Installing BackupPC on CentOS

The definitive guide to installing...

or close enough

Part 1 of 3

I, recently, was able to install BackupPC on a new installation of CentOS 7 so I was able to go through my notes and put them in a coherent form.  Below is what I consider 'coherent.' :)   I decided to break this into 3 parts because, as I was writing, it became long.  The three parts are:  1. BackupPC Installation  2. Configuration of Server 3. Adding Linux and Apple Hosts

If something doesn't make sense, please post a comment.

• I disable selinux.  If this isn't something you want to do and you know how to configure BackupPC with selinux enabled, please post a note and I'll make an addition to this list.
  
  • To disable selinux, edit the file:  /etc/sysconfig/selinux

    # This file controls the state of SELinux on the system.
    # SELINUX= can take one of these three values:
    #     enforcing - SELinux security policy is enforced.
    #     permissive - SELinux prints warnings instead of enforcing.
    #     disabled - No SELinux policy is loaded.
    SELINUX=disabled
    # SELINUXTYPE= can take one of three values:
    #     targeted - Targeted processes are protected,
    #     minimum - Modification of targeted policy. Only selected processes are protected.
    #     mls - Multi Level Security protection.
    SELINUXTYPE=targeted
    

  • Change the line that reads:  SELINUX=enforcing to SELINUX=disabled
  • Restart the computer

• Install epel-release, backuppc, and sendmail, if not already installed
  

  yum install epel-release
  yum install backuppc sendmail
  

• Add a BackupPC Admin user
  • From root, type: htpasswd /etc/BackupPC/apache.users  <<admin username>>
    • Example:  # htpasswd /etc/BackupPC/apache.users bpcadmin
  • When prompted, enter a password of your choice, twice

    # htpasswd /etc/BackupPC/apache.users bpcadmin
    New password: 
    Re-type new password: 
    Adding password for user bpcadmin

  • If you already know which users that will need access to BackupPC, you can add users this same way now or come back at a later time
    

• With the Backup Drive mounted, create the folders, and change the permissions to allow the backuppc user access
  

  # mkdir /media/backups/BackupPC
  # mkdir /media/backups/BackupPC/pc
  # mkdir /media/backups/BackupPC/cpool
  # chown -R backuppc /media/backups/BackupPC/
  

• Edit the BackupPC config file:  /etc/BackupPC/config.pl
  • Around line 300, look for:  $Conf{TopDir} and add the path where the backups will be stored.
    

    $Conf{TopDir} = '/media/backups/BackupPC/';
    $Conf{ConfDir} = '/etc/BackupPC/';
    $Conf{LogDir} = '/var/log/BackupPC';
    $Conf{InstallDir} = '/usr/share/BackupPC';
    $Conf{CgiDir} = '/usr/share/BackupPC/sbin/';
    
    

  • In the same file, scroll down further, around line 2030, and look for: $Conf{CgiAdminUsers}
  • Add the Admin user created above. This gives the Admin access to make changes via the Web Gui
    

    $Conf{CgiAdminUserGroup} = '';
    $Conf{CgiAdminUsers} = 'bpcadmin';
    

  • Save the file

• Give the backuppc user permission to run anywhere on server
  • Run command as root:  visudo
  • Look for "Allow root to run any commands anywhere"
  • Below the line: root   ALL=(ALL)   ALL
  • Add:  backuppc    ALL=NOPASSWD:    ALL

    ## Allow root to run any commands anywhere
    root    ALL=(ALL)       ALL
    backuppc  ALL=NOPASSWD:   ALL
    

  • Save file

• Start the BackupPC service

  # systemctl start backuppc.service

  • Helpful tip: If the service fails, run the following as root to view the errors

    # sudo -u backuppc /usr/share/BackupPC/bin/BackupPC -d

• If Successful, log in to website with Admin user
  • http://localhost/BackupPC
    • Helpful tip: The word, BackupPC, is case sensitive
• Click 'Edit Config' and check the PingPath setting
  • If blank, change it to:  /usr/bin/ping

    

• Click 'Email' and check the SendmailPath setting
  
  • If blank, change it to /usr/sbin/sendmail

Jump over to Part 2 and continue...