To backup to tape device, use BACKUP_URL=tape:///dev/nst0 or alternatively,
               simply define TAPE_DEVICE=/dev/nst0
    
           BACKUP_URL=rsync://
               When backup method BACKUP=RSYNC is chosen then we need to define a
               corresponding BACKUP_URL rule:
    
                   BACKUP_URL=rsync://[user@]host[:port]/path
                   BACKUP_URL=rsync://[user@]host[:port]::/path
    
           BACKUP_URL=cifs://
               To backup to a Samba share (CIFS), use
               BACKUP_URL=cifs://cifs-server-name/share/path. To provide credentials for
               CIFS mounting use a /etc/rear/cifs credentials file and define
               BACKUP_OPTIONS="cred=/etc/rear/cifs" and pass along:
    
                   username=_username_
                   password=_secret password_
                   domain=_domain_
    
           BACKUP_URL=usb://
               To backup to USB storage device, use
               BACKUP_URL=usb:///dev/disk/by-path/REAR-000 or use a real device node or a
               specific filesystem label. Alternatively, you can specify the device using
               USB_DEVICE=/dev/disk/by-path/REAR-000.
    
               If you combine this with OUTPUT=USB you will end up with a bootable USB
               device.
    
           BACKUP_URL=sshfs://
               To backup to a remote server via sshfs (SSH protocol), use
               BACKUP_URL=sshfs://[email protected]/home/user/backup-dir/
    
               It is advisable to add ServerAliveInterval 15 in the /root/.ssh/config file
               for the remote system (remote-system.name.org).
    
           BACKUP_URL=iso://
               To include the backup within the ISO image. It is important that the
               BACKUP_URL and OUTPUT_URL variables are different. E.g.
    
                   BACKUP_URL=iso:///backup/
                   OUTPUT_URL=nfs://server/path/
    
           When using BACKUP=NETFS and BACKUP_PROG=tar there is an option to select
           BACKUP_TYPE=incremental or BACKUP_TYPE=differential to let rear make incremental
           or differential backups until the next full backup day e.g. via
           FULLBACKUPDAY="Mon" is reached or when the last full backup is too old after
           FULLBACKUP_OUTDATED_DAYS has passed. Incremental or differential backup is
           currently only known to work with BACKUP_URL=nfs. Other BACKUP_URL schemes may
           work but at least BACKUP_URL=usb requires USB_SUFFIX to be set to work with
           incremental or differential backup.
    
    SUPPORT FOR SELF-ENCRYPTING DISKS
           Relax-and-Recover supports self-encrypting disks (SEDs) compliant with the TCG
           Opal 2 specification if the sedutil-cli executable is installed.
    
           Self-encrypting disk support includes
    
           ·   recovery (saving and restoring the system’s SED configuration),
    
           ·   setting up SEDs, including assigning a disk password,
    
           ·   providing a pre-boot authentication (PBA) system to unlock SEDs at boot
               time.
    
           To prepare booting from an SED, run rear mkopalpba, then create the rescue
           system.
    
           To set up an SED, boot the Relax-and-Recover rescue system and run `rear
           opaladmin setupERASE DEVICE` (DEVICE being the disk device path like /dev/sda).
    
           For complete information, consult the section "Support for TCG Opal 2-compliant
           Self-Encrypting Disks" in the Relax-and-Recover user guide.
    
    CONFIGURATION
           To configure Relax-and-Recover you have to edit the configuration files in
           /etc/rear/. All *.conf files there are part of the configuration, but only
           site.conf and local.conf are intended for the user configuration. All other
           configuration files hold defaults for various distributions and should not be
           changed.
    
           In /etc/rear/templates/ there are also some template files which are used by
           Relax-and-Recover to create configuration files (mostly for the boot
           environment). Modify the templates to adjust the information contained in the
           emails produced by Relax-and-Recover. You can use these templates to prepend
           your own configurations to the configuration files created by Relax-and-Recover,
           for example you can edit PXE_pxelinux.cfg to add some general pxelinux
           configuration you use.
    
           In almost all circumstances you have to configure two main settings and their
           parameters: The backup method and the output method.
    
           The backup method defines, how your data was saved and whether Relax-and-Recover
           should backup your data as part of the mkrescue process or whether you use an
           external application, e.g. backup software to archive your data.
    
           The output method defines how the rescue system is written to disk and how you
           plan to boot the failed computer from the rescue system.
    
           See the default configuration file /usr/share/rear/conf/default.conf for an
           overview of the possible methods and their options.
    
           An example to use TSM for backup and ISO for output would be to add these lines
           to /etc/rear/local.conf (no need to define a BACKUP_URL when using an external
           backup solution):
    
               BACKUP=TSM
               OUTPUT=ISO
    
           And if all your systems use NTP for time synchronisation, you can also add these
           lines to /etc/rear/site.conf
    
               TIMESYNC=NTP
    
           Do not forget to distribute the site.conf to all your systems.
    
           The resulting ISO image will be created in /var/lib/rear/output/. You can now
           modify the behaviour by copying the appropriate configuration variables from
           default.conf to local.conf and changing them to suit your environment.
    
    EXIT STATUS
           0
               Successful program execution.
    
           >0
               Usage, syntax or execution errors. Check the log file in /var/log/rear/ for
               more information.
    
    EXAMPLES
           To print out the current settings for BACKUP and OUTPUT methods and some system
           information. This command can be used to see the supported features for the
           given release and platform.
    
               # rear dump
    
           To create a new rescue environment. Do not forget to copy the resulting rescue
           system away so that you can use it in the case of a system failure.
    
               # rear -v mkrescue
    
           To create a new rescue image together with a complete archive of your local
           system run the command:
    
               # rear -v mkbackup
    
    FILES
           /usr/sbin/rear
               The program itself.
    
           /etc/rear/local.conf
               System specific configuration can be set here.
    
           /etc/rear/site.conf
               Site specific configuration can be set here (not created by default).
    
           /var/log/rear/
               Directory holding the log files.
    
           /tmp/rear.####
               Relax-and-Recover working directory. If Relax-and-Recover exits with an
               error, you must remove this directory manually.
    
           /usr/share/rear
               Relax-and-Recover script components.
    
           /usr/share/rear/conf/default.conf
               Relax-and-Recover default values. Contains a complete set of parameters and
               its explanation. Please do not edit or modify. Copy values to local.conf or
               site.conf instead.
    
    BUGS
           Feedback is welcome, please report any issues or improvements to our
           issue-tracker at: http://github.com/rear/issues/
    
           Furthermore, we welcome pull requests via GitHub.
    
    SEE ALSO
           Relax-and-Recover comes with extensive documentation located in /usr/share/doc.
    
    AUTHORS
           The ReaR project was initiated in 2006 by Schlomo Schapiro
           (https://github.com/schlomo) and Gratien D’haese (https://github.com/gdha) and
           has since then seen a lot of contributions by many authors. As ReaR deals with
           bare metal disaster recovery, there is a large amount of code that was
           contributed by owners and users of specialized hardware and software. Without
           their combined efforts and contributions ReaR would not be the universal Linux
           bare metal disaster recovery solution that it is today.
    
           As time passed the project was lucky to get the support of additional developers
           to also help as maintainers: Dag Wieers (https://github.com/dagwieers), Jeroen
           Hoekx (https://github.com/jhoekx), Johannes Meixner (https://github.com/jsmeix),
           Vladimir Gozora (https://github.com/gozora) and Sébastien Chabrolles
           (https://github.com/schabrolles). We hope that ReaR continues to prove useful
           and to attract more developers who agree to be maintainers. Please refer to the
           MAINTAINERS (https://github.com/rear/rear/blob/master/MAINTAINERS) file for the
           list of active and past maintainers.
    
           To see the full list of authors and their contributions please look at the git
           history (https://github.com/rear/rear/graphs/contributors). We are very thankful
           to all authors and encourage anybody interested to take a look at our source
           code and to contribute what you find important.
    
           Relax-and-Recover is a collaborative process using Github at
           http://github.com/rear/
    
           The Relax-and-Recover website is located at: http://relax-and-recover.org/
    
    COPYRIGHT
           (c) 2006-2018
    
           The copyright is held by the original authors of the respective code pieces as
           can be seen in the git history at
           https://github.com/rear/rear/graphs/contributors
    
           Relax-and-Recover comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see the GNU
           General Public License at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
    
                                          20 June 2018                              REAR(8)
    

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