Script for backup

mikedelo · 01-22-2018, 07:04 PM

I would like to start making a .tar of the /home/ directory and moving that file to my NAS nightly. Can this be done? I would assume it would need to be able to run as the superuser regardless if someone is logged on or not. I am running Ubuntu Mate 17.10.

Thanks!!

wpeckham · 01-22-2018, 08:15 PM

1. Yes, your backup process will need superuser (root) authority to back up files and folders that belong to different users.

2. Why tar? Just curious, I have used tar for backups at times myself. Have you considered using a real backup application?

I set up a different server and ran burp for backups. It gave me generational restores to specific dates without wsted space. (burp does deduplication at the block level, and uses the rsync libraries so that a backup for a specific date does not waste space or bandwidth.)

frankbell · 01-22-2018, 08:56 PM

I use rsync, but I don't do regular backups because my computer usage doesn't warrant them. I do backups whenever I make significant changes.

I have heard good things about Back in Time, which is GUI frontend for rsync.

Turbocapitalist · 01-23-2018, 01:48 AM

I'd also use rsync. It would save a lot of time and wear and tear on the discs, relative to tar. You can also use it for incremental backups. There are a lot of tutorials about using the --link-dest option for that.

jlinkels · 01-23-2018, 06:17 AM

tar is from the tape backup era and AFAIK it does not serve any purposes for backup anymore. (This is not to say tar isn't useful. In all other cases it is). If you backup to NAS it is way better to backup your individual files so you have instant access.

rsync is good, but not perfect regarding keeping multiple backups for different points in time.

rsnapshot, built around rsync plus --link-dest does provide this option. It keeps multiple backups and only storing the differences between subsequent backups.

Excellent for NAS & USB hard disk backups.

jlinkels

pan64 · 01-23-2018, 06:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikedelo

I would like to start making a .tar of the /home/ directory and moving that file to my NAS nightly. Can this be done? I would assume it would need to be able to run as the superuser regardless if someone is logged on or not. I am running Ubuntu Mate 17.10.

Thanks!!

yes, it is possible, and just a single command (as root). But actually I don't know what is your real problem.

Habitual · 01-23-2018, 02:06 PM

why assume root/sudo is my Q, unless the storage is privileged...?

All of /home/ I guess is why.

scasey · 01-23-2018, 02:28 PM

+1 for rsnapshot
We use it to backup a production server remotly daily. Been awhile since the first run, but I think that took about three hours. Now it backs up changes daily in about 11 minutes.

mikedelo · 01-23-2018, 02:52 PM

Thanks for all your replies! Going with the RSYNC command, how do I go about writing a script to run daily, as root, regardless if someone is logged in. (I normally keep myself logged in).

Sorry for the newbie question, but that is what I am.

keefaz · 01-23-2018, 03:03 PM

Say your destination directory is /srv/backups/home

As root: crontab -e

Code:

30 12 * * * /usr/bin/rsync -aX /home/ /srv/backups/home 1> /dev/null

will save all /home content into /srv/backups/home each day at 12:30 am
crontab editor is vi style, so to save, type: [esc] :wq

jlinkels · 01-23-2018, 06:40 PM

The simple rsync command works if you want to backup below the root directory (such as /home in this example). And it fails surprisingly when the backup drive is not mounted. That is, disk space on the mount point partition will be filled up completely and services start to fail.

My preference is a short bash script which is called from cron.

Code:

#!/bin/bash

mount_point='/mnt/ext_daily'

# Find if the device is mounted
df -h | grep $mount_point > /dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]
then
        rsync -uav --exclude='/mnt' --exclude='/proc' --exclude='/sys' --delete / /mnt/ext_daily > /var/log/rsync_daily
        echo "mount point $mount_point exists, rsync started"
else
        echo "Error: mount point $mount_point does not exist, rsync operation skipped"
fi

Echo statements go into /var/log/syslog if executed from cron. Double check the source and destination dir in the rsync command if you use --delete. Better run the first time without --delete until you are sure source and destination are correct.

The command in /etc/crontab:

Code:

59 4   * * *    root    /bin/sh /root/rsync_daily.sh

Note that you use either root's crontab with crontab -e as in the example above. Or you edit /etc/crontab directly. The syntax is slightly different as the 6th column specifies the user which executes the command.

jlinkels

TenTenths · 01-24-2018, 04:14 AM

Take a look at http://dirvish.org/ it uses rsync but also allows you to create differential/versional backups, so you can go back to files at different points in time easily and without backup up everything every single time.