duplicity works fine when run standalone, but complains about gpg "public key not found" when run from backupninja

We bet you're using sudo to run both duplicity and backupninja, and have been using sudo as well when generating the GnuPG key pair used by duplicity.

Quick fix: generate a new GnuPG key pair in a root shell, or using sudo -H instead of plain sudo.

Another solution: import the GnuPG keypair into the root user's keyring, taking care of running gpg --update-trustdb in a root shell or using sudo -H afterwards, in order to tag this keypair as "ultimately trusted".

Detailed explanation: sudo does not change $HOME by default, so GnuPG saved the newly generated key pair to your own keyring, rather than to the root user's keyring. Running sudo duplicity hides the problem, as it uses your own keyring. Running sudo backupninja reveals the problem, as backupninja uses su to make sure it runs duplicity in a real root environment, i.e. using the root user's GnuPG keyring.

What should I do when rdiff-backup fails?

If rdiff-backup fails, the meta data file may get corrupt. When this happens, rdiff-backup will complain loudly every time it is run and possibly fail to backup some or all the files.

To force rdiff-backup to rebuild the meta data, set this option in the .rdiff backup action file:

    options = --force

After a rdiff-backup run has been successful you should remove this option.

How to restrict privileges on the backup server?

backupninja uses a "push" mechanism, where backups are sent from one or several hosts to a centralized backup server.

Mount your backup partition with limited execution rights

Edit /etc/fstab to mount your partition with limited rights. For example:

    /home           ext3    defaults,nosuid,noexec,nodev      0       2

Create a user for each client

On the backup server, it is important to create a separate user for each client.

Use a restricted shell and jail users

Furthermore, you may use a restricted shell like rssh or scponly, which also offer the ability to jail connections.

On the backup server:

    $ apt-get install scponly
    $ adduser --disabled-password --home /home/backup/ninja-host1 --shell /usr/bin/scponly ninja-host1

You may now use ninja-host1 user to connect to the /home/backup/ninja-host1 jail.

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