1REAR(8)                                                                REAR(8)
2
3
4

NAME

6       rear - bare metal disaster recovery and system migration tool
7

SYNOPSIS

9       rear [-h|--help] [-V|--version] [-dsSv] [-D|--debugscripts SET] [-c
10       DIR] [-C CONFIG] [-r KERNEL] [--] COMMAND [ARGS...]
11

DESCRIPTION

13       Relax-and-Recover is the leading Open Source disaster recovery
14       solution. It is a modular framework with many ready-to-go workflows for
15       common situations.
16
17       Relax-and-Recover produces a bootable image. This image can repartition
18       the system. Once that is done it initiates a restore from backup.
19       Restores to different hardware are possible. Relax-and-Recover can
20       therefore be used as a migration tool as well.
21
22       Currently Relax-and-Recover supports various boot media (incl. ISO,
23       PXE, OBDR tape, USB or eSATA storage), a variety of network protocols
24       (incl. sftp, ftp, http, nfs, cifs) for storage and backup as well as a
25       multitude of backup strategies (incl. IBM Tivoli Storage Manager, HP
26       DataProtector, Symantec NetBackup, EMC NetWorker, EMC Avamar,
27       FDR/Upstream, NovaBACKUP DC, Bareos, Bacula, rsync, rbme, Borg). This
28       results in a bootable image that is capable of booting via PXE, DVD/CD,
29       bootable tape or virtual provisioning.
30
31       Relax-and-Recover was designed to be easy to set up, requires no
32       maintenance and is there to assist when disaster strikes. Its
33       setup-and-forget nature removes any excuses for not having a disaster
34       recovery solution implemented.
35
36       Recovering from disaster is made very straight-forward by a 2-step
37       recovery process so that it can be executed by operational teams when
38       required. When used interactively (e.g. when used for migrating
39       systems), menus help make decisions to restore to a new (hardware)
40       environment.
41
42       Extending Relax-and-Recover is made possible by its modular framework.
43       Consistent logging and optionally extended output help understand the
44       concepts behind Relax-and-Recover and help debug during development.
45
46       Relax-and-Recover comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see
47       the GNU General Public License at: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
48

OPTIONS

50   GLOBAL OPTIONS
51       -h --help
52           usage information
53
54       -c DIR
55           alternative config directory; instead of /etc/rear
56
57       -C CONFIG
58           additional config file; absolute path or relative to config
59           directory
60
61       -d
62           debug mode (log debug messages to log file - also sets -v)
63
64       -D
65           debugscript mode (log executed commands via set -x - also sets -v
66           and -d)
67
68       --debugscripts SET
69           same as -d -v -D but debugscript mode with set -SET
70
71       -r KERNEL
72           kernel version to use (by default use running kernel)
73
74       -s
75           simulation mode (show what scripts are run without executing them)
76
77       -S
78           step-by-step mode (acknowledge each script individually)
79
80       -v
81           verbose mode (show more output and run many commands in verbose
82           mode)
83
84       -V --version
85           version information
86
87   COMMANDS
88       checklayout
89           check if the disk layout has changed since the last run of
90           mkbackup/mkrescue
91
92       dump
93           dump configuration and system information; please run this to
94           verify your setup
95
96       format
97           format and label USB or tape media to be used with rear;
98
99           first argument is the USB or tape device to use, eg.  /dev/sdX or
100           /dev/stX
101
102       help
103           print full list of commands and options
104
105       mkbackup
106           create rescue media and backup the system (only for internal backup
107           methods)
108
109       mkbackuponly
110           backup the system (only for internal backup methods) without
111           creating rescue media
112
113       mkrescue
114           create rescue media only
115
116       recover
117           recover the system; can be used only when running from the rescue
118           media
119
120       restoreonly
121           only restore the backup; can be used only when running from the
122           rescue media
123
124       mkopalpba
125           create a pre-boot authentication (PBA) image to boot from TCG Opal
126           2-compliant self-encrypting disks
127
128       opaladmin
129           administrate TCG Opal 2-compliant self-encrypting disks
130
131       validate
132           submit validation information
133
134       Use rear -v help for more advanced commands.
135

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

137       The process of bare metal disaster recovery consists of two parts:
138
139       ·   Recreate the system layout
140
141       ·   Restore the data to the system
142
143       Most backup software solutions are very good at restoring data but do
144       not support recreating the system layout. Relax-and-Recover is very
145       good at recreating the system layout but works best when used together
146       with supported backup software.
147
148       In this combination Relax-and-Recover recreates the system layout and
149       calls the backup software to restore the actual data. Thus there is no
150       unnecessary duplicate data storage and the Relax-and-Recover rescue
151       media can be very small.
152
153       For demonstration and special use purposes Relax-and-Recover also
154       includes an internal backup method, NETFS, which can be used to create
155       a simple tar.gz archive of the system. For all permanent setups we
156       recommend using something more professional for backup, either a
157       traditional backup software (open source or commercial) or rsync with
158       hardlink based solutions, e.g. RSYNC BACKUP MADE EASY.
159

RESCUE IMAGE CONFIGURATION

161       The OUTPUT variable defines from where our bootable rescue image will
162       be booted and the OUTPUT_URL variable defines where the rescue image
163       should be send to. Possible OUTPUT settings are:
164
165       OUTPUT=RAMDISK
166           Create only the Relax-and-Recover initramfs.
167
168       OUTPUT=ISO
169           (Default) Create a bootable ISO9660 image on disk as
170           rear-$(hostname).iso
171
172       OUTPUT=PXE
173           Create on a remote PXE/NFS server the required files (such as
174           configuration file, kernel and initrd image
175
176       OUTPUT=OBDR
177           Create a bootable OBDR tape (optionally including the backup
178           archive). Specify the OBDR tape device by using TAPE_DEVICE.
179
180       OUTPUT=USB
181           Create a bootable USB disk (using extlinux). Specify the USB
182           storage device by using USB_DEVICE.
183
184       OUTPUT=RAWDISK
185           Create a bootable image file named "rear-$(hostname).raw.gz", which
186
187           ·   supports UEFI boot if syslinux/EFI or Grub 2/EFI is installed,
188
189           ·   supports Legacy BIOS boot if syslinux is installed,
190
191           ·   supports UEFI/Legacy BIOS dual boot if syslinux and one of the
192               supported EFI bootloaders are installed.
193
194       When using OUTPUT=ISO, RAMDISK, OBDR, USB, or RAWDISK you should
195       provide the backup target location through the OUTPUT_URL variable.
196       Possible OUTPUT_URL settings are:
197
198       OUTPUT_URL=file://
199           Write the image to disk. The default is in /var/lib/rear/output/.
200
201       OUTPUT_URL=nfs://
202           Write the image by mounting the target filesystem via NFS.
203
204       OUTPUT_URL=cifs://
205           Write the image by mounting the target filesystem via CIFS.
206
207       OUTPUT_URL=fish://
208           Write the image using lftp and the FISH protocol.
209
210       OUTPUT_URL=ftp://
211           Write the image using lftp and the FTP protocol.
212
213       OUTPUT_URL=ftps://
214           Write the image using lftp and the FTPS protocol.
215
216       OUTPUT_URL=hftp://
217           Write the image using lftp and the HFTP protocol.
218
219       OUTPUT_URL=http://
220           Write the image using lftp and the HTTP (PUT) procotol.
221
222       OUTPUT_URL=https://
223           Write the image using lftp and the HTTPS (PUT) protocol.
224
225       OUTPUT_URL=sftp://
226           Write the image using lftp and the secure FTP (SFTP) protocol.
227
228       OUTPUT_URL=rsync://
229           Write the image using rsync and the RSYNC protocol.
230
231       OUTPUT_URL=sshfs://
232           Write the image using sshfs and the SSH protocol.
233
234       OUTPUT_URL=null
235           Do not copy the rescue image from /var/lib/rear/output/ to a remote
236           output location.  OUTPUT_URL=null is useful when another program
237           (e.g. an external backup program) is used to save the rescue image
238           from the local system to a remote place, or with
239           BACKUP_URL=iso:///backup when the backup is included in the rescue
240           image to avoid a (big) copy of the rescue image at a remote output
241           location. In the latter case the rescue image must be manually
242           saved from the local system to a remote place.  OUTPUT_URL=null is
243           only supported together with BACKUP=NETFS.
244
245       If you do not specify OUTPUT_URL variable then by default it will be
246       aligned to what was defined by variable BACKUP_URL. And, the rescue
247       image will then be copied to the same location as your backup of the
248       system disk(s).
249
250       The ISO_DEFAULT variable defines what default boot option is used on
251       the rescue image. Possible values are manual, boothd or automatic.
252       Manual will make you boot into the shell directly by default, boothd
253       will boot to the first disk (default) or automatic will automatically
254       start in recovery mode.
255

RESCUE IMAGE KERNEL COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

257       When booting the rescue image you can edit the kernel command line.
258       There are some Relax-and-Recover specific kernel command line options:
259
260       debug
261           The rescue system start up scripts in /etc/scripts/system-setup.d/
262           are run one by one each one after pressing Enter and the scripts
263           are run with set -x which prints commands and their arguments as
264           they are executed.
265
266       auto_recover or automatic
267           Launch rear recover automatically (without automated reboot).
268           Together with debug it runs rear recover in debug mode.
269
270       unattended
271           Launch rear recover automatically as with auto_recover plus
272           automated reboot after successful rear recover.
273
274       ip= nm= netdev= gw=
275           If IP address plus optionally netmask (default 255.255.255.0),
276           network device (default eth0), and a default gateway are specified
277           only that single network device is set up. Example:
278
279           ip=192.168.100.2 nm=255.255.255.0 netdev=eth0 gw=192.168.100.1
280
281       noip
282           Skip network devices setup by the rescue system start up scripts
283           (overrides ip= nm= netdev= gw=).
284

BACKUP SOFTWARE INTEGRATION

286       Currently Relax-and-Recover supports the following backup methods.
287       Please distinguish carefully between Relax-and-Recover support for 3rd
288       party backup software and Relax-and-Recover internal backup methods.
289       The latter also creates a backup of your data while the former will
290       only integrate Relax-and-Recover with the backup software to restore
291       the data with the help of the backup software without actually creating
292       backups. This means that for all non-internal backup software you must
293       take care of creating backups yourself (unless otherwise noted).
294
295       Especially the rear mkbackup command can be confusing as it is only
296       useful for the internal backup methods and has usually no function at
297       all with the other (external) backup methods.
298
299       The following backup methods need to be set in Relax-and-Recover with
300       the BACKUP option. As mentioned we have two types of BACKUP methods -
301       internal and external.
302
303       The following BACKUP methods are external of Relax-and-Recover meaning
304       that usually you are responsible of backups being made:
305
306       BACKUP=REQUESTRESTORE
307           (default) Not really a backup method at all, Relax-and-Recover
308           simply halts the recovery and requests that somebody will restore
309           the data to the appropriate location (e.g. via SSH). This method
310           works especially well with an rsync based backup that is pushed
311           back to the backup client.
312
313       BACKUP=EXTERNAL
314           Internal backup method that uses an arbitrary external command to
315           create a backup and restore the data.
316
317       BACKUP=DP
318           Use HP Data Protector to restore the data.
319
320       BACKUP=FDRUPSTREAM
321           Use FDR/Upstream to restore the data.
322
323       BACKUP=GALAXY
324           Use CommVault Galaxy 5 to restore the data.
325
326       BACKUP=GALAXY7
327           Use CommVault Galaxy 7 to restore the data.
328
329       BACKUP=GALAXY10
330           Use CommVault Galaxy 10 (or Simpana 10) to restore the data.
331
332       BACKUP=NBU
333           Use Symantec NetBackup to restore the data.
334
335       BACKUP=TSM
336           Use IBM Tivoli Storage Manager to restore the data. The
337           Relax-and-Recover result files (e.g. ISO image) are also saved into
338           TSM. There is a (currently experimental) first draft implementation
339           that a TSM backup is created by calling dsmc incremental during
340           rear mkbackup.
341
342       BACKUP=NSR
343           Using EMC NetWorker (Legato) to restore the data.
344
345       BACKUP=AVA
346           Using EMC Avamar to restore the data.
347
348       BACKUP=SESAM
349           Using SEP Sesam to restore the data.
350
351       BACKUP=NBKDC
352           Using Novastor NovaBACKUP DC to restore the data.
353
354       BACKUP=RBME
355           Use Rsync Backup Made Easy (rbme) to restore the data.
356
357       BACKUP=BAREOS
358           Use Open Source backup solution BAREOS (a fork a BACULA) to restore
359           the data.
360
361       BACKUP=BACULA
362           Use Open Source backup solution BACULA to restore the data.
363
364       BACKUP=DUPLICITY
365           Use encrypted bandwidth-efficient backup solution using the rsync
366           algorithm to restore the data.
367
368       BACKUP=BORG
369           Use BorgBackup (short Borg) a deduplicating backup program to
370           restore the data. Executing rear mkbackup will create a Borg
371           backup, see the section ReaR with Borg back end in the ReaR
372           user-guide Scenarios documentation.
373
374       The following BACKUP methods are internal of Relax-and-Recover:
375
376       BACKUP=NETFS
377           Internal backup method which can be used to create a simple backup
378           (tar archive).
379
380       BACKUP=RSYNC
381           Use rsync to restore data.
382
383       If your favourite backup software is missing from this list, please
384       submit a patch or ask us to implement it for you.
385
386       When using BACKUP=NETFS you must provide the backup target location
387       through the BACKUP_URL variable. Possible BACKUP_URL settings are:
388
389       BACKUP_URL=file://
390           To backup to local disk, use BACKUP_URL=file:///directory/path/
391
392       BACKUP_URL=nfs://
393           To backup to NFS disk, use
394           BACKUP_URL=nfs://nfs-server-name/share/path
395
396       BACKUP_URL=tape://
397           To backup to tape device, use BACKUP_URL=tape:///dev/nst0 or
398           alternatively, simply define TAPE_DEVICE=/dev/nst0
399
400       BACKUP_URL=rsync://
401           When backup method BACKUP=RSYNC is chosen then we need to define a
402           corresponding BACKUP_URL rule:
403
404               BACKUP_URL=rsync://[user@]host[:port]/path
405               BACKUP_URL=rsync://[user@]host[:port]::/path
406
407       BACKUP_URL=cifs://
408           To backup to a Samba share (CIFS), use
409           BACKUP_URL=cifs://cifs-server-name/share/path. To provide
410           credentials for CIFS mounting use a /etc/rear/cifs credentials file
411           and define BACKUP_OPTIONS="cred=/etc/rear/cifs" and pass along:
412
413               username=_username_
414               password=_secret password_
415               domain=_domain_
416
417       BACKUP_URL=usb://
418           To backup to USB storage device, use
419           BACKUP_URL=usb:///dev/disk/by-path/REAR-000 or use a real device
420           node or a specific filesystem label. Alternatively, you can specify
421           the device using USB_DEVICE=/dev/disk/by-path/REAR-000.
422
423           If you combine this with OUTPUT=USB you will end up with a bootable
424           USB device.
425
426       BACKUP_URL=sshfs://
427           To backup to a remote server via sshfs (SSH protocol), use
428           BACKUP_URL=sshfs://user@remote-system.name.org/home/user/backup-dir/
429
430           It is advisable to add ServerAliveInterval 15 in the
431           /root/.ssh/config file for the remote system
432           (remote-system.name.org).
433
434       BACKUP_URL=iso://
435           To include the backup within the ISO image. It is important that
436           the BACKUP_URL and OUTPUT_URL variables are different. E.g.
437
438               BACKUP_URL=iso:///backup/
439               OUTPUT_URL=nfs://server/path/
440
441       When using BACKUP=NETFS and BACKUP_PROG=tar there is an option to
442       select BACKUP_TYPE=incremental or BACKUP_TYPE=differential to let rear
443       make incremental or differential backups until the next full backup day
444       e.g. via FULLBACKUPDAY="Mon" is reached or when the last full backup is
445       too old after FULLBACKUP_OUTDATED_DAYS has passed. Incremental or
446       differential backup is currently only known to work with
447       BACKUP_URL=nfs. Other BACKUP_URL schemes may work but at least
448       BACKUP_URL=usb requires USB_SUFFIX to be set to work with incremental
449       or differential backup.
450

SUPPORT FOR SELF-ENCRYPTING DISKS

452       Relax-and-Recover supports self-encrypting disks (SEDs) compliant with
453       the TCG Opal 2 specification if the sedutil-cli executable is
454       installed.
455
456       Self-encrypting disk support includes
457
458       ·   recovery (saving and restoring the system’s SED configuration),
459
460       ·   setting up SEDs, including assigning a disk password,
461
462       ·   providing a pre-boot authentication (PBA) system to unlock SEDs at
463           boot time.
464
465       To prepare booting from an SED, run rear mkopalpba, then create the
466       rescue system.
467
468       To set up an SED, boot the Relax-and-Recover rescue system and run
469       `rear opaladmin setupERASE DEVICE` (DEVICE being the disk device path
470       like /dev/sda).
471
472       For complete information, consult the section "Support for TCG Opal
473       2-compliant Self-Encrypting Disks" in the Relax-and-Recover user guide.
474

CONFIGURATION

476       To configure Relax-and-Recover you have to edit the configuration files
477       in /etc/rear/. All *.conf files there are part of the configuration,
478       but only site.conf and local.conf are intended for the user
479       configuration. All other configuration files hold defaults for various
480       distributions and should not be changed.
481
482       In /etc/rear/templates/ there are also some template files which are
483       used by Relax-and-Recover to create configuration files (mostly for the
484       boot environment). Modify the templates to adjust the information
485       contained in the emails produced by Relax-and-Recover. You can use
486       these templates to prepend your own configurations to the configuration
487       files created by Relax-and-Recover, for example you can edit
488       PXE_pxelinux.cfg to add some general pxelinux configuration you use.
489
490       In almost all circumstances you have to configure two main settings and
491       their parameters: The backup method and the output method.
492
493       The backup method defines, how your data was saved and whether
494       Relax-and-Recover should backup your data as part of the mkrescue
495       process or whether you use an external application, e.g. backup
496       software to archive your data.
497
498       The output method defines how the rescue system is written to disk and
499       how you plan to boot the failed computer from the rescue system.
500
501       See the default configuration file /usr/share/rear/conf/default.conf
502       for an overview of the possible methods and their options.
503
504       An example to use TSM for backup and ISO for output would be to add
505       these lines to /etc/rear/local.conf (no need to define a BACKUP_URL
506       when using an external backup solution):
507
508           BACKUP=TSM
509           OUTPUT=ISO
510
511       And if all your systems use NTP for time synchronisation, you can also
512       add these lines to /etc/rear/site.conf
513
514           TIMESYNC=NTP
515
516       Do not forget to distribute the site.conf to all your systems.
517
518       The resulting ISO image will be created in /var/lib/rear/output/. You
519       can now modify the behaviour by copying the appropriate configuration
520       variables from default.conf to local.conf and changing them to suit
521       your environment.
522

EXIT STATUS

524       0
525           Successful program execution.
526
527       >0
528           Usage, syntax or execution errors. Check the log file in
529           /var/log/rear/ for more information.
530

EXAMPLES

532       To print out the current settings for BACKUP and OUTPUT methods and
533       some system information. This command can be used to see the supported
534       features for the given release and platform.
535
536           # rear dump
537
538       To create a new rescue environment. Do not forget to copy the resulting
539       rescue system away so that you can use it in the case of a system
540       failure.
541
542           # rear -v mkrescue
543
544       To create a new rescue image together with a complete archive of your
545       local system run the command:
546
547           # rear -v mkbackup
548

FILES

550       /usr/sbin/rear
551           The program itself.
552
553       /etc/rear/local.conf
554           System specific configuration can be set here.
555
556       /etc/rear/site.conf
557           Site specific configuration can be set here (not created by
558           default).
559
560       /var/log/rear/
561           Directory holding the log files.
562
563       /tmp/rear.####
564           Relax-and-Recover working directory. If Relax-and-Recover exits
565           with an error, you must remove this directory manually.
566
567       /usr/share/rear
568           Relax-and-Recover script components.
569
570       /usr/share/rear/conf/default.conf
571           Relax-and-Recover default values. Contains a complete set of
572           parameters and its explanation. Please do not edit or modify. Copy
573           values to local.conf or site.conf instead.
574

BUGS

576       Feedback is welcome, please report any issues or improvements to our
577       issue-tracker at: http://github.com/rear/issues/
578
579       Furthermore, we welcome pull requests via GitHub.
580

SEE ALSO

582       Relax-and-Recover comes with extensive documentation located in
583       /usr/share/doc.
584

AUTHORS

586       The ReaR project was initiated in 2006 by Schlomo Schapiro
587       (https://github.com/schlomo) and Gratien D’haese
588       (https://github.com/gdha) and has since then seen a lot of
589       contributions by many authors. As ReaR deals with bare metal disaster
590       recovery, there is a large amount of code that was contributed by
591       owners and users of specialized hardware and software. Without their
592       combined efforts and contributions ReaR would not be the universal
593       Linux bare metal disaster recovery solution that it is today.
594
595       As time passed the project was lucky to get the support of additional
596       developers to also help as maintainers: Dag Wieers
597       (https://github.com/dagwieers), Jeroen Hoekx
598       (https://github.com/jhoekx), Johannes Meixner
599       (https://github.com/jsmeix), Vladimir Gozora
600       (https://github.com/gozora) and Sébastien Chabrolles
601       (https://github.com/schabrolles). We hope that ReaR continues to prove
602       useful and to attract more developers who agree to be maintainers.
603       Please refer to the MAINTAINERS
604       (https://github.com/rear/rear/blob/master/MAINTAINERS) file for the
605       list of active and past maintainers.
606
607       To see the full list of authors and their contributions please look at
608       the git history (https://github.com/rear/rear/graphs/contributors). We
609       are very thankful to all authors and encourage anybody interested to
610       take a look at our source code and to contribute what you find
611       important.
612
613       Relax-and-Recover is a collaborative process using Github at
614       http://github.com/rear/
615
616       The Relax-and-Recover website is located at:
617       http://relax-and-recover.org/
618
620       (c) 2006-2018
621
622       The copyright is held by the original authors of the respective code
623       pieces as can be seen in the git history at
624       https://github.com/rear/rear/graphs/contributors
625
626       Relax-and-Recover comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details see
627       the GNU General Public License at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
628
629
630
631                                 20 June 2018                          REAR(8)
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