Upgrading BackupPC to v4.2.1

Intro

Upgrading BackupPC is a bit tricky as it's not packaged for an easy install. The scripts are however pretty self-explanatory most of the time.

This guide describes a common upgrade on a CentOS 5-server along with the errors I encountered and their fix.

The guide should be usable on later CentOS-versions as well. Particular gotchas' are described inline as they appear when installing on CentOS 7

Legends

BPC = BackupPC

Guide

Download the following files and save them in eg /root/Downloads.
BackupPC-4.2.1.tar.gz
https://github.com/backuppc/backuppc/releases/tag/4.2.1

BackupPC-XS-0.57.tar
https://metacpan.org/pod/BackupPC::XS or
https://github.com/backuppc/backuppc-xs/releases

rsync-bpc-master.zip
https://github.com/backuppc/rsync-bpc
Click Clone or download, then choose Download ZIP.

Untar and unzip the archives.

# cd /root/Downloads
# gunzip BackupPC-4.2.1.tar.gz
# tar -xvf BackupPC-4.2.1.tar
# tar -xvf BackupPC-XS-0.57.tar
# unzip rsync-bpc-master.zip

Install BackupPC-XS using either of the alternative below. It's a personal choice.
Archive alternative:
```
# cd BackupPC-XS-0.57
# perl Makefile.PL
# make
# make test
# make install
```
Cpan alternative:
```
# perl -MCPAN -e shell
# install BackupPC::XS
```
Cpanm alterntive:
If you don't already have cpanm installed, you need to install it first, then the BackupPC::XS module.
```
# cpan App::cpanminus
# cpanm BackupPC::XS
```
On my CentOS 7-server I didn't have cpan installed. Run the following commands to install cpan.
Before installing cpan, you might also want to make sure all needed devtools are installed.
```
# yum groupinstall "Development Tools"
# yum install cpan
# cpan App::cpanminus
```
Choose to run the wizard automatically. The default choices should be okay to use.

Install rsync-bpc.

# cd /root/Downloads/rsync-bpc-master
# ./configure.sh
# make
# make install

If you get this error:

lib/sysacls.c:2761:2: error: #error No ACL functions defined for this platform!
 #error No ACL functions defined for this platform!
 ^
make: *** [lib/sysacls.o] Error 1

Install libacl-devel:

# yum install libacl-devel

Then run the install again:

# ./configure.sh
# make
# make install

Install BackupPC-4.2.1.

# cd /root/Downloads/BackupPC-4.2.1
# ./configure.pl

Found /etc/BackupPC/config.pl, so this is an upgrade of an existing BackupPC installation.
We will verify some existing information, but you will probably not need to make any changes - just hit ENTER to each question.

I found the following locations for these programs:
 bzip2 => /usr/bin/bzip2
 cat => /usr/bin/cat
 df => /usr/bin/df
 gtar/tar => /usr/bin/gtar
 gzip => /usr/bin/gzip
 hostname => /usr/bin/hostname
 nmblookup => /usr/bin/nmblookup
 par2 =>
 perl => /usr/bin/perl
 ping => /bin/ping
 ping6 => /usr/sbin/ping6
 rrdtool =>
 rsync => /usr/bin/rsync
 rsync_bpc => /usr/local/bin/rsync_bpc
 sendmail => /usr/sbin/sendmail
 smbclient => /usr/bin/smbclient
 split => /usr/bin/split
 ssh/ssh2 => /usr/bin/ssh

--> Are these paths correct? [y]?

If all the needed programs are there and correctly pointed to, press Enter to continue the install.

For me par2 was missing. Install it as below.

# yum install par2cmdline

Rrdtool was missing too, so run this too.

# yum install rrdtool

Or combine them:

# yum install par2cmdline rrdtool

If rrdtool isn't found for your distro, as it was for one of my ancient CentOS 5-servers, try rpm.pbone.net and search for it (make sure to only choose your particular distro!). Download it when found, then install it.

# rpm -Uvh rrdtool-1.3.9-1.4.i386.rpm

Run the installer again and confirm the paths are correct and that no programs are missing.

# ./configure.pl

If you get this error after continuing the install.

BackupPC needs the package version. Please install version before installing BackupPC.

Install the missing version module. Lots of stuff will download and install.

# cpanm version

Run the BPC-install yet again.

# ./configure.pl

When the install is completed, restart the httpd daemon as per instruction.

service httpd restart

If this was an upgrade, restart the backuppc daemon as well, or the server will only load the previous now stale version.

service backuppc restart

If you get the below error after restarting the backuppc daemon:

Starting BackupPC: Invalid version format (trailing decimal) at /usr/share/BackupPC/bin/BackupPC line 125
[FAILED]
Edit /usr/share/BackupPC/bin/BackupPC.

Edit /usr/share/BackupPC/bin/BackupPC and change the following line:

# nano /usr/share/BackupPC/bin/BackupPC

$version = $1 if ( $output =~ /rsync_bpc\s+version\s+([\d.]+)(beta\d+)?\s+protocol/ );
to
$version = $1 if ( $output =~ /rsync_bpc\s+version\s+([\d.]+?)(\.beta\d+)?\s+protocol/ );

Per the BackupPC-users mailing list, this change might already have been commited for the next BPC release. YMMV as usual.

Save your edit and rerun.