rsnapshot fails backup to nfs share

drhood · 11-04-2013, 05:45 AM

Hello,

I have been trying to work with rsnapshot to complete a backup, but have run into problems, solving them, until now.

Client System
Debian Wheezy
Single user
NFSv4
NFS directory mounted /mnt/backups with rw for user only (see fstab below)
Execute rsnapshot as user (not root)

NFS share mounted in /etc/fstab

Quote:

192.168.x.xxx:/srv/user/backups /mnt/backups nfs rw,hard,intr,udp,nosuid 0 0

Server System
Ubuntu Server 12.04
NFSv4

Content of /etc/exports file

Quote:

/srv/user 192.168.x.xxx(rw,async,no_subtree_check)

The Problem
Below is the rsnapshot error message.

Quote:

user@user:~$ /usr/bin/rsnapshot daily
require Lchown
Lchown module loaded successfully
Setting locale to POSIX "C"
echo 3581 > /home/user/rsnapshot.pid
/bin/rm -rf /mnt/backups/daily.6/
mv /mnt/backups/daily.5/ /mnt/backups/daily.6/
mv /mnt/backups/daily.4/ /mnt/backups/daily.5/
mv /mnt/backups/daily.3/ /mnt/backups/daily.4/
mv /mnt/backups/daily.2/ /mnt/backups/daily.3/
mv /mnt/backups/daily.1/ /mnt/backups/daily.2/
/bin/cp -al /mnt/backups/daily.0 /mnt/backups/daily.1
/bin/cp: preserving times for `/mnt/backups/daily.1/localhost/home/user/Pictures': Invalid argument
/bin/cp: preserving times for `/mnt/backups/daily.1/localhost/home/user': Invalid argument
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rsnapshot encountered an error! The program was invoked with these options:
/usr/bin/rsnapshot daily
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: /bin/cp -al /mnt/backups/daily.0 /mnt/backups/daily.1 failed (result 256, exit status 1). Perhaps your cp does not support -al options?
ERROR: Error! cp_al("/mnt/backups/daily.0/", "/mnt/backups/daily.1/")
/usr/bin/logger -i -p user.err -t rsnapshot /usr/bin/rsnapshot daily: \
ERROR: Error! cp_al("/mnt/backups/daily.0/", "/mnt/backups/daily.1/")
rm -f /home/user/rsnapshot.pid

As can be seen, the problem is with my Pictures folder and some file in my home folder.

For the life of me, I cannot see what is the problem in my Pictures folder, which is below.

Content of /home/user/Pictures

Quote:

-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 93481 Sep 8 06:53 20130825_001c.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 333926 Sep 7 19:27 20130825_001.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 554879 Jan 27 2013 21_oct.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 127868 Jan 27 2013 dixie_proj1.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 581987 Jan 27 2013 DSC00042.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 2751389 Aug 4 2011 DSCN3295.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 1143992 Aug 4 2011 DSCN3308.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 1401005 Aug 3 2011 DSCN3313a.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 50379728 Aug 2 2011 DSCN3313.xcf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 1254637 Aug 2 2011 DSCN3334a.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 628859 Aug 2 2011 DSCN3375a.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 869112 Sep 17 2011 DSCN3456a.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 12678086 Sep 17 2011 DSCN3456aJPG.xcf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 518521 Sep 17 2011 DSCN3519a.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 514855 Sep 17 2011 DSCN3528a.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 454227 Sep 7 18:22 DSCN4278c.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 498442 Sep 7 18:23 DSCN4279c.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 614995 Sep 7 18:24 DSCN4285c.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 431670 Sep 7 18:25 DSCN4287c.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 446322 Sep 7 18:30 DSCN4288c.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 540794 Sep 7 18:26 DSCN4289c.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 603922 Sep 7 18:28 DSCN4293c.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 682247 Sep 7 18:29 DSCN4297c.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 702153 Sep 16 04:55 DSCN4303.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 275614 Sep 16 05:01 DSCN4303s.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 709942 Sep 16 04:55 DSCN4305.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 282616 Sep 16 05:02 DSCN4305s.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 76160 Jan 27 2013 Eves_Closet1.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 152864 Jan 27 2013 Eves_Closet.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 127699 Jan 27 2013 feather_star_10.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 201095 Sep 8 17:17 FF_Poem.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 4121213 Jan 27 2013 HPIM5672.JPG
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 23154 Jan 27 2013 lookingback1.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 75327 Jan 27 2013 lookingback2.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 44219 Jan 27 2013 lookingback3.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 51763 Jan 27 2013 lookingback4.jpg
drw-rw-r-- 2 user user 4096 May 1 2013 smplayer_screenshots
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 114088 Jan 27 2013 The_Cemetery.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 110890 Jan 27 2013 The_Hat_That_Was_A_Crow.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 671310 Jan 27 2013 Witch_Proj.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 182340 Jan 27 2013 Yellow_Bird_close_up.jpg
-rw-rw-r-- 1 user user 105521 Jan 27 2013 Yellow_Bird.jpg

Request
Need help brainstorming on potential causes or possible work around. For instance..

Could this problem be due to running rsnapshot on the client as a user rather than root?
Could this problem be due to rw only access?

Possible solutions will be greatly appreciated.

With kind regards,

drhood

lleb · 11-04-2013, 08:54 AM

did you read the error msg?

Code:

/bin/cp -al /mnt/backups/daily.0 /mnt/backups/daily.1 
/bin/cp: preserving times for `/mnt/backups/daily.1/localhost/home/user/Pictures': Invalid argument
/bin/cp: preserving times for `/mnt/backups/daily.1/localhost/home/user': Invalid argument
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rsnapshot encountered an error! The program was invoked with these options:
/usr/bin/rsnapshot daily 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: /bin/cp -al /mnt/backups/daily.0 /mnt/backups/daily.1 failed (result 256, exit status 1). Perhaps your cp does not support -al options?
ERROR: Error! cp_al("/mnt/backups/daily.0/", "/mnt/backups/daily.1/")
/usr/bin/logger -i -p user.err -t rsnapshot /usr/bin/rsnapshot daily: \
ERROR: Error! cp_al("/mnt/backups/daily.0/", "/mnt/backups/daily.1/") 
rm -f /home/user/rsnapshot.pid

it is telling you right there what the problem is. try running the command manually and see what happens

Code:

$ /bin/cp -al file_to_copy_source /path/to/destination/name.foo

if it works, then there is a problem with the backup software. i dont see why its bothering with cp, way heavier on the system, then rsync. does a much safe job plus has checking points for the connection goes down for what ever reason as you are backing up to a NFS share meaning not a local resource inside your computer, but in your LAN/WAN.

drhood · 11-09-2013, 01:17 PM

Thank you lleb!

I did the cp -al command manually in a terminal and no errors occurred. I took note of the comment on cp and moved from rsnapshot to another backup tool (backintime) that only uses rsync.

For those interested, I like rsnapshot; however, it doesn't appear to be the best suited tool for my situation (i.e., user backing up /home/user to an nfs shared folder (user permissions only) mounted locally. As explained in the OP above, I could not figure how to resolve the cp -al errors when running rsnapshot as a user. Rsnapshot works great on my server where root is backing up to a usb drive.

Although I did not think I would like backintime, after trying it out, backintime is a tool that works for me. I wanted a back up tool that (a) used rsync, (b) did not require running in the background, (c) did not encrypt so that I can restore manually via a file manager if needed, and (d) supported daily/weekly/monthly backups. Backintime meets all of these and is dead simple to configure.

Two other backup tools I looked at but did not end up using were deja vu and luckybackup.

Thanks again.

lleb · 11-10-2013, 01:20 PM

glad to have helped. i personally just create simple bash scripts to backing up to NFS/NAS locations via all of my Linux workstations and my web server.