Backup and Recovery

Implement comprehensive backup and recovery strategies using rsync, Restic, and cloud storage backends. Covers the 3-2-1 rule, automated scheduling, S3/B2 backends, encryption, restore procedures, and verification testing.

When to Use

• Designing a backup strategy for servers, databases, or application data
• Setting up Restic for encrypted, deduplicated backups to local or cloud storage
• Automating backups with systemd timers or cron
• Restoring data after accidental deletion, corruption, or disaster
• Migrating data between environments using backup/restore workflows
• Verifying backup integrity and testing recovery procedures

Prerequisites

• rsync installed (included in most Linux distributions)
• restic installed (v0.16+ recommended)
• Cloud CLI configured for the backend: AWS CLI for S3, b2 CLI for Backblaze B2
• Sufficient storage at the backup destination (2-3x source size for retention)
• SSH access for remote rsync targets
• systemd or cron for scheduling

The 3-2-1 Backup Rule

• 3 copies of your data (1 primary + 2 backups)
• 2 different storage media or types (e.g., local disk + cloud)
• 1 copy offsite (cloud storage, remote datacenter)

rsync Backups

Basic Operations

# Sync a local directory to a backup location
rsync -avz --delete /data/ /backup/data/

# Flags explained:
# -a  archive mode (preserves permissions, ownership, timestamps, symlinks)
# -v  verbose output
# -z  compress data during transfer
# --delete  remove files at destination that no longer exist at source

# Sync to a remote server over SSH
rsync -avz -e "ssh -i ~/.ssh/backup_key" /data/ backup@remote:/backups/server01/

# Exclude patterns
rsync -avz --delete \
  --exclude='*.tmp' \
  --exclude='*.log' \
  --exclude='.cache/' \
  --exclude='node_modules/' \
  /data/ /backup/data/

# Use an exclude file for complex patterns
rsync -avz --delete --exclude-from=/etc/backup-excludes.txt /data/ /backup/data/

# Dry run (preview what would change)
rsync -avzn --delete /data/ /backup/data/

# Limit bandwidth to 50 MB/s and show progress
rsync -avz --bwlimit=50000 --progress /data/ backup@remote:/backups/

Incremental Backups with Hard Links

# Incremental: unchanged files hard-linked to previous backup (saves space)
rsync -avz --delete \
  --link-dest=/backup/daily/latest \
  /data/ /backup/daily/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)/

# Update the 'latest' symlink
ln -snf /backup/daily/$(date +%Y-%m-%d) /backup/daily/latest

# Remove backups older than 30 days
find /backup/daily -maxdepth 1 -type d -name "20*" -mtime +30 -exec rm -rf {} \;

Restic Backup

Installation

# Debian / Ubuntu
apt install -y restic

# RHEL / CentOS
dnf install -y restic

# Or download the latest binary
curl -L https://github.com/restic/restic/releases/latest/download/restic_0.17.3_linux_amd64.bz2 \
  | bunzip2 > /usr/local/bin/restic
chmod +x /usr/local/bin/restic

# Verify installation
restic version

Initialize a Repository

# Local repository
restic init --repo /backup/restic-repo

# AWS S3 backend
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="AKIAEXAMPLE"
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="secretkey"
restic init --repo s3:s3.amazonaws.com/my-backup-bucket

# S3-compatible (MinIO)
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID="minioadmin"
export AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY="miniosecret"
restic init --repo s3:http://minio.example.com:9000/backup-bucket

# Backblaze B2 backend
export B2_ACCOUNT_ID="accountid"
export B2_ACCOUNT_KEY="accountkey"
restic init --repo b2:my-backup-bucket:server01

# SFTP backend
restic init --repo sftp:backup@remote:/backups/server01

# Restic will prompt for a repository password -- store it securely
# Use a password file for automation
echo "my-secure-repo-password" > /etc/restic/password.txt
chmod 600 /etc/restic/password.txt

Backup Operations

# Basic backup
restic backup /data --repo /backup/restic-repo --password-file /etc/restic/password.txt

# Backup multiple directories
restic backup /data /etc /var/lib/postgresql \
  --repo s3:s3.amazonaws.com/my-backup-bucket \
  --password-file /etc/restic/password.txt

# Backup with exclusions
restic backup /data \
  --exclude='*.tmp' \
  --exclude='*.log' \
  --exclude-file=/etc/restic/excludes.txt \
  --repo /backup/restic-repo \
  --password-file /etc/restic/password.txt

# Backup with tags (useful for filtering snapshots later)
restic backup /data \
  --tag server01 --tag production --tag daily \

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