Deployment

This chapter will give an example how to setup a borg repository server for multiple clients.

Machines

There are multiple machines used in this chapter and will further be named by their respective fully qualified domain name (fqdn).

  • The backup server: backup01.srv.local
  • The clients:
    • John Doe’s desktop: johndoe.clnt.local
    • Webserver 01: web01.srv.local
    • Application server 01: app01.srv.local

User and group

The repository server needs to have only one UNIX user for all the clients. Recommended user and group with additional settings:

  • User: backup
  • Group: backup
  • Shell: /bin/bash (or other capable to run the borg serve command)
  • Home: /home/backup

Most clients shall initiate a backup from the root user to catch all users, groups and permissions (e.g. when backing up /home).

Folders

The following folder tree layout is suggested on the repository server:

  • User home directory, /home/backup
  • Repositories path (storage pool): /home/backup/repos
  • Clients restricted paths (/home/backup/repos/<client fqdn>):
    • johndoe.clnt.local: /home/backup/repos/johndoe.clnt.local
    • web01.srv.local: /home/backup/repos/web01.srv.local
    • app01.srv.local: /home/backup/repos/app01.srv.local

Restrictions

Borg is instructed to restrict clients into their own paths: borg serve --restrict-to-path /home/backup/repos/<client fqdn>

The client will be able to access any file or subdirectory inside of /home/backup/repos/<client fqdn> but no other directories. You can allow a client to access several separate directories by passing multiple –restrict-to-path flags, for instance: borg serve --restrict-to-path /home/backup/repos/<client fqdn> --restrict-to-path /home/backup/repos/<other client fqdn>, which could make sense if multiple machines belong to one person which should then have access to all the backups of their machines.

There is only one ssh key per client allowed. Keys are added for johndoe.clnt.local, web01.srv.local and app01.srv.local. But they will access the backup under only one UNIX user account as: backup@backup01.srv.local. Every key in $HOME/.ssh/authorized_keys has a forced command and restrictions applied as shown below:

command="cd /home/backup/repos/<client fqdn>;
         borg serve --restrict-to-path /home/backup/repos/<client fqdn>",
         no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-pty,
         no-agent-forwarding,no-user-rc <keytype> <key> <host>

Note

The text shown above needs to be written on a single line!

The options which are added to the key will perform the following:

  1. Change working directory
  2. Run borg serve restricted to the client base path
  3. Restrict ssh and do not allow stuff which imposes a security risk

Due to the cd command we use, the server automatically changes the current working directory. Then client doesn’t need to have knowledge of the absolute or relative remote repository path and can directly access the repositories at <user>@<host>:<repo>.

Note

The setup above ignores all client given commandline parameters which are normally appended to the borg serve command.

Client

The client needs to initialize the pictures repository like this:

borg init backup@backup01.srv.local:pictures

Or with the full path (should actually never be used, as only for demonstrational purposes). The server should automatically change the current working directory to the <client fqdn> folder.

borg init backup@backup01.srv.local:/home/backup/repos/johndoe.clnt.local/pictures

When johndoe.clnt.local tries to access a not restricted path the following error is raised. John Doe tries to backup into the Web 01 path:

borg init backup@backup01.srv.local:/home/backup/repos/web01.srv.local/pictures
~~~ SNIP ~~~
Remote: borg.remote.PathNotAllowed: /home/backup/repos/web01.srv.local/pictures
~~~ SNIP ~~~
Repository path not allowed

Ansible

Ansible takes care of all the system-specific commands to add the user, create the folder. Even when the configuration is changed the repository server configuration is satisfied and reproducible.

Automate setting up an repository server with the user, group, folders and permissions a Ansible playbook could be used. Keep in mind the playbook uses the Arch Linux pacman package manager to install and keep borg up-to-date.

- hosts: backup01.srv.local
  vars:
    user: backup
    group: backup
    home: /home/backup
    pool: "{{ home }}/repos"
    auth_users:
      - host: johndoe.clnt.local
        key: "{{ lookup('file', '/path/to/keys/johndoe.clnt.local.pub') }}"
      - host: web01.clnt.local
        key: "{{ lookup('file', '/path/to/keys/web01.clnt.local.pub') }}"
      - host: app01.clnt.local
        key: "{{ lookup('file', '/path/to/keys/app01.clnt.local.pub') }}"
  tasks:
  - pacman: name=borg state=latest update_cache=yes
  - group: name="{{ group }}" state=present
  - user: name="{{ user }}" shell=/bin/bash home="{{ home }}" createhome=yes group="{{ group }}" groups= state=present
  - file: path="{{ home }}" owner="{{ user }}" group="{{ group }}" mode=0700 state=directory
  - file: path="{{ home }}/.ssh" owner="{{ user }}" group="{{ group }}" mode=0700 state=directory
  - file: path="{{ pool }}" owner="{{ user }}" group="{{ group }}" mode=0700 state=directory
  - authorized_key: user="{{ user }}"
                    key="{{ item.key }}"
                    key_options='command="cd {{ pool }}/{{ item.host }};borg serve --restrict-to-path {{ pool }}/{{ item.host }}",no-port-forwarding,no-X11-forwarding,no-pty,no-agent-forwarding,no-user-rc'
    with_items: "{{ auth_users }}"
  - file: path="{{ home }}/.ssh/authorized_keys" owner="{{ user }}" group="{{ group }}" mode=0600 state=file
  - file: path="{{ pool }}/{{ item.host }}" owner="{{ user }}" group="{{ group }}" mode=0700 state=directory
    with_items: "{{ auth_users }}"

Enhancements

As this chapter only describes a simple and effective setup it could be further enhanced when supporting (a limited set) of client supplied commands. A wrapper for starting borg serve could be written. Or borg itself could be enhanced to autodetect it runs under SSH by checking the SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND environment variable. This is left open for future improvements.

When extending ssh autodetection in borg no external wrapper script is necessary and no other interpreter or application has to be deployed.