Automatic server backups to storage
Back up a Linux server every night to Box or Object storage.
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A simple, reliable way is restic, which encrypts and deduplicates your backups.
Set up (once)
apt install -y restic
export RESTIC_REPOSITORY="sftp:USERNAME@HOSTNAME:/backups/server1"
export RESTIC_PASSWORD="choose-a-long-password"
restic initFor Object Storage, use s3:https://ENDPOINT/my-bucket/server1 as the repository and set AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID and AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY.
Back up every night
Put the variables and these commands in a script and run it from cron:
restic backup /etc /var/www /home
restic forget --keep-daily 7 --keep-weekly 4 --pruneRestore
restic snapshots
restic restore latest --target /restoreKeep the restic password safe somewhere else. Without it, the backups can't be read, even by us.
Test a restore every few months. See our backup strategy guide.