How to fix rsnapshot errors when backing up from VDS under KVM?

Question

Debian

Debian server wheezy 7.5, backup from vds to KVM using rsnapshot. The logs are littered with errors.
rsnapshot.log

[24/Jun/2014:17:00:58] /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly: started
[24/Jun/2014:17:00:58] echo 3162 > /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
[24/Jun/2014:17:00:58] mkdir -m 0755 -p /home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/weekly.0/
[24/Jun/2014:17:00:58] /usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --exclude=/var/log --exclude=/usr/local/apache/logs --exclude=/$
[24/Jun/2014:17:04:31] /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly: ERROR: /usr/bin/rsync returned 12 while processing /home/
[24/Jun/2014:17:04:33] /usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --exclude=/var/log --exclude=/usr/local/apache/logs --exclude=/$
[24/Jun/2014:17:08:21] /usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --exclude=/var/log --exclude=/usr/local/apache/logs --exclude=/$
[24/Jun/2014:17:30:33] /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly: ERROR: /usr/bin/rsync returned 20 while processing /usr/local/
[24/Jun/2014:17:30:36] /usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --exclude=/var/log --exclude=/usr/local/apache/logs --exclude=/$
[24/Jun/2014:17:30:50] /usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --exclude=/var/log --exclude=/usr/local/apache/logs --exclude=/$
[24/Jun/2014:17:31:25] /usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --exclude=/var/log --exclude=/usr/local/apache/logs --exclude=/$
[24/Jun/2014:17:31:42] /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly: ERROR: /usr/bin/rsync returned 13 while processing /var/
[24/Jun/2014:17:31:42] /usr/bin/rsync -a --delete --numeric-ids --relative --delete-excluded --exclude=/var/log --exclude=/usr/local/apache/logs --exclude=/$
[24/Jun/2014:17:31:43] touch /home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/weekly.0/
[24/Jun/2014:17:31:43] rm -f /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
[24/Jun/2014:17:31:43] /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly: ERROR: /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly: completed, but with some errors

rsnapshot.conf

cmd_cp          /bin/cp
cmd_rm          /bin/rm
cmd_rsync       /usr/bin/rsync
cmd_logger      /usr/bin/logger
retain          daily   3
retain          weekly  2
verbose         2
loglevel        3
logfile /var/log/rsnapshot.log
lockfile        /var/run/rsnapshot.pid
backup  /home/          localhost/
backup  /etc/           localhost/
backup  /usr/local/     localhost/
backup  /var/log/rsnapshot              localhost/
backup  /root/          localhost/
backup  /var/           localhost/
backup  /opt/           localhost/
exclude /var/log
exclude /usr/local/apache/logs
exclude /var/named/run-root/proc
exclude /var/named/chroot/proc
exclude /usr/local/urchin/data
exclude /var/cache
exclude /var/spool/exim
exclude /home/virtfs
exclude /var/lib/php/session
exclude /var/lib/php5/session
exclude /var/run/sr-mount
exclude /home/liquidspace/YaDisk/

Answer 1

Try increasing the log verbosity by setting higher directive values:

verbose         2
loglevel        3

Answer 2

verbose 4
loglevel 4
Writes the same thing, otherwise only the output of copied directories has been added.

rsync: symlink "/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.0/localhost/etc/dictionaries-common/default.aff" -> "/usr/lib/ispell/american.aff" failed: Function not implemented (38)
rsync: symlink "/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.0/localhost/etc/dictionaries-common/default.hash" -> "/usr/lib/ispell/american.hash" failed: Function not implemented (38)

It’s hard for me to understand what these guys are talking about, but it seems that until 2007 there was no support for a certain lutimes () function in Linux, and a friend with a similar problem as I ran an rsync build made on the same system with the new glibc on a system where there is no such function. My Debian 7.4 wheezy seems to have been released in February of this year, but fresh.
I ran liquidspace as my user: sudo rsnapshot daily. Now I ran su as root, rsnapshot daily and got an error:

[email protected]:/home/liquidspace# rsnapshot daily
Setting locale to POSIX "C"
echo 21112 > /var/run/rsnapshot.pid 
mv /home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.1/ \
    /home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.2/ 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
rsnapshot encountered an error! The program was invoked with these options:
/usr/bin/rsnapshot daily 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ERROR: Could not rename("/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.1", "/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.2")
ERROR: Error! safe_rename("/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.1/", "/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.2/")
/usr/bin/logger -i -p user.err -t rsnapshot /usr/bin/rsnapshot daily: \
    ERROR: Error! \
    safe_rename("/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.1/", \
    "/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.2/") 
rm -f /var/run/rsnapshot.pid

Deleted all folders with previous backups, got:

[email protected]:/home/liquidspace# rsnapshot weekly
Setting locale to POSIX "C"
echo 21257 > /var/run/rsnapshot.pid 
/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/weekly.1 not present (yet), nothing to delete
/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/weekly.0 not present (yet), nothing to rotate
/home/liquidspace/YaDisk/_backup/vds/auto/daily.2 not present (yet), nothing to copy
rm -f /var/run/rsnapshot.pid 
/usr/bin/logger -i -p user.info -t rsnapshot /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly: \
    completed successfully

however, even the backup folder was not created.