simba/doc/install.txt

Short (and probably not entirely accurate) installation instructions:

On the host where you want to keep the backups.

1) Install the software with

   perl Build.PL#
   ./Build
   ./Build install

   (the ./Build test step should be skipped for now - it works only if
   the DB has been initialized and when running as root)

2) create a user simba_ca with uid 0 (the user needs at least the
CAP_CHOWN, CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE, CAP_FOWNER capabilities).

3) create a mysql database, initialize it using schema.mysql and store
   the dbi connection string, username and password in ~simba_ca/.dbi/simba

4) create an SSH private key for simba_ca:
    ssh-keygen -t rsa -f /home/simba_ca/.ssh/id_rsa

5) create a large filesystem and mount it on /backup.

For each host you want to backup:

6) Install the software as in 1).

7) create a user simba_da with uid 0 (the user needs at least the
CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE capability).

8) Add the public key created in 4) to ~simba_da/.ssh/authorized_keys
   (you may want to restrict access to the command /usr/local/bin/da)

9) Test whether you can connect from simba_ca to simba_da:

  ssh -i ~simba_ca/.ssh/id_rsa simba_da@target.host.example.

10) create a config file /etc/simba/da.conf to exclude filesystems you 
    don't want to backup:

    ---
    prune:
      - /proc
      - /sys
      - /dev
      - /backup

Finally:

11) Add the filesets you want to backup to the filesets table:

    insert into filesets(host, dir) values('host1', '/');
    insert into filesets(host, dir) values('host2', '/mydata');
    
12) copy the backup script to a convenient location, modify it if necessary,
    and start it. If all goes well, add it to cron.