Filesystem backup fails

I scheduled a filesystem backup of my /etc directory since Virtualmin's backup doesn't offer the option to include that (as far as I can tell), and Webmin shows me the following:

Performing backup of /etc to backup.serverorigin.com:/filesystem_backup/etc.tar.gz ..

tar: Removing leading /' from member names tar: /etc/httpd/run/proftpd/proftpd.sock: socket ignored tar: /etc/httpd/run/saslauthd/mux: socket ignored tar: /etc/httpd/run/fail2ban/fail2ban.sock: socket ignored tar: /etc/httpd/run/clamd.virtualmin/clamd.sock: socket ignored tar: /etc/httpd/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: socket ignored tar: /etc/httpd/run/dovecot/auth-worker.8357: socket ignored tar: /etc/httpd/run/dovecot/dict-server: socket ignored tar: /etc/httpd/run/dovecot/login/default: socket ignored tar: /etc/httpd/run/avahi-daemon/socket: socket ignored tar: Removing leading/' from hard link targets tar: /etc/grub.conf: Cannot stat: No such file or directory tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors

.. backup failed!

This backup is set as a remote FTP backup. The strange thing is, even though this says it failed, the etc.tar.gz file uploaded to my backup account works correctly, and appears to contain everything. I do not know why it is looking for /etc/grub.conf and failing. That file does not exist in /etc.

Also, I have another question about this section. Why does SSH for this section require passwordless logins? Is it possible for it to act the same way Virtualmin's backup feature does (IE, a regular username and password)?