Panix V-Colo VPS: File recovery via with "rsync"

Recovering files from the automatic backup

Starting around midnight US-Eastern time, Panix's backup server runs an rsync command to back up your virtual colo. These backups may allow you to recover files accidentally deleted or corrupted, as long as you attempt to recover the file before midnight US-Eastern on the day that the data is lost or damaged.

In the example below, replace "vc00" with the short name of your virtual colo (i.e. "vc10", "vc20", etc.).

Find the password for the backup server - look at the contents of the file /etc/rcsynd.secrets. It should contain something like:
root:abc123def456
The string after the colon (abc123def456 in the above example) is your backup server password.
Create a temporary directory to receive the files. This is not strictly necessary, but will help you avoid accidents and let you examine the recovered files before installing them in their original locations.
mkdir /recovered_files
You can use any directory path instead of /recovered_files". Make sure that the filesystem you are using has sufficient space to receive the restored files.
Run the rsync command:
cd /recovered_files rsync rsync://[email protected]/vc00/path/of/files/wanted .
You will be prompted for the rsync password - see step (1) above. After you type in the password, the files requested should get copied over from the backup server into the current directory. You can specify another directory instead of "." (period) if you prefer.