Linux

I use rsync to an external drive, but before that I toyed a bit with pika backup.

I don't automate my backup because i physically connect my drive to perform the task.

Do most of my work on nfs, with zfs backing on raidz2, send snapshots for offline backup.

Don't have a serious offsite setup yet, but it's coming.

Github for projects, Syncthing to my NAS for some config files and that's pretty much it, don't care for the rest.

I use timeshift. It really is the best. For servers I go with restic.

I have scripts scheduled to run rsync on local machines, which save incremental backups to my NAS. The NAS in turn is incrementally backed up to a remote server with Borg.

Not all of my machines are on all the time so I also built in a routine which checks how old the last backup is, and only makes a new one if the previous backup is older than a set interval.

I also save a lot of my config files to a local git repo, the database of which is regularly dumped and backed up in the same way as above.

I use Restic, called from cron, with a password file containing a long randomly generated key.

I back up with Restic to a repository on a different local hard drive (not part of my main RAID array), with --exclude-caches as well as excluding lots of files that can easily be re-generated / re-installed/ re-downloaded (so my backups are focused on important data). I make sure to include all important data including /etc (and also backup the output of dpkg --get-selections as part of my backup). I auto-prune my repository to apply a policy on how far back I keep (de-duplicated) Restic snapshots.

Once the backup completes, my script runs du -s on the backup and emails me if it is unexpectedly too big (e.g. I forgot to exclude some new massive file), otherwise it uses rclone sync to sync the archive from the local disk to Backblaze B2.

I backup my password for B2 (in an encrypted password database) separately, along with the Restic decryption key. Restore procedure is: if the local hard drive is intact, restore with Restic from the last good snapshot on the local repository. If it is also destroyed, rclone sync the archive from Backblaze B2 to local, and then restore from that with Restic.

Postgres databases I do something different (they aren't included in my Restic backups, except for config files): I back them up with pgbackrest to Backblaze B2, with archive_mode on and an archive_command to archive WALs to Backblaze. This allows me to do PITR recovery (back to a point in accordance with my pgbackrest retention policy).

For Docker containers, I create them with docker-compose, and keep the docker-compose.yml so I can easily re-create them. I avoid keeping state in volumes, and instead use volume mounts to a location on the host, and back up the contents for important state (or use PostgreSQL for state instead where the service supports it).

I use rsync+btrfs snapshot solution.

1. Use rsync to incrementally collect all data into a btrfs subvolume
2. Deduplicate using duperemove
3. Create a read-only snapshot of the subvolume

I don't have a backup server, just an external drive that I only connect during backup.

Deduplication is mediocre, I am still looking for snapshot aware duperemove replacement.

I use btrbk to send btrfs snapshots to a local NAS. Consistent backups with no downtime. The only annoyance (for me at least) is that both send and receive ends must use the same SELinux policy or labels won't match.

Periodic backup to external drive via Deja Dup. Plus, I keep all important docs in Google Drive. All photos are in Google Photos. So it's only my music really which isn't in the cloud. But I might try upload it to Drive as well one day.

Restic with deja dupe gui

Good ol' fashioned rsync once a day to a remote server with zfs with daily zfs snapshot (rsync.net). Very fast because it only need to send changed/new files, and saved my hide several times when I need to access deleted files or old version of some files from the zfs snapshots.

Restic to Synology nas, Synology software for cloud backup.

Most of my data is backed up to (or just stored on) a VPS in the first instance, and then I backup the VPS to a local NAS daily using rsnapshot (the NAS is just a few old hard drives attached to a Raspberry Pi until I can get something more robust). Very occasionally I'll back the NAS up to a separate drive. I also occasionally backup my laptop directly to a separate hard drive.

Not a particularly robust solution but it gives me some piece of mind. I would like to build a better NAS that can support RAID as I was never able to get it working with the Pi.

Anything important I keep in my Dropbox folder, so then I have a copy on my desktop, laptop, and in the cloud.

When I turn off my desktop, I use restic to backup my Dropbox folder to a local external hard drive, and then restic runs again to back up to Wasabi which is a storage service like amazon's S3.

Same exact process for when I turn off my laptop.. except sometimes I don't have my laptop external hd plugged in so that gets skipped.

So that's three local copies, two local backups, and two remote backup storage locations. Not bad.

Changes I might make:

• add another remote location
• rotate local physical backup device somewhere (that seems like a lot of work)
• move to next cloud or seafile instead of Dropbox

I used seafile for a long time but I couldn't keep it up so I switched to Dropbox.

Advice, thoughts welcome.

A separate NAS on an atom cpu with btrfs of raid 10 exposed over NFS.

Either an external hard drive or a pendrive. Just put one of those in a keychain and voila, a perfect backup solution that does not need of internet access.

...it's not dumb if it (still) works. :^)

I use Duplicacy to encrypt and backup my data to OneDrive on a schedule. If Proton ever creates a Linux client for Drive, then I'll switch to that, but I'm not holding my breath.

ZFS send / recieve and snapshots.

I use bupstash to backup to a server I built a few years ago

Setup

Machine A:

• RAIDz1 takes care of single-disk failure
• ZFS doing regular snapshots
• Syncthing replicates the data off-site to Machine B

Machine B:

• RAIDz1 takes care of single-disk failure
• ZFS doing regular snapshots
• Syncthing receiving data from Machine A

Implications

• Any single-disk hardware failure on machine A or B results in no data loss
• Physical destruction of A won't affect B and the other way around
• Any accidentally deleted or changed file can be recovered from a previous snapshot
• Any ZFS corruption at A doesn't affect B because send/recv isn't used. The two filesystems are completely independent
• Any malicious data destruction on A can be recovered from B even if it's replicated via snapshot at B. The reverse is also true. A malicious actor would have to have root access on both A and B in order to destroy the data and the snapshots on both machines to prevent recovery
• Any data destruction caused by Syncthing can be recovered from snapshot at A or B

I made my own bash script that uses rsync. I stopped using Github so here's a paste lol.

I define the backups like this, first item is source, other items on that line are it's exclusions.

/home/shared
/home/jamie     tmp/ dj_music/ Car_Music_USB
/home/jamie_work

#!/usr/bin/ssh-agent /bin/bash

# chronicle.sh



# Get absolute directory chronicle.sh is in
REAL_PATH=`(cd $(dirname "$0"); pwd)`

# Defaults
BACKUP_DEF_FILE="${REAL_PATH}/backup.conf"
CONF_FILE="${REAL_PATH}/chronicle.conf"
FAIL_IF_PRE_FAILS='0'
FIXPERMS='true'
FORCE='false'
LOG_DIR='/var/log/chronicle'
LOG_PREFIX='chronicle'
NAME='backup'
PID_FILE='~/chronicle/chronicle.pid'
RSYNC_OPTS="-qRrltH --perms --delete --delete-excluded"
SSH_KEYFILE="${HOME}/.ssh/id_rsa"
TIMESTAMP='date +%Y%m%d-%T'

# Set PID file for root user
[ $EUID = 0 ] && PID_FILE='/var/run/chronicle.pid'


# Print an error message and exit
ERROUT () {
    TS="$(TS)"
    echo "$TS $LOG_PREFIX (error): $1"
    echo "$TS $LOG_PREFIX (error): Backup failed"
    rm -f "$PID_FILE"
    exit 1
}


# Usage output
USAGE () {
cat << EOF
USAGE chronicle.sh [ OPTIONS ]

OPTIONS
    -f path   configuration file (default: chronicle.conf)
    -F        force overwrite incomplete backup
    -h        display this help
EOF
exit 0
}


# Timestamp
TS ()
{
    if
        echo $TIMESTAMP | grep tai64n &>/dev/null
    then
        echo "" | eval $TIMESTAMP
    else
        eval $TIMESTAMP
    fi
}


# Logger function
# First positional parameter is message severity (notice|warn|error)
# The log message can be the second positional parameter, stdin, or a HERE string
LOG () {
    local TS="$(TS)"
    # local input=""

    msg_type="$1"

    # if [[ -p /dev/stdin ]]; then
    #     msg="$(cat -)"
    # else
        shift
        msg="${@}"
    # fi
    echo "$TS chronicle ("$msg_type"): $msg"
}

# Logger function
# First positional parameter is message severity (notice|warn|error)
# The log message canbe stdin or a HERE string
LOGPIPE () {
    local TS="$(TS)"
    msg_type="$1"
    msg="$(cat -)"
    echo "$TS chronicle ("$msg_type"): $msg"
}

# Process Options
while
    getopts ":d:f:Fmh" options; do
        case $options in
            d ) BACKUP_DEF_FILE="$OPTARG" ;;
            f ) CONF_FILE="$OPTARG" ;;
            F ) FORCE='true' ;;
            m ) FIXPERMS='false' ;;
            h ) USAGE; exit 0 ;;
            * ) USAGE; exit 1 ;;
    esac
done


# Ensure a configuration file is found
if
    [ "x${CONF_FILE}" = 'x' ]
then
    ERROUT "Cannot find configuration file $CONF_FILE"
fi

# Read the config file
. "$CONF_FILE"


# Set the owner and mode for backup files
if [ $FIXPERMS = 'true' ]; then
#FIXVAR="--chown=${SSH_USER}:${SSH_USER} --chmod=D770,F660"
FIXVAR="--usermap=*:${SSH_USER} --groupmap=*:${SSH_USER} --chmod=D770,F660"
fi


# Set up logging

if [ "${LOG_DIR}x" = 'x' ]; then
    ERROUT "(error): ${LOG_DIR} not specified"
fi

mkdir -p "$LOG_DIR"
LOGFILE="${LOG_DIR}/chronicle.log"

# Make all output go to the log file
exec >> $LOGFILE 2>&1


# Ensure a backup definitions file is found
if
    [ "x${BACKUP_DEF_FILE}" = 'x' ]
then
    ERROUT "Cannot find backup definitions file $BACKUP_DEF_FILE"
fi


# Check for essential variables
VARS='BACKUP_SERVER SSH_USER BACKUP_DIR BACKUP_QTY NAME TIMESTAMP'
for var in $VARS; do
    if [ ${var}x = x ]; then
        ERROUT "${var} not specified"
    fi
done


LOG notice "Backup started, keeping $BACKUP_QTY snapshots with name \"$NAME\""


# Export variables for use with external scripts
export SSH_USER RSYNC_USER BACKUP_SERVER BACKUP_DIR LOG_DIR NAME REAL_PATH


# Check for PID
if
    [ -e "$PID_FILE" ]
then
    LOG error "$PID_FILE exists"
    LOG error 'Backup failed'
    exit 1
fi

# Write PID
touch "$PID_FILE"

# Add key to SSH agent
ssh-add "$SSH_KEYFILE" 2>&1 | LOGPIPE notice -

# enhance script readability
CONN="${SSH_USER}@${BACKUP_SERVER}"


# Make sure the SSH server is available
if
    ! ssh $CONN echo -n ''
then
    ERROUT "$BACKUP_SERVER is unreachable"
fi


# Fail if ${NAME}.0.tmp is found on the backup server.
if
    ssh ${CONN} [ -e "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp" ] && [ "$FORCE" = 'false' ]
then
    ERROUT "${NAME}.0.tmp exists, ensure backup data is in order on the server"
fi


# Try to create the destination directory if it does not already exist
if
    ssh $CONN [ ! -d $BACKUP_DIR ]
then
    if
        ssh $CONN mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR"
        ssh $CONN chown ${SSH_USER}:${SSH_USER} "$BACKUP_DIR"
    then :
    else
        ERROUT "Cannot create $BACKUP_DIR"
    fi
fi

# Create metadata directory
ssh $CONN mkdir -p "$BACKUP_DIR/chronicle_metadata"


#-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
# PRE_COMMAND

if
    [ -n "$PRE_COMMAND" ]
then
    LOG notice "Running ${PRE_COMMAND}"
    if
        $PRE_COMMAND
    then
        LOG notice "${PRE_COMMAND} complete"
    else
        LOG error "Execution of ${PRE_COMMAND} was not successful"
        if [ "$FAIL_IF_PRE_FAILS" -eq 1 ]; then
            ERROUT 'Command specified by PRE_COMMAND failed and FAIL_IF_PRE_FAILS enabled'
        fi
    fi
fi


#-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
# Backup

# Make a hard link copy of backup.0 to rsync with
if [ $FORCE = 'false' ]; then
    ssh $CONN "[ -d ${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0 ] && cp -al ${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0 ${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp"
fi


while read -u 9 l; do

    # Skip commented lines
    if [[ "$l" =~ ^#.* ]]; then
    continue
    fi

    if [[ $l = '/*'* ]]; then
        LOG warn "$SOURCE is not an absolute path"
        continue
    fi

    # Reduce whitespace to one tab
    line=$(echo $l | tr -s [:space:] '\t')

    # get the source
    SOURCE=$(echo "$line" | cut -f1)

    # get the exclusions
    EXCLUSIONS=$(echo "$line" | cut -f2-)

    # Format exclusions for the rsync command
    unset exclude_line
    if [ ! "$EXCLUSIONS" = '' ]; then
        for each in $EXCLUSIONS; do
            exclude_line="$exclude_line--exclude $each "
        done
    fi


    LOG notice "Using SSH transport for $SOURCE"


    # get directory metadata
    PERMS="$(getfacl -pR "$SOURCE")"


    # Copy metadata
    ssh $CONN mkdir -p ${BACKUP_DIR}/chronicle_metadata/${SOURCE}
    echo "$PERMS" | ssh $CONN -T "cat > ${BACKUP_DIR}/chronicle_metadata/${SOURCE}/metadata"


    LOG debug "rsync $RSYNC_OPTS $exclude_line "$FIXVAR" "$SOURCE" \
    "${SSH_USER}"@"$BACKUP_SERVER":"${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp""

    rsync $RSYNC_OPTS $exclude_line $FIXVAR "$SOURCE" \
    "${SSH_USER}"@"$BACKUP_SERVER":"${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp"

done 9< "${BACKUP_DEF_FILE}"


#-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
# Try to see if the backup succeeded

if
    ssh $CONN [ ! -d "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp" ]
then
    ERROUT "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp not found, no new backup created"
fi


# Test for empty temp directory
if
    ssh $CONN [ ! -z "$(ls -A ${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp 2>/dev/null)" ]
then
    ERROUT "No new backup created"
fi

#-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
# Rotate

# Number of oldest backup
X=`expr $BACKUP_QTY - 1`


LOG notice 'Rotating previous backups'

# keep oldest directory temporarily in case rotation fails
ssh $CONN [ -d "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.${X}" ] && \
ssh $CONN mv "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.${X}" "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.${X}.tmp"


# Rotate previous backups
until [ $X -eq -1 ]; do
    Y=$X
    X=`expr $X - 1`

    ssh $CONN [ -d "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.${X}" ] && \
    ssh $CONN mv "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.${X}" "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.${Y}"
    [ $X -eq 0 ] && break
done

# Create "backup.0" directory
ssh $CONN mkdir -p "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0"


# Get individual items in "backup.0.tmp" directory into "backup.0"
# so that items removed from backup definitions rotate out
while read -u 9 l; do

    # Skip commented lines
    if [[ "$l" =~ ^#.* ]]; then
    continue
    fi

    # Skip invalid sources that are not an absolute path"
    if [[ $l = '/*'* ]]; then
        continue
    fi

    # Reduce multiple tabs to one
    line=$(echo $l | tr -s [:space:] '\t')

    source=$(echo "$line" | cut -f1)

    source_basedir="$(dirname $source)"

    ssh $CONN mkdir -p "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0/${source_basedir}"

    LOG debug "ssh $CONN cp -al "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp${source}" "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0${source_basedir}""

    ssh $CONN cp -al "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp${source}" "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0${source_basedir}"

done 9< "${BACKUP_DEF_FILE}"


# Remove oldest backup
X=`expr $BACKUP_QTY - 1` # Number of oldest backup
ssh $CONN rm -Rf "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.${X}.tmp"

# Set time stamp on backup directory
ssh $CONN touch -m "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0"

# Delete temp copy of backup
ssh $CONN rm -Rf "${BACKUP_DIR}/${NAME}.0.tmp"

#-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
# Post Command

if
    [ ! "${POST_COMMAND}x" = 'x' ]
then
    LOG notice "Running ${POST_COMMAND}"
    if
        $POST_COMMAND
    then
        LOG notice "${POST_COMMAND} complete"
    else
        LOG warning "${POST_COMMAND} complete with errors"
    fi
fi

# Delete PID file
rm -f "$PID_FILE"

# Log success message
LOG notice 'Backup completed successfully'

At the core it has always been rsync and Cron. Sure I add a NAS and things like rclone+cryptomator to have extra copies of synchronized data (mostly documents and media files) spread around, but it's always rsync+Cron at the core.

I run Openmediavault and I backup using BorgBackup. Super easy to setup, use, and modify

I use Pika backup, which uses borg backup under the hood. It's pretty good, with amazing documentation. Main issue I have with it is its really finicky and is kind of a pain to setup, even if it "just works" after that.