Setting up automated appvm backups using cron?

[Stumpy]

I was wanting to back up some of my more important appvms, like vault,
on a regular basis. I am lazy so was thinking that cron might be an
option? Its been awhile since I used cron but I assume I could make a
job with a line like:

qvm-backup -d vault -p /tmp/vault-key ?????

I am not sure about the last part as I would like to put it on an
external drive so in 3.2 I could have pointed it to the ext drive on
dom0 but now I am not quite sure where to point it? Ideas?

[Ivan Mitev]

Hi,

On 11/25/18 11:31 PM, Stumpy wrote:
> I was wanting to back up some of my more important appvms, like vault,
> on a regular basis. I am lazy so was thinking that cron might be an
> option? Its been awhile since I used cron but I assume I could make a
> job with a line like:
>
> qvm-backup -d vault -p /tmp/vault-key ?????

qvm-backup --yes --passphrase-file /some/file /backup/dir vmname

then create an executable script with this one-liner and put it in one
of the /etc/cron.* dir (eg weekly, daily). Or, create a specific cron
entry in /etc/cron.d/

> I am not sure about the last part as I would like to put it on an
> external drive so in 3.2 I could have pointed it to the ext drive on
> dom0 but now I am not quite sure where to point it? Ideas?

I backup VMs in dom0 (qvm-backup ... like above) and then copy the
backup file to a mounted dir in an AppVM (could be an external HD, a
NFS/smb share, ...).

eg.:

cat backupfile | qvm-run --pass-io work "cat > /store/dir/qubes/backupfile"

You can backup multiple VMs at once with `qvm-backup` so you can't
specify a target file. A workaround is to create a dedicated target
directory for each qvm-backup "run" and `ls` the file(s) created there
(I prefer to run `qvm-backup` for each vm rather than listing all the
vms at once - it helps with error detection and simplifies scripting).

Here's how you could backup some VMs to /bkpvm in dom0 and then copy the
files to a mount in the 'work' AppVM:

for vm in vault banking; do
bkpdir=/bkpvm/$vm-$(date "+%FT%H%M%S")
mkdir $bkpdir
qvm-shutdown --wait --timeout 60 $vm
qvm-backup --yes --passphrase-file /some/file $bkpdir $vm
bkpfile=$(ls $bkpdir)
cat $bkpfile | qvm-run --pass-io work "cat > /mnt/qubes/backupfile"
done

Note- no guarantee that the above works as-is (I've copied/adapted the
main commands from my backup script).

FWIW backuping large VMs is a waste of resource when there are only a
few files changed. For such VMs I mount an encrypted volume in a
dedicated backup AppVM and rsync the content of the VM there. That's
much, much, much (did I say much ?!) faster and efficient than the
qvm-backup resource hog.

BTW writing a backup strategy doc is on my todo list for more than one
year. Can't get around to writing it :(

[gdr...@gmail.com]

Hi,

So here is how I do it manually only once a week :

---%<-------------------------------
#!/bin/sh

VM_LIST=sys-net\ sys-firewall\ sys-net2\ sys-net3
MOUNT_PATH="/mnt/removable"
BACKUP_DIR="backupVM_desktop"

# all vm-shutdown
qvm-shutdown --wait --all --exclude=sys-net --exclude=sys-usb
qvm-run sys-net "sudo ifconfig ens5 down; sudo modprobe -r r8169"
qvm-shutdown --wait sys-net

# qvm-backup
qvm-backup --compress --verbose --passphrase-file /home/gdrub/read_in --dest-vm sys-usb $MOUNT_PATH/$BACKUP_DIR fedora-28-minimal-LAMP kali hyneview fedora-26 sys-net sys-net2 sys-net3 sys-firewall sys-firewall3 debian-8 debian-9 win10 docker dockerhost personal work dom0

# rotate

# /usr/bin/mv backup.1 backup.2 > /dev/null 2>&1
qvm-run sys-usb "sudo mv $MOUNT_PATH/$BACKUP_DIR/backup.1 $MOUNT_PATH/$BACKUP_DIR/backup.2"
# /usr/bin/mv backup backup.1 > /dev/null 2>&1
qvm-run sys-usb "sudo mv $MOUNT_PATH/$BACKUP_DIR/backup $MOUNT_PATH/$BACKUP_DIR/backup.1"
# /usr/bin/mv $lastfile backup > /dev/null 2>&1
qvm-run sys-usb "sudo mv $MOUNT_PATH/$BACKUP_DIR/qubes-backup* $MOUNT_PATH/$BACKUP_DIR/backup"
sleep 3

# vm-start
for VM in $VM_LIST
do
qvm-start $VM
done

sleep 30

qvm-start personal
qvm-start work
---%<-------------------------------

Best regards