Holland Config Files

By default, Holland’s configuration files reside in /etc/holland. The main configuration file is holland.conf, however there are a number of other configuration files for configuring default settings for providers and for configuring backup sets.

Each configuration file has one ore more sections, defined by square brackets Underneath each section, one or more configuration option can be specified. These options are in a standard “option = value” format. Comments are prefixed by the # sign.

Note that many settings have default values and, as a result, can either be commented out or omitted entirely.

holland.conf - main config

The main configuration file (usually /etc/holland/holland.conf) defines both global settings as well as the active backup sets. It is divided into two sections [holland] and [logging].

[holland]

plugin-dirs

Defines where the plugins can be found. This can be a comma-separated list but usually does not need to be modified.

backup_directory

Top-level directory where backups are held.

backupsets

A comma-separated list of all the backup sets Holland should backup. Each backup set is defined in /etc/holland/backupsets/<name>.conf by default.

umask

Sets the umask of the resulting backup files.

path

Defines a path for holland and its spawned processes

[logging]

filename

The log file itself.

level

Sets the verbosity of Holland’s logging process. Available options are debug, info, warning, error, and critical

Provider Configs

These files control the global settings / defaults for the providers used by the backup-sets. Many of these global settings can be overridden if defined in a backup-set. Note that each provider’s configuration file should begin with [provider-name].

• Example Provider Configuration [example]
• mysqldump Provider Configuration [mysqldump]
  • Database and Table filtering
  • [compression]
  • [mysql:client]
• MySQL Hot Copy Provider Configuration [mysqlhotcopy]
  • Database and Table filtering
  • [mysql:client]
• Maatkit Provider Configuration [maatkit]
  • Database and table filtering
  • [mysql:client]
• MySQL LVM Provider Configuration [mysql-lvm]
  • [compression]
  • [mysql:client]

Backup-Set Configs

Backup-Set configuration files largely inherit the configuration options of the specified provider. To define a provider for the backup set, you must put the following at the top of the backup set configuration file:

[holland:backup]
plugin = <plugin>
backups-to-keep = #
estimated-size-factor = #

plugin = <plugin>

This is the name of the provider that will be used for the backup-set. This is required in order for the backup-set to function.

backups-to-keep = #

Specifies the number of backups to keep for a backup-set.

estimated-size-factor = #

Specifies the scale factor when Holland decides if there is enough free space to perform a backup. The default is 1.0 and this number is multiplied against what each individual plugin reports its estimated backup size when Holland is verifying sufficient free space for the backupset.

Backup-Set files are defined in the “backupsets” directory which is, by default, /etc/holland/backupsets. The name of the backup-set is defined by its configuration filename and can really be most anything. That means backup-sets can be organized in any arbitrary way, although backup set files must end in .conf. The file extension is not part of the name of the backup-set.

As noted above, in order for a backup-set to be active, it must be listed in the backupsets variable.

Backups are placed under the directory defined in the backup_directory section of the main configuration file. Each backup resides under a directory corresponding to the backup-set name followed by a date-encoded directory.