Forum ©XSIBackup: ©VMWare ©ESXi Backup Software

ops-sys

Member

Registered: 2020-01-24

Posts: 4

How do I use remote server backup function?

I have started xsibackup with --add-key switch and gone through the process to add the keys.

How do I now launch a remote back up job from the server?

Does it involve using the ssh client like this?:

[b]ssh root@my_remote_server_ip:22 "/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/xsi-dir/xsibackup --backup "[/b]

If so, I still get asked for the password by ssh

It was very simple with XSIBackup Pro. The manual for DC does not explain it. It only says how to add keys.

Please help.

Last edited by ops-sys (2020-01-24 17:34:27)

admin

Administrator

Registered: 2017-04-21

Posts: 2,072

Re: How do I use remote server backup function?

It is even simpler with [b](c)XSIBackup-DC[/b], it's just not exactly the same. There is a manual in the ./doc folder explaining how to do that.

Just parse a remote path in the form: [b]user@a.b.c.d:port:/path/somewhere[/b]

ops-sys

Member

Registered: 2020-01-24

Posts: 4

Re: How do I use remote server backup function?

Sorry, I cannot find the information in the manual to achieve this.  I only see information to --add-key or --request-key

Please tell me the exact syntax I need to use to achieve a remote backup.

As per your suggestion, I have tried:

[b]./xsibackup --backup root@my-server-to-backup:22:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my-vms /vmfs/volumes/backup_server/[/b]

...but I get the error.

[b]REGEX check failed for root@my-server-to-backup:22:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my-vms with pattern ^[-0-9a-zA-Z./_()# ]*$
2020-01-28T11:26:25 | Error code 1865 at file xsibackup.c, line 1865
Error description: use just letters, dots, numbers, hyphens, parenthesis, spaces and underscores in path names[/b]

admin

Administrator

Registered: 2017-04-21

Posts: 2,072

Re: How do I use remote server backup function?

From the manual and the --help output:

./xsibackup [action] [source] [target] [options]

You need:

1 - Action, mainly: --backup or --replica
2 - Source: a local path or a set of VMs, i.e.: "VMs(Linux1, Windows2, OtherVM)"
3 - Target: a remote path

You are passing an action and a remote path as the source argument, which will never work. [b](c)XSIBackup-DC[/b] works at the host level, it backs up your VMs in a given ESXi host to a local or remote path. Thusly, in your case:

./xsibackup --backup "VMs(Linux1, Windows2, OtherVM)" root@my-server-to-backup:22:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my-vms 

The above command should do it, provided that you have installed [b]xsibackup[/b] on the other host and that its installed to /usr/bin, which might very well not be the case.

Again making the assumtion that your remote host is another ESXi host and that you have installed [b](c)XSIBackup-DC[/b] to the default recommended location on both sides, you could use:

/scratch/XSI/XSIBackup-DC/xsibackup --backup "VMs(Linux1, Windows2, OtherVM)" root@my-server-to-backup:22:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my-vms 

If you use the above command, latest version of XSIBackup (1.1.0.8) will look for the remote binary at /usr/bin, then it will try to locate it by running a which command and if the previous measures fail, it will try in the same absolute path you are passing in the client command, that is: [b]/scratch/XSI/XSIBackup-DC/xsibackup[/b], which is in turn the default recommended installation path.

Should all of the above fail, because the [b]xsibackup[/b] binary is not present at [b]/usr/bin[/b], it cannot be located by a [b]which[/b] command and the remote installation path is not the same than in the client machine, then just add the [b]--remote-path[/b] argument stating where the remote [b]xsibackup[/b] binary is, i.e.:

/scratch/XSI/XSIBackup-DC/xsibackup --backup "VMs(Linux1, Windows2, OtherVM)" root@my-server-to-backup:22:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my-vms --remote-path="/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/XSIBackup-DC/xsibackup"

The above asuming that you have installed to [b]/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/XSIBackup-DC[/b]

ops-sys

Member

Registered: 2020-01-24

Posts: 4

Re: How do I use remote server backup function?

Thanks.

./xsibackup --backup "VMs(Linux1, Windows2, OtherVM)" root@my-server-to-backup:22:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my-vms

So from your example above, [b]--backup[/b] is the list of VMs running on the remote host?

How do I specify the destination for where the remote host should store the backups?

Is there some technical reason why XSI DataCenter does not implement the same remote starting of jobs in the same way as Pro?

I strongly believe Pro to be much more user friendly in this area, and I have a feeling that if you surveyed your user base, they would agree with me here.

Thanks again.

admin

Administrator

Registered: 2017-04-21

Posts: 2,072

Re: How do I use remote server backup function?

./xsibackup [action] [source] [target] [options]

1/ [b]--backup[/b] is the  [b][action][/b]
2/ [b]"VMs(Linux1, Windows2, OtherVM)"[/b] is the [b][source][/b]
3/ [b]root@my-server-to-backup:22:/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my-vms[/b] is the [b][target][/b]
4/ [b]/vmfs/volumes/datastore1/my-vms[/b] is the remote path in your [b][target][/b] expression

Yes, there are lots of reasons: license management, logging, job management. You can remotely start any job by just invoking it through SSH, so you don't lose any feature.

We don't think so and we don't believe any survey would shed any light on this. Democracy can become a lethal weapon when it's misused.