Getting Started with Rackspace Cloud Backup - Part 1

Install the Agent

If you have a Managed Cloud account, you may already have the agent installed on your server. You know you have the agent when you see your Cloud Server(s) listed under Systems in the Rackspace Cloud Backup control panel. If not, we can install it for you. Check with your account manager and jump ahead to How to Create a Backup.

Other users should begin with the instructions below.

On this page, you find out how to

• Install the Agent for Apt-based systems - like Ubuntu and Debian
• Install the Agent for RPM-based Systems - like CentOS, Fedora, and Red Hat
• Install the Agent for Arch, Gentoo, and Suse Systems
• Install the Agent for Windows Systems
• Troubleshooting
• Find your Agent Logs
• Uninstall the Agent from Linux
• Uninstall the Agent from Windows Systems 

Install the Agent on Apt-based Sytems, like Ubuntu and Debian

First, you must SSH into your server and run the below commands consecutively on a user with sudo or superuser privileges.

Step 1 - Get the Agent:

sudo sh -c 'wget -q "http://agentrepo.drivesrvr.com/debian/agentrepo.key" -O- | apt-key add -'

Step 2 - Add the Resource:

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://agentrepo.drivesrvr.com/debian/ serveragent main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/driveclient.list'

Step 3 - Install the Agent:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get install driveclient

Step 4 - Configure the bootstrap:

You need your username and API key to complete this step. If you need assistance finding your API key, please refer to this article in our Knowledge Center.

Tip: This step asks you to confirm that you want to overwrite your config file. Answer yes.

sudo /usr/local/bin/driveclient --configure

Step 5 - Start the Agent:

sudo service driveclient start

Step 6 - Set the Agent to start on boot:

sudo update-rc.d driveclient defaults

Install the Agent on RPM-based Systems, like CentOS, Fedora, and Red Hat

First, you must SSH into your server and run the below commands consecutively on a user with sudo or superuser privileges.

Step 1 - Confirm directory

Go into your file directory and confirm that the path /etc/yum.repos.d path exits. If not, create it:

sudo mkdir -p /etc/yum.repos.d

Step 2 - Get the RPM:

sudo wget -O /etc/yum.repos.d/drivesrvr.repo "http://agentrepo.drivesrvr.com/redhat/drivesrvr.repo"

Step 3 - Install the RPM:

sudo yum -y install driveclient

Step 4 - Configure the bootstrap:

You need your username and API key to complete this step. If you need assistance finding your API key, please refer to this article in our Knowledge Center.

sudo /usr/local/bin/driveclient --configure

Step 5 - Start the Agent:

sudo service driveclient start

Step 6 - Set the Agent to start on boot:

sudo chkconfig driveclient on

Install the Agent for Arch, Gentoo, and Suse Systems

For Arch, Gentoo, and Suse Linux systems, download the tarball at the link below. Then, SSH into your server and run the below commands consecutively on a user with sudo or superuser privileges.

Note: The tarball has the most up-to-date instructions, so if the tarball instructions differ from those below, follow the tarball.

Step 1 - Get the Tarball

wget http://agentrepo.drivesrvr.com/tar/driveclient-latest.tar.bz2

Step 2 - Extract the files

tar -xvjf driveclient-latest.tar.bz2

Step 3 - Change to the directory

Enter the directory created by extracting the files, for example:

cd driveclient-1*

Step 4 - Create directories and copy files

sudo cp driveclient /usr/local/bin/
sudo chown root:root /usr/local/bin/driveclient
sudo chmod 700 /usr/local/bin/driveclient
sudo mkdir -m 700 /etc/driveclient
sudo cp cacert.pem /etc/driveclient

Step 5 - Configure the Agent

You need your username and API key to complete this step. If you need assistance finding your API key, please refer to this article in our Knowledge Center.

Tip: This step asks you to confirm that you want to overwrite your config file. Answer yes.

sudo /usr/local/bin/driveclient --configure

Step 6 - Start the Agent

sudo /usr/local/bin/driveclient --daemon

Example init/startup scripts are included in the tarball.

Install the Agent on a Windows Systems

If you need to find out which encryption type of Windows machine you have (32- or 64-bit), navigate to your Windows Server's Control Panel and Select "System".

Step 1 - Download the Agent

Note: For these agents, you may Right-click the links below and save them directly to your Server.

• Get the agent for 32-bit systems:

  http://agentrepo.drivesrvr.com/windows32/driveclient-setup-latest.exe
  

• Get the agent for 64-bit systems:
  

  http://agentrepo.drivesrvr.com/windows/driveclient-setup-latest.exe
  

Step 2 - Run the Agent

You need your API Key when you install the Agent. If you need assistance finding your API key, please refer to this article in our Knowledge Center.

There are 3 types of setups: New Install, Update Install, or GUI Install. They take the following non-quoted parameters:

• New Install:

  driveclient-setup /S /Type=[New|Install|Update] /Username=username /ApiKey=apiKeyValue /ApiHostName=hostname [/Url=UpdateUrl]
  

• Update:
  

  driveclient-setup /S [/Type=Install|/Type=Update]
  

• GUI: Double-click the executable from Step 1.

Notes:

1. For non-interactive installation and automation the /S parameter provides a silent install.
2. If the install type is not 'new' (/Type=New) then the credentials are not overwritten.
3. For all but updates /ApiHostName can be provided including GUI installations. If it is not its value defaults to api.drivesrvr.com.
4. The “Install” and “Update” types are provided for backward compatibility.

Step 3 - Test Windows Install or Update:

Test Your Windows Install

Installation should do the following:

1. Create ”%programfiles%\driveclient” path
2. Place files in the Program Files driveclient directory:
   

   c:\>dir "%programfiles%\driveclient" /a-d
    Volume in drive C is OS
    Volume Serial Number is EE4C-78FC
   
    Directory of C:\Program Files\driveclient
   
   10/05/2011  12:24 PM         5,749,760 driveclient.exe
   03/01/2011  05:41 PM         1,693,696 icudt42.dll
   03/01/2011  05:39 PM         1,289,216 icuuc42.dll
   10/05/2011  01:37 PM           647,630 install.log
   10/05/2011  01:37 PM            58,384 uninst.exe
                  5 File(s)      9,438,686 bytes
   

3. Create ”%programdata%\driveclient” path
4. Place bootstrap.json in the program data driveclient path, which looks like the following:
   

   {
     "ApiHostName" : "api.driveclient.com",
     "Https" : true,
     "IsRegistered" : false,
     "Username" : "[yourusername]",
     "Password" : "[myownveryverylongpasswordthatnoonecouldeverpossiblycrack]"
   }
   

   The parameters provided with /type=install should be seen in the bootstrap.json file.

5. Create a driveclientsvc service:
   

   c:\>sc query DriveClientSvc
   
   SERVICE_NAME: DriveClientSvc
           TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS
           STATE              : 1  STOPPED
           WIN32_EXIT_CODE    : 0  (0x0)
           SERVICE_EXIT_CODE  : 0  (0x0)
           CHECKPOINT         : 0x0
           WAIT_HINT          : 0x0
   

6. You should see a “driveclient.exe” entry Control Panel>Programs and Features.

Test Your Windows Update

Running driveclient-setup-latest.exe will change any updated files in “program files\driveclient”.
This is the same as running setup with no parameters.

c:\>dir "%programfiles%\driveclient\driveclient.exe"

 Volume in drive C is OS
 Volume Serial Number is EE4C-78FC

 Directory of C:\Program Files\driveclient

10/05/2011  12:24 PM         5,749,760 driveclient.exe
               1 File(s)      5,749,760 bytes
               0 Dir(s)  449,822,932,992 bytes free

Troubleshooting

What do the backup statuses "Skipped", "Missed", "Errored", and "Failed," mean? (See below for instructions on troubleshooting these issues.)

• Skipped: The backup job was skipped because there was already a backup job queued. A single backup job can only be queued once.
• Missed: The backup job was missed because the agent did not respond. The agent was likely offline.
• Errored: This means there was an error during the backup. It did run, but it needs to be investigated.
• Failed: Something seriously went wrong. The backup did not run; review the logs.

How do I troubleshoot the Skipped, Missed, Errored, and Failed statuses?

• Skipped: This is likely because the frequency of the backup job was set too high. Consider reducing the frequency of the job, reducing the amount of data, or maybe this is the initial job and the subsequent jobs will finish faster.
• Missed: First, check to make sure the agent is running on the server. If not, start it; then, check the logs to determine why it failed. An agent should never go offline by itself. Either a software exception occurred or the agent was manually terminated.
• Errored: Look in the logs on the server. The agent stores all the logs in one location. Review the logs line by line; it should be pretty obvious what happened. If not, a ticket can be raised in the SME group and we'll help identify the problem.
• Failed: As with Errored status, check the logs on the server. A failed status is severe.

Logs

If you need to read the logs of your agent, you may find them at the below locations.

• Linux - /var/log
• Windows - %ProgramData%/Driveclient

Uninstall the Agent from Linux

To uninstall the agent, stop the agent and uninstall the package.

CentOS/Red Hat

sudo service driveclient stop
sudo yum remove driveclient

Ubuntu

sudo /etc/init.d/driveclient stop
sudo apt-get remove driveclient

Uninstall Agent from Windows

1. Run %programfiles%\driveclient\uninst.exe

You should now see:

• The path %programfiles%\driveclient should contain a single file: install.log

c:\>dir "%programfiles%\driveclient" /a-d
 Volume in drive C is OS
 Volume Serial Number is EE4C-78FC

 Directory of C:\Program Files\driveclient

10/05/2011  01:29 PM           607,013 install.log
               1 File(s)        607,013 bytes
               2 Dir(s)  449,805,914,112 bytes free

• The path %programdata%\driveclient should not exist.

c:\>dir "%programdata%\driveclient"
 Volume in drive C is OS
 Volume Serial Number is EE4C-78FC

 Directory of C:\ProgramData

File Not Found

• There should be no “driveclient.exe” entry in Control Panel>Programs and Features.
• There should be no “driveclientsvc” service installed.

  - There should be no scheduled tasks to "check for driveclient update".
c:\>sc query driveclientsvc
[SC] EnumQueryServicesStatus:OpenService FAILED 1060:

The specified service does not exist as an installed service.