Encryption possible with the new backup solution?

Moloko · Post by **Moloko** » 03 Sep 2013, 07:21

As I understand from the latest and greatest upgrade on B3, there is a new solution for the backup feature.

The question is:
Is it possible to encrypt the files that are backed up, as with the old solution?

Post by **johannes** » 06 Sep 2013, 09:46

Sorry, no. The new backup is a pure sync.

Ubi · Post by **Ubi** » 06 Sep 2013, 12:49

Cant you sync to an encrypted device?

Moloko · Post by **Moloko** » 25 Nov 2013, 18:12

The other device (Bubba) is located on other location, reachable by ssh.

Do you mean it's still possible to have the backup destination encrypted anyway?

RandomUsername · Post by **RandomUsername** » 25 Nov 2013, 18:25

Yes, you can encrypt an entire volume with ecryptfs. I'm sure there is an article about it either here or on the wiki.

Gordon · Post by **Gordon** » 26 Nov 2013, 03:41

What is the exact requirement here? Do you need the data to be stored encrypted on that remote location or do you only need to have the files transferred encrypted?

Moloko · Post by **Moloko** » 29 Nov 2013, 14:53

Well both.
I guess the data is encrypted by rsync.

The original issue is to encrypt the backup'ed files and folders on the destination.

Gordon · Post by **Gordon** » 30 Nov 2013, 12:39

Hi,

No, rsync does not encrypt. However the most used method to rsync to a remote server is to run it through ssh - i.e. transfer will be secure when this method is used, but storage on the target machine is a direct image of the original files you are syncing. So one way to accomplish what you want is to rsync to a local destination first and then encrypt that local target to become the source for rsyncing to the remote target. This will however most likely defeat the whole idea of rsync.

RandomUsername · Post by **RandomUsername** » 30 Nov 2013, 13:16

Or look into rsyncrypto.

Moloko · Post by **Moloko** » 03 Dec 2013, 10:02

When I wrote
"I guess the data is encrypted by rsync."
I meant that I supposed that the data transfer itself if encrypted between the host and destination backup client.

But based on the answer above I guess I'm wrong. How do I use rsync and ssh to encrypt the data transfer during the backup?
(I'll try to search the forum and the wiki in the meantime...)

Thanks for the tip about cryptorsync, I'll look into it!

RandomUsername · Post by **RandomUsername** » 03 Dec 2013, 10:09

I think I wrote a how to on using rsyncrypto on this very forum. rsync with SSH is straight forward enough (man rsync) but for unattended transfers you will need to set up a key pair.

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