How to Install DREBS on Arch Linux

DREBS (Disaster Recovery for Elastic Block Store) is an open-source disaster recovery tool developed by dojo4 for AWS Elastic Block Store. In this tutorial, we will explain how to install DREBS on Arch Linux using the command line.

Before starting with the installation, make sure that you have the following requirements:

• Arch Linux machine with root privileges
• Git installed on your system
• Python 2.7 or later installed on your system

Step 1: Clone the DREBS Repository

Open up a terminal window and run the following command to clone the DREBS repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/dojo4/drebs.git ~/drebs

This command will download the DREBS source code from GitHub and store it in the ~/drebs directory.

Step 2: Install Python Dependencies

DREBS requires some Python dependencies to run properly. You can install them by running the following command in the terminal:

pip install -r ~/drebs/requirements.txt

This command will download and install all the Python dependencies needed by DREBS.

Step 3: Copy drebs and drebs-aws Scripts to /usr/local/bin

Once you have installed all the Python dependencies, you need to copy two scripts drebs and drebs-aws to the /usr/local/bin directory. You can do this by running the following commands:

sudo ln -s ~/drebs/drebs /usr/local/bin/drebs

sudo ln -s ~/drebs/drebs-aws /usr/local/bin/drebs-aws

These commands will create symbolic links for the two scripts in the /usr/local/bin directory, which will allow you to run them from anywhere on your system.

Step 4: Configure DREBS

Before you can use DREBS, you need to provide your AWS credentials and configure the backup and restore settings. To do this, you will need to create a configuration file ~/.drebs.cfg.

You can use the sample configuration file provided in the DREBS source code as a starting point. To copy the sample configuration file to your home directory, run the following command in the terminal:

cp ~/drebs/drebs.cfg.sample ~/.drebs.cfg

Once you have created the configuration file, you need to edit it and provide your AWS credentials and backup/restore settings.

Step 5: Run DREBS

After you have configured DREBS, you can run it by typing the following command in the terminal:

drebs backup

This command will perform a backup operation based on the settings specified in the configuration file. You can also use drebs restore to restore from a backup.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have explained how to install DREBS on Arch Linux and configure it to perform backup and restore operations for AWS Elastic Block Store. With DREBS, you can ensure that your data is always safe, even in the event of a disaster.