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syslog-ng Store Box 7.4.0 - Administration Guide

Preface Introduction The concepts of SSB The Welcome Wizard and the first login Basic settings User management and access control Managing SSB Configuring message sources Storing messages on SSB Forwarding messages from SSB Log paths: routing and processing messages Configuring syslog-ng options Searching log messages Searching the internal messages of SSB Classifying messages with pattern databases The SSB RPC API Monitoring SSB Troubleshooting SSB Security checklist for configuring SSB Glossary

Creating a backup policy using SMB/CIFS

The SMB/CIFS backup method connects to a share on the target server with Server Message Block protocol. SMB/CIFS is mainly used on Microsoft Windows Networks.

NOTE: Backup and archive policies only work with existing shares and subdirectories.

If a server has a share at, for example, archive and that directory is empty, when the user configures archive/ssb1 (or similar) as a backup/archive share, it will fail.

 Caution:

The CIFS implementation of NetApp storage devices is not compatible with the CIFS implementation used in syslog-ng Store Box (SSB), therefore it is not possible to create backups and archives from SSB to NetApp devices using the CIFS protocol (the operation fails with a similar error message: /opt/ssb/mnt/14719217504d41370514043/reports/2010": Permission denied (13) '2010/day/' rsync: failed to set times on).

To overcome this problem, either:

  • use the NFS protocol to access your NetApp devices, or

  • use a backup device that has a CIFS implementation compatible with SSB, for example, Windows or Linux Samba.

  1. Navigate to Policies > Backup & Archive/Cleanup, and click in the Backup policies section to create a new backup policy.

    Figure 66: Policies > Backup & Archive/Cleanup > Backup policies — Configure backup

  2. Enter a name for the backup policy (for example, main-backup).

  3. Enter the time when the backup process should start into the Start time field, in HH:MM format (for example, 23:30).

  4. Enter the IP address or the hostname of the remote server into the Target server field (for example, backup.example.com).

  1. Select Target settings > SMB/CIFS.

    NOTE: From SSB version 5.2.0, SSB only supports SMB 2.1 and later. Make sure that your operating system with the Samba share that you want to mount, supports SMB 2.1 or later. Otherwise, SSB cannot mount the remote share.

    Figure 67: Policies > Backup & Archive/Cleanup > Backup policies — Configure backup via SMB/CIFS

  2. Enter the username used to logon to the remote server into the Username field, and corresponding password into the Password field.

    NOTE: NULL sessions (sessions without authentication) are not supported, authentication is required in all cases.

    NOTE: The syslog-ng Store Box (SSB) appliance accepts passwords that are not longer than 150 characters. The following special characters can be used:

    ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . / : ; < > = ? @ [ ] ^ - ` { | } \ _ ~

  3. Enter the name of the share into the Share field.

    SSB saves all data into this directory, automatically creating the subdirectories. Backups of log files are stored in the data, configuration backups in the config subdirectory.

  4. Enter the domain name of the target server into the Domain field.

  1. To receive email notification of the backup, select the Send notification on errors only or the Send notification on all events option. Notifications are sent to the administrator email address set on the Management tab.

    To include the list of files in the email, select Send notification on all events and enable the Include file list option. However, note that if list is very long, the SSB web interface might become unaccessible. In this case, set the Maximum number of files in notification lower. After this number has been reached, file names will be omitted from the notification.

    NOTE: This email notification is sent to the administrator's email address, while the alerts are sent to the alert email address (see Configuring system monitoring on SSB)..

  2. Click .

  3. To assign the backup policy to a logspace, see Creating data backups.

Creating a backup policy using NFS

The NFS backup method connects to a shared directory of the target server with the Network File Share protocol.

NOTE: Backup and archive policies only work with existing shares and subdirectories.

If a server has a share at, for example, archive and that directory is empty, when the user configures archive/ssb1 (or similar) as a backup/archive share, it will fail.

  1. Navigate to Policies > Backup & Archive/Cleanup, and click in the Backup policies section to create a new backup policy.

    Figure 68: Policies > Backup & Archive/Cleanup > Backup policies — Configure backup

  2. Enter a name for the backup policy (for example, main-backup).

  3. Enter the time when the backup process should start into the Start time field, in HH:MM format (for example, 23:30).

  4. Enter the IP address or the hostname of the remote server into the Target server field (for example, backup.example.com).

  1. Select NFS from the Target settings radio buttons.

    Figure 69: Policies > Backup & Archive/Cleanup > Backup policies — Configure NFS backups

  2. Enter the domain name of the remote server into the Target server field.

  3. Enter the name of the NFS export into the Export field.

    syslog-ng Store Box (SSB) saves all data into this directory, automatically creating the subdirectories.

  4. The remote server must also be configured to accept backups from SSB.

    Add a line that corresponds to the settings of SSB to the /etc/exports file of the backup server. This line should contain the following parameters:

    • The path to the backup directory as set in the Export field of the SSB backup policy.

    • The IP address of the SSB interface that is used to access the remote server. For more information on the network interfaces of SSB, see Network settings.

    • The following parameters: (rw,no_root_squash,sync).

    Example: Configuring NFS on the remote server

    For example, if SSB connects the remote server from the 192.168.1.15 IP address and the data is saved into the /var/backups/SSB directory, add the following line to the /etc/exports file:

    /var/backups/SSB 192.168.1.15(rw,no_root_squash,sync)

  5. On the remote server, execute the following command:

    exportfs -a

    Verify that the rpc portmapper and rpc.statd applications are running.

  1. To receive email notification of the backup, select the Send notification on errors only or the Send notification on all events option. Notifications are sent to the administrator email address set on the Management tab.

    To include the list of files in the email, select Send notification on all events and enable the Include file list option. However, note that if list is very long, the SSB web interface might become unaccessible. In this case, set the Maximum number of files in notification lower. After this number has been reached, file names will be omitted from the notification.

    NOTE: This email notification is sent to the administrator's email address, while the alerts are sent to the alert email address (see Configuring system monitoring on SSB)..

  2. Click .

  3. To assign the backup policy to a logspace, see Creating data backups.

Creating configuration backups

To create a configuration backup, assign a backup policy as the System backup policy of syslog-ng Store Box (SSB).

TIP: To create an immediate backup of SSB's configuration to your machine (not to the backup server), select Basic Settings > System > Export configuration. Consider that the configuration export contains only the system settings and configuration files (including changelogs). System backups includes additional information like reports and alerts.

To encrypt your configuration backups, see Encrypting configuration backups with GPG.

Prerequisites

You have to configure a backup policy before starting this procedure. For details, see Data and configuration backups.

To create a configuration backup

  1. Navigate to Basic Settings > Management > System backup.

    Figure 70: Basic Settings > Management > System backup — Configure system backup

  2. Select the backup policy you want to use for backing up the configuration of SSB in the System backup policy field.

  3. Click .

  4. (Optional) To start the backup process immediately, click Backup now. The Backup now functionality works only after a backup policy has been selected and committed.

Creating data backups

To configure data backups, assign a backup policy to the logspace.

TIP: Data that is still in the memory of syslog-ng Store Box (SSB) is not copied to the remote server, only data that was already written to disk.

To make sure that all data is backed up (for example, before an upgrade), shut down syslog-ng before initiating the backup process.

 Caution:

Statistics about syslog-ng and logspace sizes are not backed up. As a result, following a data restore, the Basic Settings > Dashboard page will not show any syslog-ng and logspace statistics about the period before the backup.

You have to configure a backup policy before starting this procedure. For details, see Data and configuration backups.

To configure data backups

  1. Navigate to Log > Logspaces.

  2. Select the logspace you want to back up.

  3. Select a backup policy in the Backup policy field.

  4. Click .

  5. (Optional) To start the backup process immediately, click Backup or Backup ALL. The Backup and Backup ALL functionalities work only after a backup policy has been selected and committed.

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