RouterBOARD Backup

Overview

A bash script to help archive Mikrotik RouterBoard backups to another server via scp.

Instructions

Step 1 - Generate a DSA key on your backup server and copy to your RouterBOARD(s)

If your backup server doesn't already have a DSA keypair, you will need to generate one. To do this, log in to your backup server and run:

ssh-keygen -t dsa

Next, upload your backup server's public key to each RouterBOARD that you wish to backup. NB: You must use a DSA key,

scp id_dsa.pub [email protected]:

Step 2 - Configure scheduled backups on each RouterBOARD

Now go to each router and run the following commands... (ensuring you change 1.1.1.1 to your backup server's IP)

#Add a group for backups with only SSH and read permissions
user group add name="backup" policy="read,ssh,sensitive"
#Create a read only user to download the backups
user add name=backup group=backup address=1.1.1.1
#Import the key 
user ssh-keys import public-key-file=id_dsa.pub user=backup
#Setup a backup task and add to the scheduler (note it won't start until the next day, so we run it once manually)
system script add name="backup-script" source="/system backup save name=backup"
system scheduler add name="Backup Task" on-event="backup-script" start-time="06:00:00" interval=1d
system script run backup-script

Step 3 - Install rb_backup.sh on your backup server

Edit the rb_backup.sh script to include the hostnames of all the routers you wish to backup, and edit the BACKUP_FOLDER to point at the directory where you want the backups to be stored.

Try running rb_backup.sh. If you have any problems, try manually ssh'ing to each RouterBOARD to ensure it works first.

ssh [email protected]

You may wish to install the rb_backup.sh script on the cron. To do this you could create a new file called /etc/cron.d/rb_backup with the following contents (remember to change the path to your backup script):

# Backup Routerboards every morning at 7 a.m.
0 7 * * * root /path/to/rb_backup.sh