Installing the Cloud Backup agent on Linux#

Scope#

This article describes how to manually install the Rackspace Cloud Backup agent on Linux servers using the version 3 agent updater.

If you are using a Windows server, see Install the Cloud Backup agent (Windows) for instructions.

If you are having issues with the version 2 Linux updater, you want this document instead.

Prerequisites#

Before proceeding, check for the following dependencies and install them if necessary:

  • Python 3.3 or above is required by the updater.

  • nscd is required by the agent on recent distributions only. This includes Ubuntu 21 and above, CentOS 8 and above, and similarly-recent distributions from other vendors.

Installation#

  1. Download the standalone updater from the agent repository.

  2. Run it as follows: python3 cbu-updater-standalone.py install cbu-updater driveclient.

This will self-install the updater (as cbu-updater), then install the agent itself (as driveclient); and it will configure automatic updates for both.

Registration#

Unless your agent is already registered (which is uncommon), you will need to register it after installation. To register the agent, run the following command, replacing the variables as described below:

$ driveclient --configure \
    --user ${USERNAME} \
    --datacenter ${DATACENTER} \
    --flavor ${FLAVOR} \
    --authtoken "${AUTH_TOKEN}"

  • USERNAME should be the primary user ID for your account.

  • DATACENTER should be the server’s region identifier. Valid values are ORD, DFW, IAD, LON, SYD, and HKG.

  • FLAVOR should be raxcloudserver if this agent runs on a Rackspace Public Cloud server (this is the default). For all other servers (e.g. Private Cloud, OnMetal, other cloud providers, or desktop PCs), set it to dedicated.

  • AUTH_TOKEN should be an auth token for the given USERNAME.

NOTE: If registration fails with a segfault, install nscd and try again.

Verification#

To check that the agent is registered, look for the bootstrap file at /etc/driveclient/bootstrap.json

To verify that the agent is running and connected, look up the agent’s status in the Cloud Control Panel under the Backup section of the menu. Here you can create backup configurations, run cleanups, restore old backups, and so on, by selecting the name of the server on which you installed the agent.

Updating#

Recent updater versions install a cron job at /etc/cron.d/cbu-update-check to perform automatic updates. The local admin may modify the schedule of this job if desired. You should not need to run updates manually. If you do, though, this is how it is done:

  • To check the version of the agent, run cbu-updater list. It will print the name, installed version, and latest release of the agent and updater.

  • To update the agent, run cbu-updater install --update driveclient

  • To update the updater, run cbu-updater install --update cbu-updater

  • Additional options are available from cbu-updater --help. General behavior is similar to apt/yum.

Uninstallation#

Uninstall the agent and updater as follows:

cbu-updater uninstall driveclient cbu-updater

Note that you must uninstall both components, or the autoupdate job will reinstall the agent.

File locations#

On a default installation, agent files are kept at the following paths:

  • Configuration: /etc/driveclient

  • Logs: /var/log/driveclient.log

  • Pidfile: /var/run/driveclient.pid

  • Database: /var/cache/driveclient/*.db

Updater files are at the following:

  • Configuration: /etc/cbu/cbau.conf (optional, usually missing)

  • Logs: /var/log/cbu-updater.log

  • Cronjob: /etc/cron.d/cbu-update-check

cbu-updater confdump will print the current updater configuration and list all other file paths.

Known issues#

Driveclient segfaults during registration#

This occurs on systems running certain recent versions of glibc. The following workarounds should help:

  1. Install nscd if it is not present.

  2. If that does not work, stop the sssd service if it is present.

Troubleshooting#

The agent’s loglevel may be set in /etc/driveclient/log4cxx.xml. When troubleshooting startup failures, e.g. due to registration failure, consider changing it from the default INFO to DEBUG, TRACE, or ALL. For more information on driveclient’s logging options, see Cloud Backup agent logging basics.

The updater’s loglevel may be set in /etc/cbu/cbau.conf. Note that this file is optional and omitted by default. You can create it by running cbu-updater confdump --no-header > /etc/cbu/cbau.conf.

The updater’s console output defaults to the equivalent of the WARNING loglevel. This may be raised to INFO or DEBUG using the --verbose and --debug flags respectively. Often this is more convenient than adjusting the actual loglevel.

Additional debugging options are available from --help.

For more troubleshooting tips and FAQs, see the following articles: