Setup vsftpd to Backup Cisco CUCM on Linux

This article shows how to setup a sftp server to backup Cisco Collaboration suite, maybe many times you don´t have a Microsfot Windows Server for backing up your Cisco Servers.

FTP is insecure because the username and password are transmitted in clear text, you could have a man in the middle attack and obtain useful information. Is very recommended to use SFTP instead FTP to encrypt data during transfer,

For this scenario I used CentOS version 6.5 x64, Cisco Communications Manager version 10.5, and Cisco Unity Connection version 10.5.

First step:

- Install vsftp using yum

If you did not install it on CentOS setup process you can do it using yum.

[root@centos ~]# yum install vsftpd

- Generate a Certificate

You will use OpenSSL to generate a certificate to use it with vsftpd.

[root@centos ~]# openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 1095 -newkey rsa:1024 -keyout /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.pem -out /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.pem

You have to answer the questions that are prompted, when you finish the certificate will be installed at /etc/vsftpd directory.

- Configure vsftpd

You have to enable ssl to work with vsftpd, to do it add the following lines to the end of file /etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.conf

 ssl_enable=yes

 allow_anon_ssl=no

 force_local_data_ssl=no

 force_local_logins_ssl=no

 ssl_tlsv1=yes

 ssl_sslv2=no

 ssl_sslv3=no

 rsa_cert_file=/etc/vsftpd/vsftpd.pem

- Restart vsftpd service

To apply settings restart service

[root@centos ~]# /etc/rc.d/init.d/vsftpd restart

- Create a user on CentOS for backup, in this case my username is backup and password is passwordbackup

[root@centos ~]# useradd backup

[root@centos ~]# passwd backup

Changing password for user backup.

New password:

BAD PASSWORD: is too simple

Retype new password:

passwd: all authentication tokens updated successfully.

- Make a backup directory and change the owner to new user

[root@centos ~]# mkdir /cisco/CUCM

[root@centos ~]# mkdir /cisco/CUC

[root@centos ~]# chown -R backup:backup /cisco/CUCM

[root@centos ~]# chown -R backup:backup /cisco/CUC

- Open CUCM Disaster Recovery URL and login

https://cucm-ip-address/drf/showhome.do

Then click under Backup>Backup Device

Add new backup device

Fill all the requirement settings and save

Finally test the backup device, click under Backup>Manual Backup

Select Device Name and features, in this case UCM and CDR_CAR, then click Start Backup button

Thats all!!! Next step is to generate a Schedule backup.

I hope this information is helpful.

Thanks for reading.