New Backup Server - Part 6

Part 5 saw the localhost backup run successfully. Time to move on to the big prize, the file server.

Before I can backup my file server, I need to setup the public keys required for rsync to login to the server as root without a password. For this part of the task, the new guide is pretty limited and apparently missing some steps, so I'm reverting back to the HowToForge Guide on Page 4. The instructions are clear and complete, and it worked last time.

As I went through these steps, everything went well. The commands made sense, and the responses came back as expected. Except for the path to the home directory on the backup server. The guide said to expect /var/lib/backuppc, but instead I saw /home/backuppc. I wasn't able to change it, so I went with it.

Everything was great, until the last command which tested the connection, as it still asked for the password. I changed one thing: on the file server, I removed what I had added to the authorized_keys2 file - from = "gentry2" - and the ssh command worked.

However, my attempt at a backup still failed. What finally made it work was this: instead of using the IP address in the ssh test, I used the hostname of the server. I was asked to confirm the RSA key fingerprint once again. Then, the backup worked. Yeah!

I hope to better understand this stuff someday, but I'm just happy that it's working. (I wonder how long this full backup will take.)

Read the exciting conclusion in Part 7.