Automated Backups with Cron and ?..

Mark7 · 03-19-2021, 12:48 PM

Since I want it to happen whilst I'm asleep I'd rather not have to sign into Gnome keyring. So I guess Deja Dup is out of the picture

pan64 · 03-19-2021, 02:37 PM

And what is your question? What kind of help do you need?
Did you try to use a search engine to find automated backup tools?

Mark7 · 03-19-2021, 06:15 PM

What should I use? It doesn't necessarily have to have a graphical interface so long as it's fairly straightforward.

scasey · 03-19-2021, 06:23 PM

I like and use rsnapshot, which uses rsync, for daily, multi-generational backups.

Emerson · 03-19-2021, 07:12 PM

Yes, rsnapshot is my favorite, too. Using hard links saves lots of disk space, gotta love that.

lleb · 03-23-2021, 07:40 PM

create a simple rsync script to run and have cron pull it while you sleep.

chrisretusn · 03-24-2021, 03:29 AM

I use rsnapshot.

This is my section from crontab.

Code:

# Run rsnapshot backups
# Before the actual backup rotate less frequent sets before the more
# frequent sets. Oldest weekly becomes newest monthly, oldest daily becomes
# newest weekly, etc. This has the addition benefit of not having to worry
# how long the backup will take. Testing shows 15 minutes to be enough
# time between rotations
# Run monthly on first of month at 0015:
15 1 1 * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot monthly
# Run weekly on first day (Monday) of week at 0130:
30 1 * * 1 /usr/bin/rsnapshot weekly
# The sync_first option is set, run sync; if no fatal error run rotation
# Run daily every day at 0145:
45 1 * * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot sync; [ $? -ne 1 ] && /usr/bin/rsnapshot daily
# Run hourly every 8 hours starting at 0200:
#0 */8 * * * /usr/bin/rsnapshot sync; [ $? -ne 1 ] && /usr/bin/rsnapshot hourly

lleb · 03-24-2021, 05:15 PM

Code:

#!/bin/bash
#
###########################################################
# Created by lleb January 11, 2015
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
# it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
# the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 or version 3 of the
# license, at your option.
#
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
# but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
# GNU General Public License for more details.
#
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
# along with this program. If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
#############################################################
#
#
#############################################################
#
#	Backup program for laptops to Linux server using 
#	rsync -aviS
#
#############################################################

#	Veriables

RUSER=user
RHOST=server_IP
WHO=`whoami`
DOW=`date +%A`
RDIR=/path/to/Backup	# New server path <1/15/2016>
HOMEDIR="$HOME"
dtstamp="`date +%Y-%m-%d-%H:%M `"
log=${HOMEDIR}/logs/${dtstamp}-rsync.log

###############################################################

### 	Check for a logs directory, if not found create one
###############################################################

[ ! -d "${HOMEDIR}/logs" ] && mkdir -p ${HOMEDIR}/logs >> /dev/null 2>&1

###############################################################
#
#	Rsync preserving permissions
#
###############################################################

	rsync -aviS --exclude-from=${HOMEDIR}/excludes.txt ${HOMEDIR}/ ${RUSER}@${RHOST}:${RDIR}/${WHO}/${DOW}/ >> ${log} 2>&1

### 	Cleaning up log files
###############################

	find ${HOMEDIR}/logs/*.log -mtime +30 -exec rm '{}' \;

exit

Put that script in your users cron after chmod +x and you should be good. This uses an exclude file that can block directories as well as types and specific files you dont want/need to backup.