[gentoo-amd64] Local network backup

[Peter Humphrey <prh@gotadsl.co.uk>]

Here's today's problem.

I have a firewall-cum-gateway box between my tiny LAN and the Internet. The 
gateway runs constantly, while the internal boxes run when needed (they're my 
laptop and workstation). I want to use some space on the gateway to store 
backups of the other boxes, and I'd like the backup to run unattended at a 
time when the others are likely to be running. This seems not to be possible 
without security risks.

I've looked through all the Gentoo app-backup packages and found very few that 
are suitable for use out of the box. Ssh figures in them all, which is a good 
thing I suppose - except that I can't find a way to have ssh or scp run 
unattended.

Take rsnapshot, for instance. This looks like just what I need: automation via 
cron, history extending from hours to months, easy restoration and so on. It 
uses rsync, which can run either natively, which I'm not sure is prudent over 
the LAN, or over ssh. So in trying to set rsnapshot up to use ssh, and 
following the admirable guide by Daniel Robbins, I find that in order to 
avoid having to give a password every time a snapshot is taken, I have to 
remain logged in as root. This is not a good idea on a firewall box.

So I seem to have a choice: (i) run my backups manually, (ii) run them without 
ssh. You see my dilemma.

-- 
Rgds
Peter.
Linux Counter 5290, Aug 93
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