Files
docs/content/vps/automated-backups.md
2026-07-28 07:20:32 -05:00

254 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown

---
title: "Set Up Automated Backups with Restic"
description: "Automate encrypted off-site backups on your Arcline VPS using restic."
section: vps
order: 6
---
# Set Up Automated Backups with Restic
Restic is a fast, encrypted backup tool that supports local and remote storage backends (SFTP, S3, B2, rsync.net). This guide covers backing up your VPS to a remote repository.
---
## Prerequisites
- A VPS with sudo access
- A backup destination (SFTP server, Backblaze B2, or local storage)
---
## Step 1 — Install restic
```bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install restic -y
```
Verify:
```bash
restic version
```
---
## Step 2 — Initialize a repository
### Option A: SFTP/SSH (recommended for Arcline customers)
If you have SSH access to a backup server:
```bash
restic init --repo sftp:backup@backup-server:/var/backups/example-vps/
```
You'll be prompted for a repository password — this encrypts your backups. Store it in a password manager — if you lose it, you cannot recover your data.
### Option B: Backblaze B2
```bash
export B2_ACCOUNT_ID="your-application-key-id"
export B2_ACCOUNT_KEY="your-application-key"
restic init --repo b2:bucket-name:/example-vps
```
### Option C: Local directory
```bash
sudo mkdir -p /backups/example-vps-repo
restic init --repo /backups/example-vps-repo
```
---
## Step 3 — Create a backup script
```bash
sudo nano /usr/local/bin/backup.sh
```
```bash
#!/bin/bash
set -e
# Repository location and password
export RESTIC_REPOSITORY="sftp:backup@backup-server:/var/backups/example-vps/"
export RESTIC_PASSWORD="your-repo-password"
# Files and directories to back up
BACKUP_PATHS=(
/var/www
/etc/nginx
/etc/letsencrypt
/opt
/home
)
# Directories to exclude
EXCLUDE_PATTERNS=(
--exclude "/var/www/example.com/cache"
--exclude "*.log"
)
echo "Starting backup at $(date)"
# Create the backup
restic backup "${EXCLUDE_PATTERNS[@]}" "${BACKUP_PATHS[@]}"
# Keep last 7 daily, 4 weekly, 6 monthly snapshots
restic forget --keep-daily 7 --keep-weekly 4 --keep-monthly 6 --prune
echo "Backup completed at $(date)"
```
Make it executable:
```bash
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/backup.sh
```
---
## Step 4 — Test the backup
Run the backup manually:
```bash
sudo /usr/local/bin/backup.sh
```
List snapshots:
```bash
restic -r sftp:backup@backup-server:/var/backups/example-vps/ snapshots
```
> You'll need `RESTIC_PASSWORD` exported or passed via `--password-file` for any restic command.
---
## Step 5 — Schedule daily backups with systemd
Create a service file:
```bash
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/restic-backup.service
```
```ini
[Unit]
Description=Restic backup
Wants=network-online.target
After=network-online.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/backup.sh
```
Create a timer:
```bash
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/restic-backup.timer
```
```ini
[Unit]
Description=Daily restic backup
[Timer]
OnCalendar=daily
RandomizedDelaySec=3600
Persistent=true
[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target
```
Enable and start the timer:
```bash
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable restic-backup.timer
sudo systemctl start restic-backup.timer
```
Verify:
```bash
sudo systemctl status restic-backup.timer
sudo systemctl list-timers | grep restic
```
---
## Step 6 — Restoring from a backup
List available snapshots:
```bash
restic -r sftp:backup@backup-server:/var/backups/example-vps/ snapshots
```
Restore the latest snapshot:
```bash
restic -r sftp:backup@backup-server:/var/backups/example-vps/ restore latest --target /tmp/restore
```
Or restore a specific snapshot by ID:
```bash
restic -r ... restore <snapshot-id> --target /tmp/restore
```
To restore only specific paths:
```bash
restic -r ... restore <snapshot-id> --target /tmp/restore --path /var/www
```
---
## Step 7 — Database backups
For MySQL databases, add a pre-backup dump step:
```bash
#!/bin/bash
set -e
# Dump all databases
mysqldump --all-databases --single-transaction --quick | gzip > /tmp/mysql-all.sql.gz
# Include the dump in the backup
restic backup --hostname example-vps /tmp/mysql-all.sql.gz "${BACKUP_PATHS[@]}"
rm /tmp/mysql-all.sql.gz
```
---
## Monitoring backups
Add a health check notification:
```bash
# After successful backup
curl -fsS -m 10 --retry 5 https://hc-ping.com/your-uuid
# Or on failure, notify via Discord/Slack webhook
curl -fsS -m 10 -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"content":"Backup failed on example-vps"}' \
https://discord.com/api/webhooks/your-webhook-url
```
---
## What's next
- [Install fail2ban](/vps/fail2ban/) for SSH brute-force protection
- [Set up a Go service](/vps/go-systemd/) with systemd