encrypted backup

[ubuntu at rio.vg]

Eric S. Johansson wrote:
> I need to back up a few systems to untrusted hosts.  So I would like to 
> have the remote contents encrypted.  But because the remote host is 
> untrusted, I can't do the encryption on the remote host.  I'm currently 
> using http://rsnapshot.org/ for local backups (works very nice by the 
> way) but the encryption issue is a very important one.
> 
> If I need to roll my own solution, what comes to mind is:
> 
> 1) Building an copy of all my files via rsync, decrypting with gpg and 
> then using rsnapshot to back up to the remote machine
> 

This is probably your best bet.  Rsync the files to a "backup" area,
tar/bz2 it, then gpg encrypt it and rsync it to the backup machine.
It's the simplest and most portable method, and when doing backups,
simple is good.

I don't think rsnapshot is going to work for you with the encryption.  I
have a feeling each time you re-encrypt, it will break whatever gains
rsnapshot would get you.

> apt-get update on all my servers on a regular basis (topic drift: any
> way to automate this or at the very least triggered from one
> location?)

Put it in cron.  I made a quick script that runs LogWatch, apt (just to
update/download, not install), and tripwire every night, then I have a
nice e-mail from each server waiting for me in the morning...