Rsync backups
 

I want to backup my entire system using rsync incremental.To backup my entire system i need root privileges.The remote host where the backup is going to be sent dosn't allow root access.This behavior is because bastille.In sshd.conf i have and in /root/.ssh/authorized_keys check_command is a script that checks only the rsync command is permitted also without malicious codes.Bastille cancelled root login from /etc/securetty .I added back the ttys but still root login is not allowed where else could i check to allow root ????
Thanks

It's generally best to avoid logging in to remote systems as root, and if the remote system just holds the backups you don't need to use root access. Instead, create a dedicated account on the remote system, and have your backup script login with that account.

FWIW, check out rdiff-backup, which builds a convenient backup system on top of rsync and SSH.

I think for rsync to preserve owner and group settings for files, the rsync process which is writing the backup files must be executed as root. I use rsync for backups from 3 machines on my local network, but since I'm only backing up my home directories, I decided to use a non-root user on the destination machine and concede that I won't have ownership preserved.

Yes, it's best to use a dedicated backup product such as Bacula or Amanda if you want or need full system recovery.

I mainly use rdiff-backup for basic backup of my data, and also chose not to worry about preserving file permissions. On one simple server I used a script that backs up to tar files, with another script to copy the tar files over SSH to another system.