Nectar Applications - Duply Backups

NeCTAR have packaged Duply Backups into the Application Catalogue so you can enable cloud backups for selected Nectar applications. Applications that support Duply Backups will give you the option to add backups as part of the Configure Application steps.

If you want to add backups, click the Backups - Add Application button.

Provide the required configuration settings for backups:

• Passphrase used for encrypting your data. Avoiding weak phrases is important for the protection of your data. You can generate passphrases using the following Linux shell command: openssl rand -base64 30
• Swift container name for your backup data. Duply Backups requires a Nectar Object Store container for backup data. It will create the container automatically when the first backup is run, if it does not exist. If you need to check that you have Object Storage quota, navigate to Project -> Compute - > Overview in the Nectar dashboard.
• Swift username is your OpenStack username for accessing the Swift container. You can find your OpenStack User Name at the top right of the dashboard.
• Swift password is your OpenStack Password for accessing the Swift container. If you don't know your password, you can reset it in the Nectar dashboard. Click your User Name at the top right then click Settings -> Reset Password.
• Swift tenant is your OpenStack Project ID for accessing the Swift container. You can find your OpenStack Project ID at the top left of the dashboard.

Click Next to continue.

The last step allows you to provide a name. You can keep the default, DuplyBackups, or supply your own. Click Create to continue.

The Configure Application steps for the parent application continue from this point.

Customising Duply Backups

This section provides information on how to customise your Duply Backups configuration.

The Nectar Duply Backups application creates the swift Duply profile on your instance under the /etc/duply folder. It adds the following directories for backup configuration and staging files:

• /etc/duply/swift/pre.d - all scripts in this folder will be executed before the backup starts. For example, you can add a script here to export data from a database to the backup staging directory so it will be included in backups.
• /etc/duply/swift/exclude.d - each line in each file is this folder is treated as an include or exclude pattern for backup files. For example, + /home/ubuntu includes the home folder and all sub-folders for the ubuntu user in the backup.
• /etc/duply/swift/post.d - all scripts in this folder will be executed after the backup finishes. For example, you can add a script here to clean up any files exported for backup by your pre script.
• /mnt/backup/staging - all files and folders under this folder will be included in the backup by default. (/mnt is on the ephemeral disk by default.)

Default setting for Duply Backups include:

• 3 months maximum backup age
• 12 full backups maximum
• 1 week maximum full backup age

These settings can be modified by editing the profile configuration file, /etc/duply/swift/conf.

Daily backups and weekly purges of old backups are executed by the Cron script, /etc/cron.d/duply-backup.

For further information on Duply, please see the Duply website, or the manpage on your instance (man duply).