Configuring Holland

By default, Holland’s configuration files reside in /etc/holland. The main configuration file is holland.conf, however there are a number of other configuration files for configuring default settings for providers and for configuring backup sets.

Each configuration file has one ore more sections, defined by square brackets Underneath each section, one or more configuration option can be specified. These options are in a standard “option = value” format. Comments are prefixed by the # sign.

Note that many settings have default values and, as a result, can either be commented out or omitted entirely.

Global Config

The main configuration file (usually /etc/holland/holland.conf) defines both global settings as well as the active backup sets. It is divided into two sections [holland] and [logging].

[holland]

plugin_dirs = [directory1],[directory2],...,[directoryN]

Defines where the plugins can be found. This can be a comma-separated list but usually does not need to be modified. For most installations, this will usually be /usr/share/holland/plugins.

Deprecated since version 1.0.8: This option is no longer required and can be omitted.

backup_directory = [directory]

Top-level directory where backups are held. This is usually /var/spool/holland.

backupsets = [backupset1],[backupset2],...,[backupsetN]

A comma-separated list of all the backup sets Holland should backup. Each backup set is defined in /etc/holland/backupsets/<name>.conf by default.

umask = [0000-7777]

Sets the umask of the resulting backup files.

path = <directory1>:<directory2>:...:<directoryN>

Defines a path for holland and its spawned processes.

[logging]

filename = [path]/[filename]

The log file itself.

level = [debug|info|warning|error|critical]

Sets the verbosity of Holland’s logging process. Available options are debug, info, warning, error, and critical

Example

## Root holland config file
[holland]

## Paths where holland plugins may be found.
## Can be comma separated
plugin_dirs = /usr/share/holland/plugins

## Top level directory where backups are held
backup_directory = /var/spool/holland

## List of enabled backup sets. Can be comma separated.
## Read from <config_dir>/backupsets/<name>.conf
# backupsets = example, traditional, parallel_backups, non_transactional
backupsets = mydbbackup, pgdump-full, mysql-lvm-reportingdb

# Define a umask for file generated by holland
umask = 0007

# Define a path for holland and its spawned processes
path = /usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin

[logging]
## where to write the log
filename = /var/log/holland.log

## debug, info, warning, error, critical (case insensitive)
level = info

Backup-Set Configs

Backup-Set configuration files are housed in /etc/holland/backupsets with the name of the backup-set being the name of the file before the .conf suffix (e.g. ‘myfavoritebackup.conf’ is the configuration file for the ‘myfavoritebackup’ backup-set).

The backups themselves are placed under the directory defined in the backup_directory section of the main configuration file. Each backup resides under a directory corresponding to the backup-set name followed by one or more date-encoded directories.

Backup-Set configuration files inherit the configuration options of the specified plugins (though these settings can be overridden). To define a provider plugin for the backup set, you must put the following at the top of the backup set configuration file.

[holland:backup]
plugin = <plugin>
...

[holland:backup] Configuration Options

This section is for configuring Holland specific options and is usually at the top of a particular backup set configuration file. These options control the behavior of Holland itself, rather than of the backup provider and associated helper plugins (which are defined within their own sections - see below).

plugin = [provider plugin]

This is the name of the provider that will be used for the backup-set. This is required in order for the backup-set to function.

backups-to-keep = #

Specifies the number of backups to keep for a backup-set. Defaults to retaining 1 backup.

estimated-size-factor = #

Specifies the scale factor when Holland decides if there is enough free space to perform a backup. The default is 1.0 and this number is multiplied against what each individual plugin reports its estimated backup size when Holland is verifying sufficient free space for the backupset.

auto-purge-failures = [yes|no]

Specifies whether to keep a failed backup or to automatically remove the backup directory. By default this is on with the intention that whatever process is calling holland will retry when a backup fails. This behavior can be disabled by setting auto-purge-failures = no when partial backups might be useful or when troubleshooting a backup failure.

purge-policy = [manual|before-backup|after-backup]

Specifies when to run the purge routine on a backupset. By default this is run after a new successful backup completes. Up to backups-to-keep backups will be retained including the most recent.

purge-policy = before-backup will run the purge routine just before a new backup starts. This will retain up to backups-to-keep backups before the new backup is even started allowing purging all previous backups if backups-to-keep is set to 0. This behavior is useful if some other process is retaining backups off-server and disk space is at a premium.

purge-policy = after-backup will run the purge routine after the completion of the backup. This means more space is required during the backup run. This is safer than before-backup due to failed backups not causing good backups to be purged.

purge-policy = manual will never run the purge routine automatically. Either holland purge must be run externally or an explicit removal of desired backup directories can be done at some later time.

Hooks

before-backup-command = string

Run a shell command before a backup starts, such as setting up an iptables rule (taking a mysql slave out of a load balancer) or aborting the backup based on some external condition.

The backup will fail if this command exits with a non-zero status.

New in version 1.0.7.

after-backup-command = string

Run a shell command after a successful backup, such as sending out an e-mail or performing external post backup cleanup tasks (such putting a server back in a load balancer for example).

Note if the backup fails, failed-backup-command will be run instead. Thus, if doing things like pulling the server out of a load-balancer, such commands should added to after-backup-command and failed-backup-command to avoid an inconsistent state.

The backup will fail if this command exits with a non-zero status.

New in version 1.0.7.

failed-backup-command = string

Run a shell command if a backup failed, such as firing off an e-mail to notify relevant folks about the failure.

New in version 1.0.7.

For all hook commands, Holland will perform simple text substitution on the three parameters:

• hook: The name of the hook being called (one of: before-backup-command, after-backup-command, failed-backup-command)
• backupdir: The path to the current backup directory (e.g. /var/spool/holland/mysqldump/YYYYmmdd_HHMMSS)
• backupset: The name of the backupset being run (e.g. mysql-lvm)

For Example

[holland:backup]
plugin = mysqldump
before-backup-command = /usr/local/bin/my-custom-script --hook ${hook} --backupset ${backupset} --backupdir ${backupdir}
after-backup-command = echo ${backupset} completed successfully.  Files are in ${backupdir}
failed-backup-command = echo "${backupset} failed!" | mail -s "${backupset} backup failed" sysadmins@example.com

Provider Plugin Configs

The following are the provider plugins that can be used in a backup-set. These are used within their own braced section in the backup-set configuration file. For specific information on how to configure a desired provider, see the list below.

For advanced users, the defaults for each provider plugin can be changed by editing the default configuration file for said provider. These files are located in /etc/holland/providers by default.

For more information on configuring a specific provider, see Backup Providers

Helper Plugins

• MySQL Client Helper Plugin
• Compression Helper Plugin

Backup Set Config Example

Here is an example backup set which uses mysqldump to backup all but a few databases, in a one-file-per-database fashion. For more specific examples, consult the documentation for the specific provider plugin you wish to use (see above).

[holland:backup]
plugin = mysqldump
backups-to-keep = 1
auto-purge-failures = yes
purge-policy = after-backup
estimated-size-factor = 0.25

[mysqldump]
extra-defaults = no
lock-method = auto-detect
databases = *
exclude-databases = "mydb", "myotherdb"
exclude-invalid-views = no
flush-logs = no
flush-privileges = yes
dump-routines = no
dump-events = no
stop-slave = no
max-allowed-packet = 128M
bin-log-position = no
file-per-database = yes
estimate-method = plugin

[compression]
method = gzip
inline = yes
level = 1

[mysql:client]
defaults-extra-file = ~/.my.cnf