• How do you backup things to your server? - Lemmy.world
• How do you guys back up your server? - Lemmy.world
• What are your backup solutions? - Lemmy.world

Borgbase with Borgmatic (Borg) as the Software. As far as I know the whole Borgbase Service is from a Homelab guy (with our needs in mind).

Also 3-2-1 rule!

Regardless of service, if you don’t test your backups, you have none.

Restic or Kopia, both to Backblaze.

rsync.net is great if you need something simple and cheap. Backblaze B2 is also decent, but does have the typical download and API usage cost.

I use Restic + Resticprofile to back up everything and store it on my local HDD.

Then, I use Rclone to sync the local repository to Backblaze B2.

Here’s my general setup:

/.config/restic/
├── logs
│   ├── statuses
│   │   ├── restic-status-20230202T020202.json
│   │   └── restic-status-20230101T010101.json
│   ├── restic-check-20230202T020202.log
│   └── restic-backup-20230101T010101.log
├── config
│   ├── profiles.yaml
│   ├── excludes.txt
│   ├── rclone.conf
│   └── password.txt
├── bin
│   ├── restic_0.15.2_linux_arm64
│   ├── rclone_1.63.1_linux_arm64
│   └── resticprofile_0.22.0_linux_arm64

version: "1"

# Schedules (https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd.time.html#Calendar%20Events)
{{ $SCHEDULE_RESTIC_BACKUP := "*-*-* 22:00:00" }}       # Daily at 10PM
{{ $SCHEDULE_RESTIC_CHECK := "Sat *-*-* 04:00:00" }}    # Weekly at 4AM on Saturday
{{ $SCHEDULE_SYNC_BACKUP := "Sun *-*-* 21:30:00" }}     # Weekly at 11.30PM on Sunday
{{ $SCHEDULE_POSTGRES_BACKUP := "Fri *-*-* 20:00:00" }} # Weekly at 8PM on Friday

# Directories
{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_BINARY := "/home/deck/Desktop/.config/restic/bin/restic_0.15.2_linux_arm64" }}
{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_REPO := "/home/deck/Desktop/restic-repo" }}
{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_LOG := "/home/deck/Desktop/.config/restic/logs" }}
{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_STATUS := "/home/deck/Desktop/.config/restic/logs/statuses" }}
{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_BLOCKED_FILE := "/home/deck/Desktop/.config/restic/BLOCKED" }}
{{ $LOCATION_RCLONE_BINARY := "/home/deck/Desktop/.config/restic/bin/rclone_1.63.1_linux_arm64" }}
{{ $LOCATION_RCLONE_REPO := "bucket:restic-backup-12345" }}
{{ $LOCATION_RCLONE_CONFIG := "/home/deck/Desktop/.config/restic/config/rclone.conf" }}
{{ $LOCATION_RESTICPROFILE_LOCK := "/tmp/resticprofile-default.lock" }}
{{ $LOCATION_POSTGRES_DUMP := "/home/deck/Desktop/dumps" }}
{{ $LOCATION_PRIMARY_BACKUP_SOURCE := "/home/deck/Desktop/" }}

# Configs
{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME := .Now.Format "20060102T150405" }}
{{ $CONFIG_RESTIC_PASSWORD := "/home/deck/Desktop/.config/restic/config/password.txt" }}
{{ $CONFIG_RESTIC_EXCLUDE := "/home/deck/Desktop/.config/restic/excludes.txt" }}

global:
  default-command: snapshots                      # Run 'snapshots' when no command is specified
  initialize: false                               # Do not initialize a repository if none exists
  priority: low                                   # Use priority class on Windows and "nice" on Unixes
  min-memory: 100                                 # Minimum required RAM for Resticprofile to start
  restic-lock-retry-after: 5m                     # Retry failed restic command acquisition every 5 minutes
  restic-stale-lock-age: 10h                      # Unlock stale lock if age exceeds 10 hours
  restic-binary: '{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_BINARY }}'  # Location of the Restic binary

default:
  lock: '{{ $LOCATION_RESTICPROFILE_LOCK }}'      # Local lockfile to prevent concurrent profile runs
  force-inactive-lock: true                       # Detect and remove stale locks
  initialize: true                                # Initialize repository if it doesn't exist
  repository: '{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_REPO }}'       # Path to Restic repository
  password-file: '{{ $CONFIG_RESTIC_PASSWORD }}'  # File containing repository password
  status-file: '{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_STATUS }}/{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}-restic-status.json'  # Output status file
  compression: 'max'                              # Maximum compression level
  run-after-fail:                                 # Block syncing if there was a failure. TODO: Add an email
    - 'echo "The command ${PROFILE_COMMAND} has failed in ${PROFILE_NAME}. Please check the logs." > {{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_BLOCKED_FILE }}'

  backup:
    run-before:                                   # Bring down Docker before backup
      - 'systemctl stop docker.socket'
      - 'systemctl stop docker'
    run-finally:
      - 'grep --invert-match -E "^unchanged|\(0 B added, 0 B stored\)|\(0 B added\)" {{ tempFile "backup.log" }} > {{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_LOG }}/{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}-restic-backup.log'  # Copy log file, stripping out any unchanced files
      - 'systemctl start docker'                  # Bring Docker back online after backup
    one-file-system: false                        # Exclude other file systems
    no-error-on-warning: true                     # Don't consider warnings as backup failures
    source:                                       # Directories to back up
      - '{{ $LOCATION_PRIMARY_BACKUP_SOURCE }}'
    exclude-file: '{{ $CONFIG_RESTIC_EXCLUDE }}'  # File containing exclude patterns
    exclude-caches: true                          # Exclude cache files
    schedule: '{{ $SCHEDULE_RESTIC_BACKUP }}'     # Backup schedule
    schedule-permission: system                   # Schedule permission
    schedule-lock-wait: 10m                       # Wait time for the lock during schedule
    schedule-log: '{{ tempFile "backup.log" }}'   # Log file to /tmp. This contains all information, including unchanged files which we do not care about
    verbose: 2                                    # Log details about processed files

  check:
    schedule: '{{ $SCHEDULE_RESTIC_CHECK }}'      # Verification schedule
    schedule-permission: system                   # Schedule permission
    schedule-lock-wait: 10m                       # Wait time for the lock during schedule
    schedule-log: '{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_LOG }}/{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}-restic-check.log'  # Log file
    read-data: true                               # Verify data during check

  prune:
    dry-run: true                                 # Only prune if safe to do so, change manually
    repack-uncompressed: true                     # Repack all uncompressed data

  forget:
    dry-run: true                                 # Only forget if safe to do so, change manually

  rewrite:
    dry-run: true                                 # Only rewrite if safe to do so, change manually
    forget: true                                  # Remove original snapshots after creating new ones
    exclude-file: '{{ $CONFIG_RESTIC_EXCLUDE }}'  # File containing exclude patterns

  mount:
    allow-other: true                             # Allow other users to access the mount point

  rebuild-index:
    read-all-packs: true                          # Read all pack files to generate new index from scratch

# The following shell profiles are simply to run other shell scripts at a scheduled time
# We do not actually run the primary Restic commands listed, as we exit the process early

shell-postgres:                                   # Profile to run shell scripts only. We exit the current process before Restic can run.
  backup:
    schedule: '{{ $SCHEDULE_POSTGRES_BACKUP }}'   # Postgres backup schedule
    schedule-permission: system                   # Schedule permission
    schedule-lock-mode: ignore                    # Ignore locks, if any
    schedule-log: '{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_LOG }}/{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}-postgres-backup.log'  # Log file
    dry-run: true                                 # Don't write data
    run-before:                                   # Dump postgres databases
      - 'chmod 777 /var/run/docker.sock'
      - 'docker exec -t immich-postgres pg_dumpall -c -U postgres | gzip > "{{ $LOCATION_POSTGRES_DUMP }}/immich-dump-{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}.sql.gz" && echo "Dumped Immich database: {{ $LOCATION_POSTGRES_DUMP }}/immich-dump-{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}.sql.gz"'
      - 'docker exec -t joplin-postgres pg_dumpall -c -U joplin | gzip > "{{ $LOCATION_POSTGRES_DUMP }}/joplin-dump-{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}.sql.gz" && echo "Dumped Joplin database: {{ $LOCATION_POSTGRES_DUMP }}/joplin-dump-{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}.sql.gz"'
      - 'kill $$'

shell-sync:
  backup:
    schedule: '{{ $SCHEDULE_SYNC_BACKUP }}'       # Sync backup schedule
    schedule-permission: system                   # Schedule permission
    schedule-lock-mode: ignore                    # Ignore locks, if any
    schedule-log: '{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_LOG }}/{{ $CONFIG_CURRENT_TIME }}-rsync-backup.log'  # Log file
    dry-run: true                                 # Don't write data
    run-before:                                   # Sync the Restic repo, after checking if the repository is in good health
      - 'if [ -f "{{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_BLOCKED_FILE }}" ]; then echo "There has been a problem with the Restic repository, please check the logs. If everything is okay, delete the BLOCKED file." && kill $$; fi'
      - '{{ $LOCATION_RCLONE_BINARY }} -v sync {{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_REPO }} {{ $LOCATION_RCLONE_REPO }} --config={{ $LOCATION_RCLONE_CONFIG }} --b2-hard-delete'
      - '{{ $LOCATION_RCLONE_BINARY }} cleanup {{ $LOCATION_RESTIC_REPO }} --config={{ $LOCATION_RCLONE_CONFIG }}'
      - 'kill $$'

Resticprofile doesn’t let me run other shell commands on a schedule, and because I wanted everything in a single configuration, I just created two new profiles which call the backup command. I then made the shell commands run before Restic, and then finally killed the instance before it got to actually run, which effectively does what I needed.

rsync.net and learn to use Borg; they’re stupid cheap if you’re technically proficient enough to handle the Borg setup yourself. Like, charge by the gigabyte, but it’s 1.5¢/GB at the most expensive, and cheaper in bulk

Backblaze.

As dumb/simple/boring as this may be…? An external hard drive.

…

…what? It doesn’t require you to be online 24/7, works at any™ PC, and the speed is really great – even on a potato.

Unless you work at NASA or at IBM or similars – then feel free to call me dum.

Backups and archived files go to my home server which then backups to backblaze b2.

Backblaze B2 for automatic syncing of all the little files

Glacier for long term archiving of old big files that never change

Backblaze b2, borgbase.com. There are also programs like dejadup that will let you backup to popular cloud drives. The alternatives are limitless.

• restic > backblaze b2, nightly & automatic
• restic > normally unplugged drive, every couple weeks (manual, recurring reminder)

I use restic to backup my raspberry Pi’s to my Synology NAS and backup my NAS to backblaze.

I used to have everything backed up to a 2TB USB drive. Which I accidentally dropped down the stairs. I lost thousands of family photos and documents. That changed my backup perspective.

I now have a Synology NAS, with 12TB in a RAID5 array (for a bit of disk redundancy). All my home devices, Proxmox servers etc back up here. The NAS also holds a few TB of media. Attached to it I have a USB hard drive (also 12TB). The NAS gets fully backed up to the USB drive nightly.

I also have a remote Raspberry Pi with a smaller USB drive (4TB) attached to it at my brother’s house (in another country), where I backup most of the contents of my home NAS. I don’t back up the media, just the important stuff. I might have to upgrade to a larger drive…