First off, if you want to use Duplicity installed from FreeBSD Ports to backup to Amazon S3, be sure to also install the devel/py-boto and security/pinentry-curses ports.

If you attempt to run the backup script described at randys.org or cenolan.com from cron, you may run into an error similar to the following:

2009-03-01_01:05:05: ... backing up filesystem
Cleanup of temporary directory /tmp/duplicity-gM4CN9-tempdir failed - this
is probably a bug.
Cleanup of temporary directory /tmp/duplicity-gM4CN9-tempdir failed - this
is probably a bug.
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 583, in <module>
with_tempdir(main)
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 577, in with_tempdir
fn()
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 558, in main
full_backup(col_stats)
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 234, in full_backup
bytes_written = write_multivol("full", tarblock_iter, globals.backend)
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 148, in write_multivol
globals.gpg_profile, globals.volsize)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/duplicity/gpg.py", line 240,
in GPGWriteFile
bytes_to_go = data_size - get_current_size()
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/duplicity/gpg.py", line 232,
in get_current_size
return os.stat(filename).st_size
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory:
'/tmp/duplicity-gM4CN9-tempdir/mktemp-iZknw0-2'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 583, in <module>
with_tempdir(main)
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 577, in with_tempdir
fn()
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 558, in main
full_backup(col_stats)
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 232, in full_backup
sig_outfp = get_sig_fileobj("full-sig")
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 210, in get_sig_fileobj
fh = globals.backend.get_fileobj_write(sig_filename)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/duplicity/backend.py", line
354, in get_fileobj_write
fh = dup_temp.FileobjHooked(tdp.filtered_open("wb"))
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/duplicity/path.py", line 716,
return gpg.GPGFile(1, self, gpg_profile)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/duplicity/gpg.py", line 112,
in __init__
'logger': self.logger_fp})
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/GnuPGInterface.py", line 357,
in run
create_fhs, attach_fhs)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/GnuPGInterface.py", line 401,
in _attach_fork_exec
if process.pid == 0: self._as_child(process, gnupg_commands, args)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/GnuPGInterface.py", line 442,
in _as_child
os.execvp( command[0], command )
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/os.py", line 354, in execvp
_execvpe(file, args)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/os.py", line 390, in _execvpe
func(fullname, *argrest)
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 583, in <module>
with_tempdir(main)
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 577, in with_tempdir
fn()
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 558, in main
full_backup(col_stats)
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 234, in full_backup
bytes_written = write_multivol("full", tarblock_iter, globals.backend)
File "/usr/local/bin/duplicity", line 148, in write_multivol
globals.gpg_profile, globals.volsize)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/duplicity/gpg.py", line 237,
in GPGWriteFile
file = GPGFile(True, path.Path(filename), profile)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/duplicity/gpg.py", line 112,
in __init__
'logger': self.logger_fp})
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/GnuPGInterface.py", line 357,
in run
create_fhs, attach_fhs)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/GnuPGInterface.py", line 401,
in _attach_fork_exec
if process.pid == 0: self._as_child(process, gnupg_commands, args)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/GnuPGInterface.py", line 442,
in _as_child
os.execvp( command[0], command )
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/os.py", line 354, in execvp
_execvpe(file, args)
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/os.py", line 390, in _execvpe
func(fullname, *argrest)
OSError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory

The solution to the above is simple – make sure the path includes /usr/local/bin, perhaps by including this at the start of the backup script:

export PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/bin

Finally, when running an incremental backup, you may get this error:

Fatal Error: Neither remote nor local manifest is readable.

This can be solved by setting the HOME environment variable to /root assuming you’re running the backup as root (instead of the default /var/log for cron jobs):

export HOME=/root

That virtualized Fishworks appliance got me thinking: What if you combined this with this? Yeah, managing Elastic Block Store devices would require some changes, but, if you needed a NAS for your EC2 instances…