zrepl/docs/content/install/_index.md

+++ title = "Installation" weight = 20 +++

{{% notice note %}} Note: check out the [tutorial]({{< relref "tutorial/_index.md" >}}) if you want a first impression of zrepl. {{% /notice %}}

User Privileges

It is possible to run zrepl as an unprivileged user in combination with ZFS delegation.

Also, there is the possibility to run it in a jail on FreeBSD by delegating a dataset to the jail.

However, until we get around documenting those setups, you will have to run zrepl as root or experiment yourself :)

Installation

zrepl is currently not packaged on any operating system. Signed & versioned releases are planned but not available yet.

Check out the sources yourself, compile and install to the zrepl user's $PATH.
Note: if the zrepl binary is not in $PATH, you will have to adjust the examples in the [tutorial]({{< relref "tutorial/_index.md" >}}).

# NOTE: you may want to checkout & build as an unprivileged user
cd /root
git clone https://github.com/zrepl/zrepl.git
cd zrepl
go build -o zrepl
cp zrepl /usr/local/bin/zrepl
rehash
# see if it worked
zrepl help

Configuration & Runtime Directories

Main Configuration File

The main configuration file lives in either

• /etc/zrepl/zrepl.yml
• /usr/local/etc/zrepl/zrepl.yml

The file locations are check in that order. Alternative locations must be specified using a command line flag.

Runtime Directories

Source jobs with serve.type = stdinserver require a private runtime directory. ([Why?]({{< relref "configuration/transports.md#stdinserver" >}}))

The default is /var/run/zrepl/stdinserver and it must only be accessible by the user that runs zrepl daemon and zrepl stdinserver:

mkdir -p /var/run/zrepl/stdinserver
chmod -R 0700 /var/run/zrepl

Running the Daemon

All work zrepl done is performed by a daemon process.

There are no rc(8) or systemd.service(5) service definitions yet.

The daemon does not fork and writes all log output to stderr.

zrepl --config /etc/zrepl/zrepl.yml daemon

FreeBSD ships with the daemon(8) utility which is also a good start for writing an rc(8) file:

daemon -o /var/log/zrepl.log \
       -p /var/run/zrepl/daemon.pid \
       zrepl --config /usr/local/etc/zrepl/zrepl.yml daemon

{{% notice info %}} Make sure to read the first lines of log output after the daemon starts: if the daemon cannot create the [stdinserver]({{< relref "configuration/transports.md#stdinserver" >}}) sockets in the runtime directory, it will complain but not terminate as other tasks such as taking periodic snapshots might still work. {{% / notice %}}

Restarting

The daemon handles SIGINT and SIGTERM for graceful shutdown.

Graceful shutdown means at worst that a job will not be rescheduled for the next interval.

The daemon exits as soon as all jobs have reported shut down.