We do not support any file share protocols; therefore, you must set up automatic backup externally.

Requirements

A laptop, desktop PC or a VM with resources of at least 2 cores, 2GB RAM and enough storage for your backup requirements. A demo server with over 2,000 coSpaces and over 3,000 users on it creates backups that are approximately 4Mb each.

A login account that is used frequently so that the password is updated regularly; then expired passwords will not cause backup failures.

Steps

1. Download Linux Distro of your choice, we prefer Ubuntu Server which can be downloaded from: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/server.
2. Install with default settings; when asked for Extra Items, select OpenSSH Server so that remote login is possible via SSH immediately after install.

3. Install OpenSSH if it is not installed on OS Install (using sudo apt-get install openssh-server)

4. Perform Ubuntu updates as required using sudo apt-get updatesudo apt-get upgrade and sudo apt-get dist-upgrade.
5. Create an SSH Key with ssh-keygen -t rsa and press Enter when asked for the Name and Passphrase (so that the command uses the default name and no passphrase).
6. Use SCP (such as WinSCP) to connect and copy the newly created SSH Key from the server (from the /home/useraccount/.ssh folder).
7. Rename the locally saved SSH Key to <configbackup>.pub (where configbackup is the login name created below).
8. Create a user account on the Meeting Server using the MMP command user add configbackup admin and enter a password for this account twice.
9. Use SFTP to connect to the Meeting Server and copy the <configbackup>.pub SSH Key to the server.
10. Log in to the Meeting Server from the Ubuntu PC using SSH and accept the SSH key (i.e. use ssh <loginaccount>@<acanoserver.ip address> and press Y to accept the SSH key when prompted).
11. Verify that the login above was successful without needing to enter password (because the SSH Key should have allowed login after pressing Y).
12. Write a backup script and copy the script to your home folder or preferred location. Edit it as needed for your directory path and server details.
13. Add a cron job to execute the script at an appropriate interval (using crontab –e)
14. Manually execute the script to test that it works from within the directory that the script is located in (using ./ServerBackup.sh assuming that the script name is ServerBackup.sh)

Below is an example script and cron job.

Example script

This script logs into the Meeting Server at 192.168.10.21 using a login account called “configbackup”. It then issues the backup snapshot command to create a backup called ServerBackup. It then logs out of SSH and logs in again with SFTP using the same username, and copies the ServerBackup.bak file storing it locally at the path /home/cms/configbackups with the name ServerBackup_year-month-day.bak (e.g. ServerBackup_2014-7-10.bak).

Edit the script as needed for the Meeting Server IP address, login details and folder path to the local server (as well as backup names, if ServerBackup is not ideal).

#!/bin/bash
  
ssh configbackup@192.168.10.21 << !
backup snapshot ServerBackup
!
  
sleep 5
  
sftp configbackup@192.168.10.21 << !
get ServerBackup.bak /home/cms/ServerBackup_$(date +%Y-%m-%d).bak
bye
!

Example cron job

When added using crontab –e this cron job will run the script at /home/cms/ServerBackup.sh at 1:00 AM local time as set on the Linux PC.

0 1 * * * /home/cms/ServerBackup.sh

Last update:

21-May-2019

FAQ ID:

1040