How to Install BackupPC on Kali Linux

In this tutorial, we will guide you on how to install BackupPC on Kali Linux. BackupPC is a high-performance, enterprise-grade system for backing up Linux, Windows, and macOS PCs and laptops to a server's disk or tape media. It is open-source and available for free.

Prerequisites

Before we start the installation process, make sure to meet the following prerequisites:

Kali Linux OS installed on your machine
A user account with sudo privileges
Basic knowledge of Linux command-line

Step 1: Update Your System

Before installing any new software, it is essential to update your system to its latest version. To do that, run the following command:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

That command will update your system's package repositories and upgrade all the installed packages to their latest version.

Step 2: Install BackupPC

To install BackupPC, we need to add BackupPC's PPA (Personal Package Archive) to our system's package sources list. To do that, run the following command:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:backuppc/ppa

Then, update the repositories by running:

sudo apt update

Finally, install the BackupPC package by running:

sudo apt install backuppc

During the installation process, you will be asked to choose the webserver you want to use, either Apache or Lighttpd. For this tutorial, we will use Apache.

Step 3: Configure BackupPC

After the installation process is complete, we need to configure BackupPC. We can do that by editing the config.pl file located in the /etc/backuppc/ directory.

sudo nano /etc/backuppc/config.pl

The config.pl file contains many options that we can configure, such as the backup directory, user accounts, and more. For now, we will only change the $Conf{ServerName} option to our server's hostname or IP address.

$Conf{ServerName} = "server_hostname_or_ip_address";

Save the changes and exit the editor.

Step 4: Configure Apache

Next, we need to configure Apache to work with BackupPC. To do that, we need to create a virtual host for BackupPC. Create a new configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/backuppc.conf

Then, paste the following configuration:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName server_hostname_or_ip_address
    DocumentRoot /usr/share/backuppc/html/
    ScriptAlias /backuppc/ /usr/share/backuppc/cgi-bin/
    Alias /backuppc/css/ /usr/share/backuppc/html/css/
    <Directory /usr/share/backuppc/html>
        Options FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride None
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
    <Directory /usr/share/backuppc/cgi-bin>
        AllowOverride None
        Options ExecCGI
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
        Require all granted
        AuthType Basic
        AuthName "BackupPC"
        AuthUserFile /etc/backuppc/htpasswd
        Require valid-user
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Replace server_hostname_or_ip_address with your server's hostname or IP address.

Next, enable the new BackupPC virtual host on Apache by running:

sudo a2ensite backuppc.conf

Finally, reload the Apache service by running:

sudo systemctl reload apache2

Step 5: Create BackupPC User Account

To access BackupPC's web interface, we need to create a user account. We can do that by running the following command:

sudo htpasswd -c /etc/backuppc/htpasswd backuppc_user

That command will create a new file /etc/backuppc/htpasswd and a new user account backuppc_user.

Step 6: Access BackupPC Web Interface

After completing the previous steps, we can now access BackupPC's web interface by opening a web browser and navigating to http://server_hostname_or_ip_address/backuppc/.

Conclusion

BackupPC is now installed and configured on your Kali Linux system. You can now use it to backup your Linux, Windows, and macOS PCs and laptops to a server's disk or tape media. Make sure to read the BackupPC documentation for more information on how to configure and use BackupPC.