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diff --git a/content/posts/borg-backup/images/borg-backup-logo.png b/content/posts/borg-backup/images/borg-backup-logo.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..502966b --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/borg-backup/images/borg-backup-logo.png diff --git a/content/posts/borg-backup/index.md b/content/posts/borg-backup/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..668a7f6 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/posts/borg-backup/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,131 @@ +--- +title: "BorgBackup" +date: 2021-08-28T21:00:00+03:00 +draft: false +categories: [backup] +tags: [backup] +url: /posts/borg-backup/ +author: "Christoph Cullmann" +resources: + - name: "featured-image-preview" + src: "images/borg-backup-logo.png" +--- + +Backup is always something you under-appreciate until you need it. +Therefore, since I lost a lot of my mails due to non-existing backups in the past, I tried to keep proper backups around the last decade. +At least this allowed me to keep all my Kate related development mails intact since 2001 or so, not that bad ;=) + +## My old way of doing backups: rsync & duplicity + +So far, I did my backup on my Unix machines by using [rsync](https://rsync.samba.org/) to a second host and [duplicity](http://duplicity.nongnu.org/) to archive stuff on my old Synology NAS. + +### Plain rsync? + +Naturally, the rsync method (if you don't do snapshots/...) is just a 1:1 mirror. +If you do by accident delete stuff and don't notice it, you just will wipe it on the next sync, too, if you don't do some dry-run first to inspect. + +But so far, in the normal case, the rsync copy was always what I used to get my data back after I did really break my system. + +It's the fastest way to migrate from one operating system to another for me, too, without any fear that you might wipe your data disk. +It helped my nicely on me journey between different Linux distributions to FreeBSD. + +### Duplicity? + +I started to use duplicity after I did introduce disk encryption at home for all machines years ago. + +Given my old NAS has no such concept, duplicity with client side encryption did seem to nicely solve that hole in my data security concept. + +Naturally, duplicity allows the normal full/incremental/... backup scheme, that will let you retrieve even older stuff if you by accident deleted stuff locally. + +But I never was completely happy with duplicity. +Combined with my old slow NAS, the backup process was always a very slow thing and the progress indication actually never worked properly for me. +I had just for hours some unknown estimated time and no real feedback. +Given I normally don't let my workstation just run the whole day, that was not that satisfying. + +On the other side, so far, restoring did work, which is a good thing ;=) +And, like most good open source projects, it works properly on different platforms. +I could easily continue to use the same backup destination after switching from Manjaro to FreeBSD, no problem at all. +duplicity is just nicely installable via pkg there, too! + +## The future: BorgBackup? + +I investigated a bit more what I could use as duplicity replacement, and ended up giving [BorgBackup](https://www.borgbackup.org/) a try. + +<center><a href="https://www.borgbackup.org/" target="_blank"><img width=700 src="/posts/borg-backup/images/borg-backup-logo.png"></a></center> + +The [documentation](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/) is a nice starting point, beside that, you find plenty of useful tutorial online. + +On Linux or FreeBSD some usable BorgBackup version is available with the usual package managers. +In my case I am using the version available on FreeBSD 13 via "pkg install py38-borgbackup". + +### BorgBackup & Synology + +For me, the primary backup target is my old Synology NAS. + +Fortunately, you can install BorgBackup on the NAS itself via the package center if you add [SynoCommunity](https://synocommunity.com/#easy-install) as an additional source. +There you will find the "Borg" package in a reasonable fresh version. +No need to fiddle around with the internals of the Synology distribution on your own. + +I then activated ssh access & enabled the home directory service to be able to add some authorized_keys & have my backup repository in the home. + +### Cloud backup + +Given I now start to setup my backup from scratch anyways, I decided to fix a second issue: All my backups are in my flat ;=) + +Given either "fire, fire" or "we steal just all stuff, even your crappy NAS", perhaps nobody might really access my data even if stolen, still I could easily loose it all. + +As BorgBackup like duplicity works nicely over ssh, no reason not to use it to push all the data encrypted to some random virtual server somewhere. + +There are several companies that even promote their BorgBackup compatibility. +But I will not start to promote here cloud/virtual server hosting companies, your search machine will tell you what is available. + +### BorgBackup repository initialization + +I recommend their [quick start](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/quickstart.html) documentation for the initial setup. + +For me, it was e.g. for the NAS (see the --remote-path to let it find the borg binary on the Synology): + +{{< highlight bash >}} +borg init --remote-path /usr/local/bin/borg \ + --encryption=repokey thecooluser@nas-name-here:borg +{{< / highlight >}} + +and for the cloud server: + +{{< highlight bash >}} +borg init --encryption=repokey \ + thecooluser@server-name-here:borg +{{< / highlight >}} + +That command will query some passphrase, use a good one, that is the sole protection of your data. +And keep it somewhere you have it, even in the "fire, fire" case ;=) + +### BorgBackup usage + +After you did initialize the repositories like above, you will have on your NAS and/or server some borg directory in the home of the matching user. + +You can create a new backup archive of e.g. your home (excluding the .cache directory you might not want) via: + +{{< highlight bash >}} +borg create --compression zstd --progress --stats \ + -e "/home/your-user/.cache" \ + "thecooluser@server-name-here:borg::name-of-backup-archive" \ + "/home/your-user" +{{< / highlight >}} + +On the NAS you will need an additional "--remote-path /usr/local/bin/borg" like for the init command. + +### Does this work? + +So far it seems so, but time must tell. +As with any backup solution, I will need to test restore again and again and must see how the incremental backups work in practice over time. +At least the initial full backup seems to work more fluent than I was used with duplicity. + +Naturally, BorgBackup [had already bugs in the past](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/changes.html#) and for sure still has some. +The [cryptography isn't perfect either](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/internals.html), on the other side, I want to protect my personal data against the normal thief, not some government agency. + +### Shall I use that? + +If this post did spark your interest to try this, please do your own research if it really fits your bill. +In any case, I still have a plain rsync copy around on a second machine, just in case it doesn't work like expected. +Not that I again loose a decade of flame war mails .-) |
