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Backup server

This guide walks you through configuring BorgBackup for automated backups on your Ubuntu server.

SSH Key pair

  • The Backup Server uses an SSH Key pair to perform its backups and restoration jobs.

1. Overview

BorgBackup is a program that performs and manages backups, and is usable between the local device and a remote one.

In our case, the Backup Server backs up files from a remote device over SSH and manages it locally. That use-case is not common, because normally the contrary is done, and is supported natively. To do what we wanted here, we needed to use sshfs to mount the remote directory locally through SSH, and then perform the backup or restoration, before unmounting the remote directory.

The backups are automatically done every day at midnight, and then removed periodically (leaving only a few).

The restoration feature is manual, and a Bash script is to use in this case. The user needs to type the date in format YYYY-MM-DD to restore that specific snapshot into the Webserver.

2. Backup script

: ~/backup.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# Configuration
REMOTE_USER="webserver"
REMOTE_HOST="10.0.1.2"
REMOTE_PATH="/var/www/infrasi"
MOUNT_POINT="/mnt/backup_source"
REPOSITORY="/home/backup-server/backups"
ARCHIVE_NAME="$(hostname)-$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
BACKUP_DEST="$REPOSITORY::$ARCHIVE_NAME"

# Debugging output
echo "Backup Source: $REMOTE_USER@$REMOTE_HOST:$REMOTE_PATH"
echo "Backup Destination: $BACKUP_DEST"

# Create a mount point directory if it does not exist
if [ ! -d "$MOUNT_POINT" ]; then
    echo "Creating mount point directory..."
    mkdir -p "$MOUNT_POINT"
fi

# Mount the remote directory using sshfs
echo "Mounting the remote directory..."
if ! mountpoint -q "$MOUNT_POINT"; then
    sshfs "$REMOTE_USER@$REMOTE_HOST:$REMOTE_PATH" "$MOUNT_POINT"
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Failed to mount the remote directory. Aborting backup."
        exit 1  # Exit with a non-zero status to indicate failure
    fi
fi

# Check destination path
echo "Checking destination path..."
if [ ! -d "$REPOSITORY" ]; then
    echo "Destination directory does not exist. Creating it now."
    mkdir -p "$REPOSITORY"
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Failed to create destination directory. Aborting backup."
        exit 1  # Exit with a non-zero status to indicate failure
    fi
fi

# Initialize the Borg repository if it does not exist
if ! borg info $REPOSITORY &>/dev/null; then
    echo "Initializing the Borg repository..."
    borg init --encryption=repokey $REPOSITORY
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Borg repository initialization failed. Check the logs for details."
        exit 1  # Exit with a non-zero status to indicate failure
    fi
fi

# Run BorgBackup with options
echo "Starting Borg Backup..."
borg create -v --stats "$BACKUP_DEST" "$MOUNT_POINT"

# Check the status of the backup command
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Borg Backup failed. Check the above logs for details."
    exit 1  # Exit with a non-zero status to indicate failure
else
    echo "Borg Backup completed successfully."
    # Verify the backup
    echo "Verifying the backup..."
    borg check "$BACKUP_DEST"
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Backup verification failed. Check the logs for details."
        exit 1  # Exit with a non-zero status to indicate verification failure
    else
        echo "Backup verification completed successfully."
    fi
fi

# Unmount the remote directory
echo "Unmounting the remote directory..."
fusermount -u "$MOUNT_POINT"

# Check if unmounting was successful
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Failed to unmount the remote directory. Manual cleanup might be required."
    exit 1  # Exit with a non-zero status to indicate failure
fi

echo "Script completed successfully."

The automation of the backup is done this way:

crontab -e

	0 0 * * * /home/user/backup_scripts/backup.sh >> /var/log/backup.log 2>&1

3. Restoration script

: ~/restore.sh:

#!/bin/bash

# Configuration
REMOTE_USER="webserver"
REMOTE_HOST="10.0.1.2"
REMOTE_PATH="/var/www/infrasi"
MOUNT_POINT="/mnt/backup_source"
REPOSITORY="/home/backup-server/backups"
ARCHIVE_NAME="$(hostname)-$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
BACKUP_DEST="$REPOSITORY::$ARCHIVE_NAME"

# Retreiving the date of the snapshot to restore:
echo "Type the date of the snapshot you want to restore: [YYYY-MM-DD]"
read -p ">> " date

# Mount the remote directory using sshfs
echo "Mounting the remote directory..."
if ! mountpoint -q "$MOUNT_POINT"; then
    sshfs "$REMOTE_USER@$REMOTE_HOST:$REMOTE_PATH" "$MOUNT_POINT"
    if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
        echo "Failed to mount the remote directory. Aborting restoration."
        exit 1  # Exit with a non-zero status to indicate failure
    fi
fi

# Restore the requested version into the webserver
borg extract $REPOSITORY::$(hostname)-$date $MOUNT_POINT

# Unmount the remote directory
echo "Unmounting the remote directory..."
fusermount -u "$MOUNT_POINT"

# Check if unmounting was successful
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Failed to unmount the remote directory. Manual cleanup might be required."
    exit 1  # Exit with a non-zero status to indicate failure
fi

echo "Script completed successfully."
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