this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2023
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I'm trying to find a good method of making periodic, incremental backups. I assume that the most minimal approach would be to have a Cronjob run rsync periodically, but I'm curious what other solutions may exist.

I'm interested in both command-line, and GUI solutions.

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I don't. I lose my data like all the cool (read: fool) kids.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I too rawdog linux like a chad

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago

Timeshift is a great tool for creating incremental backups. Basically it's a frontend for rsync and it works great. If needed you can also use it in CLI

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I use Borg backup with Vorta for a GUI. Hasn't let me down yet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Borgmatic is also a great option, cli only.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use PikaBackup which I think uses Borg. Super good looking Gnome app that has worked for me.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Is it just me or the backup topic is recurring each few days on [email protected] and [email protected]?

To be on topic as well - I use restic+autorestic combo. Pretty simple, I made repo with small script to generate config for different machines and that's it. Storing between machines and b2.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

It is a critical one. Maybe needs to be part of an FAQ with link to discussion.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago

I have a bash script that backs all my stuff up to my Homeserver with Borg. My servers have cronjobs that run similar scripts.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I use Back In Time to backup my important data on an external drive. And for snapshots I use timeshift.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

Pika Backup (GUI for borgbackup) is a great app for backups. It has all the features you might expect from backup software and "just works".

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I use restic (https://restic.net/) which can use rclone to connect to a variety of backends (eg. onedrive, mega, dropbox etc.). Also, resticprofile (https://restic.net/) makes it easier to run (hides flags in the config file). I use it manually but a cron job would be easy to implement (a tutorial is here: https://forum.yunohost.org/t/daily-automated-backups-using-restic/16812).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Restic does not need rclone and can use many remote storage services directly. I do restic backups directly to Backblaze.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I like rsnapshot, run from a cron job at various useful intervals. backups are hardlinked and rotated so that eventually the disk usage reaches a very slowly growing steady state.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I also use it. Big benefit is also that you don‘t need a special software to access your backup.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Exactly like you think. Cronjob runs a periodic rsync of a handful of directories under /home. My OS is on a different drive that doesn't get backed up. My configs are in an ansible repository hosted on my home server and backed up the same way.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

I do periodic backups of my system from live usb via Borg Backup to a samba share.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Check out Pika backup. It's a beautiful frontend for Borg. And Borg is the shit.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Used to use Duplicati but it was buggy and would often need manual intervention to repair corruption. I gave up on it.

Now use Restic to Backblaze B2. I've been very happy.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Duplicity (cli) with deja-dup (gui) has saved my sorry ass many times.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

rsync + backblaze B2. Bafkblaze is stupid cheap.

Cost is about $10 per year.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I rotate between a few computers. Everything is synced between them with syncthing and they all have automatic btrfs snapshots. So I have several physical points to roll back from.

For a worst case scenario everything is also synced offsite weekly to a pCloud share. I have a little script that mounts it with pcloudfs, encfs and then rsyncs any updates.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Kopia or Restic. Both do incremental, deduplicated backups and support many storage services.

Kopia provides UI for end user and has integrated scheduling. Restic is a powerfull cli tool thatlyou build your backup system on, but usually one does not need more than a cron job for that. I use a set of custom systems jobs and generators for my restic backups.

Keep in mind, than backups on local, constantly connected storage is hardly a backup. When the machine fails hard, backups are lost ,together with the original backup. So timeshift alone is not really a solution. Also: test your backups.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I really like kopia

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I don't, really. I don't have much data that is irreplaceable.

The ones that are get backed up manually to Proton Drive and my NAS (manually via SMB).

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

by the way, syncthing is great if you need bi-directional sync.
not exactly what you're looking for (sth like Duplicacy?) but you should probably know about it as it's a great tool.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Restic since 2018, both to locally hosted storage and to remote over ssh. I've "stuff I care about" and "stuff that can be relatively easily replaced" fairly well separated so my filtering rules are not too complicated. I used duplicity for many years before that and afbackup to DLT IV tapes prior to that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

BTRFS filesystem, Snapper for taking periodic snapshots and snap-sync for saving one to an external drive every now and then.

BTRFS is what makes everything incremental.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

DejaDup on one computer. Another is using Syncthing, another I do a manual Grsync. i really should have a better plan. lol

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

dont keep anything u would be upset to lose /s

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

timeshift with system files and manually my home folder

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I do a periodic backup with Vorta towards my server. The server does a daily backup to an S3 service with Restic

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I use Rclone which has both an WEBUI and CLI.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Git projects and system configs are on GitHub (see etckeeper), the reset is synced to my self-hosted Nextcloud instance using their desktop client. There I have periodic backup using Borg for both the files and Nextcloud database.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

All my devices use Syncthing via Tailscale to get my data to my server.

From there, my server backs up nightly to rsync.net via BorgBackup.

I then have Zabbix monitoring my backups to make sure a daily is always uploaded.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Use synching on several devices to replicate data I want to keep backups of. Family photos, journals, important docs, etc. Works perfect and I run a relay node to give back to the community given I am on a unlimited data connection.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've got a smb server setup with a 12tb server drive. Anything important gets put on there

Edit: fixed spelling

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I use lucky backup to mirror to external drive. And I also use Duplicacy to back up 2 other separate drives at the same time. Have a read on the data hoarder wiki on backups.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I just run my own nextcloud instance. Everything important is synced to that with the nextcloud desktop client, and the server keeps a month's worth of backups on my NAS via rsync.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

When I do something really dumb I typically just use dd to create an iso. I should probably find something better.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I run ZFS on my servers and then replicate to other ZFS servers with Syncoid.

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