Installing the Cloud Backup agent on Linux#

Scope#

This article describes how to install the Rackspace Cloud Backup agent on your Linux® server. If you are using a Windows® server, see Install the Cloud Backup agent (Windows) for instructions.

NOTE: The procedures on this page describe installs using the legacy (version 2) updater, which has been superceded by version 3. New installations should use the current procedures instead. This page is retained to support existing systems that have not or cannot update to the current version 3.

You can identify the updater version currently in use with the following command:

cbu-updater --version || cloudbackup-updater --version

Installation#

The Rackspace Cloud Backup automated updater only supports 64-bit operating systems. It also requires minimal tools, including but not limited to curl, tar, and bzip2. If these tools are missing, you might not be able to install and use the updater.

Download the installer#

  1. Download the latest updater installation file from the agent repository by using a tool such as curl or wget.

  2. Extract the Linux package files (cloudbackup-updater-latest.tar.bz2) to a temporary directory.

     cd ~ && mkdir tmp && mv cloudbackup-updater-latest.tar.bz2 tmp && cd tmp && tar jxvf cloudbackup-updater-latest.tar.bz2

  3. Change to the extracted folder. Read the LICENSE file. If you do not agree to the terms in the file, do not continue with the installation.

  4. For security reasons, you should not enter your API key directly on the command line. Run the following command on the Linux command line to set an environment variable with the API key:

     echo -n 'API key: ' && read -s apikey && export apikey && echo ''

  5. To both install the updater and install and register the Cloud Backup agent, run the following command:

     ./cloudbackup-updater --configure --user myuserid --apikey ${apikey} --flavor raxcloudserver --datacenter DFW

  6. Change myuserid to the primary user ID for your account and DFW to the cloud server’s region. (See warning in FAQ about changing the primary user ID after registering a backup agent.)

  7. Run the following command to display other registration-time controls, which you rarely use:

     ./cloudbackup-updater --help

  8. For cloud servers that reside in the LON region, you must specify the API host. For USA regions, SYD, and HKG, you must use the default API host api.drivesrvr.com. For the LON region, you must use api.drivesrvr.co.uk.

Note: A forced agent registration disconnects any previous registrations from the server in question. You must do a backup migration to reassociate the backup data from a disconnected registration. However, the old registration with its backup data remains attached to the customer account until you delete it.

Agent file locations on Linux#

If you perform a default installation, you can find the agent files in the following locations on Linux systems:

  • Configuration files: /etc/driveclient

  • Logs: /var/log (This value might be different on your server, depending on your settings in the log4cxx.xml file.)

  • Startup script: /etc/init.d

  • Application: /usr/local/bin

  • Process Identification (PID) file for running the agent: /var/run/driveclient.pid

  • Database: Search for a *.db file under /var/cache/driveclient.

Note: If you install driveclient as an individual user, most of these files are under ~/.driveclient.

Non-cloud, non-Rackspace installation#

You might need to install a Cloud Backup agent on servers that are not in the Rackspace Public Cloud. You can use Rackspace Cloud Backup on most Linux computers with a public Internet connection. These include machines like company laptops and desktops, cloud servers from other providers (such as AWS EC2®, Google Cloud®, and Azure®), Rackspace Private Cloud, Rackspace OnMetal, and so on.

To install on such computers or servers, you must use a different flavor of installation.

Note: Don’t confuse the installation flavor with the Linux flavor. The Cloud Backup installation flavor is the type or kind of Cloud Backup installation.

The normal installation flavor on Rackspace Cloud Servers is raxcloudserver. For installation on other types of computers, you should use the dedicated flavor.

./cloudbackup-updater --configure --user myuserid --apikey ${apikey} --flavor dedicated --datacenter DFW

For dedicated installations, you can specify any region accessible by the customer account.

Installations with existing agents#

On the rare occasion that the server already has a registered Cloud Backup agent, you should run the updater without the configuration option.

./cloudbackup-updater

This command installs the updater. If the currently installed agent is not the latest version, the command updates the agent.

Check the Linux installation or update#

After you have installed the updater and agent, you can verify the installation by using several methods.

To verify the version of the updater, check the latest version number in our repository:

curl https://agentrepo.drivesrvr.com/updater-version.txt

Then, compare to the version installed on the computer:

cloudbackup-updater --version

To verify the version of the agent, check the latest version number in our repository:

curl https://agentrepo.drivesrvr.com/version.txt

Then, compare to the version installed on the computer:

driveclient --version

Verify the process ID (PID) of the agent and updater:

pgrep -f cloudbackup-updater
pgrep -f driveclient

The various flavors of Linux have different service control utilities. On CentOS®, for instance, use the following commands to display the service status:

service driveclient status
service cloudbackup-updater status

However, on other flavors, such as Debian®, Fedora®, or Ubuntu®, use the following commands:

systemctl status driveclient
systemctl status cloudbackup-updater

You can view the following agent and updater logs with your favorite file viewer:

  • /var/log/cloudbackup-updater.log

  • /var/log/driveclient.log

  • /var/log/driveclient.log.1 (and so on for older versions)

If the agent or updater does not behave as expected, you can grep these logs to look for “ERROR” or other information. For more information on reading agent logs, see Cloud Backup Logging Basics.

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

To ensure that the agent is registered, running, and connected, look at the Control Panel status of this agent by logging in to Cloud Control Panel. In the Backup section of the menu, you can create backup configurations, run backups and cleanups, restore old backups, and so on by selecting the name of the server on which you installed the agent.

Troubleshooting installs, upgrades, and uninstalls#

Installation and upgrade of the cloud backup agent or updater might fail for a number of reasons. The following troubleshooting tips might help to fix the issues.

We recommend that you enable TRACE logging as part of the troubleshooting process. If you need to call the Support team, TRACE logging helps them identify the problem. For more information about TRACE logging, see Cloud Backup agent logging basics.

If the agent fails to start up, due to registration failure, for example, the most effective log setting is to directly edit log4cxx.xml and change the level from INFO to DEBUG or TRACE or ALL.

A Cloud Backup connection error indicates that the agent is not currently running on the server. In this case, verify that the firewall does not block outgoing connections on port 443.

Backup statuses: Skipped, Missed, Errored, and Failed#

The backup statuses are defined below:

  • Skipped: The backup job was skipped because a backup job was already queued. A single backup job can be queued only once.

  • Missed: The backup job was missed because the agent did not respond. The agent was likely offline.

  • Errored: An error occurred during the backup. The backup job did run, and it needs to be investigated.

  • Failed: A serious problem occurred, and the backup job did not run.

To troubleshoot these error statuses, see Cloud Backup Troubleshooting.

Uninstall the Cloud Backup agent or updater on Linux#

To uninstall the agent, you must also uninstall the updater. Use the service control tools provided by the flavor of Linux you are running. The name of the agent service is driveclient, and the name of the updater is cloudbackup-updater. So, for instance, a Linux flavor that uses systemctl might require:

systemctl disable cloudbackup-updater
systemctl disable driveclient

Warning: When you disable the Cloud Backup agent, you must first disable the updater, or it eventually re-enables the agent.

More troubleshooting tips#

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