[gentoo-user] Hows this for rsnapshot cron jobs?

[gentoo-user] Hows this for rsnapshot cron jobs?

[Tanstaafl]

Ok, my goal is to keep 3 'snapshots' per day (11:30am, 2:30pm and 
5:30pm), 7 daily's (8:50pm), 4 weekly's (8:40pm), 12 monthly's (8:30pm), 
and 5 yearly's (8:20pm).

My myhost1.conf has:

interval        hourly  3
interval        daily   7
interval        weekly  4
interval        monthly 12
interval        yearly  5

And my /etc/crontab now looks like:

> # for vixie cron
> # $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/sys-process/vixie-cron/files/crontab-3.0.1-r4,v 1.3 2011/09/20 15:13:51 idl0r Exp $
>
> # Global variables
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
> MAILTO=root
> HOME=/
>
> # check scripts in cron.hourly, cron.daily, cron.weekly and cron.monthly
> 59  *  * * *    root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly
> 9  3  * * *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.daily
> 19 4  * * 6     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.weekly
> 29 5  1 * *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.monthly
> */10  *  * * *  root    test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons && /usr/sbin/run-crons
> #
> # rsnapshot cronjobs
> #
> 30 11,14,17 * * * root   rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf sync; rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf hourly
> 50 20 * * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf daily
> 40 20 * * 6     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf weekly
> 30 20 1 * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf monthly
> 20 20 1 * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf yearly

Does this look right?

Thanks

Re: [gentoo-user] Hows this for rsnapshot cron jobs?

[Alan McKinnon]

On 21/04/2013 20:47, Tanstaafl wrote:
> Ok, my goal is to keep 3 'snapshots' per day (11:30am, 2:30pm and
> 5:30pm), 7 daily's (8:50pm), 4 weekly's (8:40pm), 12 monthly's (8:30pm),
> and 5 yearly's (8:20pm).
> 
> My myhost1.conf has:
> 
> interval        hourly  3
> interval        daily   7
> interval        weekly  4
> interval        monthly 12
> interval        yearly  5
> 
> And my /etc/crontab now looks like:
> 
>> # for vixie cron
>> # $Header:
>> /var/cvsroot/gentoo-x86/sys-process/vixie-cron/files/crontab-3.0.1-r4,v 1.3
>> 2011/09/20 15:13:51 idl0r Exp $
>>
>> # Global variables
>> SHELL=/bin/bash
>> PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
>> MAILTO=root
>> HOME=/
>>
>> # check scripts in cron.hourly, cron.daily, cron.weekly and cron.monthly
>> 59  *  * * *    root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.hourly
>> 9  3  * * *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.daily
>> 19 4  * * 6     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.weekly
>> 29 5  1 * *     root    rm -f /var/spool/cron/lastrun/cron.monthly
>> */10  *  * * *  root    test -x /usr/sbin/run-crons &&
>> /usr/sbin/run-crons
>> #
>> # rsnapshot cronjobs
>> #
>> 30 11,14,17 * * * root   rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf
>> sync; rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf hourly
>> 50 20 * * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf daily
>> 40 20 * * 6     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf weekly
>> 30 20 1 * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf monthly
>> 20 20 1 * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf yearly

Only the last line is wrong - your monthly and yearly are equivalent.To
be properly yearly, you need a month value in field 4.

I'm not familiar with rsnapshot, I assume that package can deal with how
many of each type of snapshot to retain in it's conf file? I see no
crons to delete out of date snapshots.


And, more as a nitpick than anything else, I always recommend that when
a sysadmin adds a root cronjob, use crontab -e so it goes in
/var/spool/cron, not /etc/crontab. Two benefits:

- syntax checking when you save and quit
- if you let portage, package managers, chef, puppet or whatever manage
your global cronjobs in /etc/portage, then there's no danger that system
will trash the stuff that you added there manually.

-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com

Re: [gentoo-user] Hows this for rsnapshot cron jobs?

[Tanstaafl]

On 2013-04-21 4:32 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 21/04/2013 20:47, Tanstaafl wrote:
>>> 30 20 1 * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf monthly
>>> 20 20 1 * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf yearly

> Only the last line is wrong - your monthly and yearly are equivalent.To
> be properly yearly, you need a month value in field 4.

Oh, right (I added that interval myself, rsnapshot only comes with the 
hourly, daily weekly and monthly by default).

So, if I wanted it to run at 8:20pm on Dec 31, it would be:

20 22 31 12 *  root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf yearly

> I'm not familiar with rsnapshot, I assume that package can deal with how
> many of each type of snapshot to retain in it's conf file? I see no
> crons to delete out of date snapshots.

Correct, rsnapshot handles this.

> And, more as a nitpick than anything else, I always recommend that when
> a sysadmin adds a root cronjob, use crontab -e so it goes in
> /var/spool/cron, not /etc/crontab. Two benefits:
>
> - syntax checking when you save and quit
> - if you let portage, package managers, chef, puppet or whatever manage
> your global cronjobs in /etc/portage, then there's no danger that system
> will trash the stuff that you added there manually.

I prefer doing things manually... so, nothing else manages my cron jobs.

That said, I prefer to do this 'the gentoo way'... so is crontab -e the 
gentoo way?

;)

Re: [gentoo-user] Hows this for rsnapshot cron jobs?

[Alan McKinnon]

On 21/04/2013 22:49, Tanstaafl wrote:
> On 2013-04-21 4:32 PM, Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 21/04/2013 20:47, Tanstaafl wrote:
>>>> 30 20 1 * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf
>>>> monthly
>>>> 20 20 1 * *     root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf yearly
> 
>> Only the last line is wrong - your monthly and yearly are equivalent.To
>> be properly yearly, you need a month value in field 4.
> 
> Oh, right (I added that interval myself, rsnapshot only comes with the
> hourly, daily weekly and monthly by default).
> 
> So, if I wanted it to run at 8:20pm on Dec 31, it would be:
> 
> 20 22 31 12 *  root    rsnapshot -c /etc/rsnapshot/myhost1.conf yearly


Correct



>> I'm not familiar with rsnapshot, I assume that package can deal with how
>> many of each type of snapshot to retain in it's conf file? I see no
>> crons to delete out of date snapshots.
> 
> Correct, rsnapshot handles this.
> 
>> And, more as a nitpick than anything else, I always recommend that when
>> a sysadmin adds a root cronjob, use crontab -e so it goes in
>> /var/spool/cron, not /etc/crontab. Two benefits:
>>
>> - syntax checking when you save and quit
>> - if you let portage, package managers, chef, puppet or whatever manage
>> your global cronjobs in /etc/portage, then there's no danger that system
>> will trash the stuff that you added there manually.
> 
> I prefer doing things manually... so, nothing else manages my cron jobs.
> 
> That said, I prefer to do this 'the gentoo way'... so is crontab -e the
> gentoo way?


There's no "gentoo way" for this :-)

Admittedly, things have changed over the years, most distros now have
the equivalent of "cron.daily" etc that cron jobs get installed into,
leaving the main /etc/crontab as a place to put the lastrun logic. It
wasn't always like that though.

If you ever move to puppet or similar to do your configs you'll want to
revisit this. Meanwhile, as you do everything manually anyway, your
current method seems to work just fine for you


-- 
Alan McKinnon
alan.mckinnon@gmail.com