Backup Manager

Automated backups for your files, databases, and configurations. Local, network, or cloud storage.

Category: home, security

API Key Required: No (unless using cloud storage)

What It Does

Sets up and manages automated backups using rsync, cron, and optional cloud sync (rclone). Back up important files to another drive, NAS, or cloud provider (Google Drive, S3, Dropbox). Your agent handles scheduling, monitoring, and restoration.

Setup

Install dependencies

sudo apt install rsync -y
# For cloud backups:
sudo apt install rclone -y

Agent Commands

Simple backup (local to local)

# Backup home directory to external drive
rsync -avh --progress /home/USER/ /mnt/backup/home/ --delete --exclude='.cache' --exclude='node_modules' --exclude='.local/share/Trash'

Backup to another machine (SSH)

rsync -avhz --progress /home/USER/ user@BACKUP_SERVER:/backups/$(hostname)/ --delete

Create a backup script

cat > ~/backup.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
TIMESTAMP=$(date +%Y-%m-%d_%H%M)
BACKUP_DIR="/mnt/backup"
LOG="/var/log/backup.log"

echo "[$TIMESTAMP] Backup starting..." >> $LOG

# Backup home directory
rsync -avh --delete \
  --exclude='.cache' \
  --exclude='node_modules' \
  --exclude='.local/share/Trash' \
  --exclude='*.tmp' \
  /home/ $BACKUP_DIR/home/ 2>&1 >> $LOG

# Backup system configs
rsync -avh /etc/ $BACKUP_DIR/etc/ 2>&1 >> $LOG

echo "[$TIMESTAMP] Backup complete." >> $LOG
EOF
chmod +x ~/backup.sh

Schedule automatic backups

# Daily at 2am
(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "0 2 * * * /home/USER/backup.sh") | crontab -

Cloud backup with rclone

# Configure (interactive, one-time)
rclone config

# Backup to Google Drive
rclone sync /home/USER/Documents remote:Backups/Documents --progress

# Backup to S3
rclone sync /home/USER/Documents s3:mybucket/backups/ --progress

# List configured remotes
rclone listremotes

Database backup (PostgreSQL)

pg_dump DATABASE_NAME > /mnt/backup/db/$(date +%Y%m%d)_database.sql

Database backup (MySQL)

mysqldump -u root DATABASE_NAME > /mnt/backup/db/$(date +%Y%m%d)_database.sql

Check backup status

# Last backup time
ls -lht /mnt/backup/ | head -5

# Backup size
du -sh /mnt/backup/*/

# Check cron is set up
crontab -l | grep backup

Compare backup with source

rsync -avhn --delete /home/USER/ /mnt/backup/home/ | head -20
# -n = dry run, shows what WOULD change

Restore from backup

# Restore specific file
cp /mnt/backup/home/USER/Documents/important.doc /home/USER/Documents/

# Restore entire directory
rsync -avh /mnt/backup/home/USER/ /home/USER/ --dry-run
# Remove --dry-run when ready to actually restore

Snapshot backup (with versions)

# Create timestamped snapshots using hard links (space efficient)
DEST="/mnt/backup/snapshots/$(date +%Y-%m-%d)"
LATEST="/mnt/backup/snapshots/latest"
rsync -avh --delete --link-dest=$LATEST /home/USER/ $DEST/
ln -snf $DEST $LATEST

Check backup integrity

# Compare checksums
find /home/USER/Documents -type f -exec md5sum {} \; | sort > /tmp/source.md5
find /mnt/backup/home/USER/Documents -type f -exec md5sum {} \; | sort > /tmp/backup.md5
diff /tmp/source.md5 /tmp/backup.md5

Clean old backups

# Remove snapshots older than 30 days
find /mnt/backup/snapshots/ -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +30 -exec rm -rf {} \;

The 3-2-1 Rule

For important data, follow 3-2-1:

• 3 copies of your data
• 2 different storage types (e.g. SSD + external drive)
• 1 off-site copy (cloud or remote server)

Examples

User: "Back up my stuff"

→ Run rsync to backup destination, report what was copied

User: "Set up automatic daily backups"

→ Create backup script + cron job, confirm schedule

User: "When was my last backup?"

→ Check backup directory timestamps and cron logs

User: "I accidentally deleted a file"

→ Find it in the backup, restore it

Constraints

• rsync --delete removes files from backup that no longer exist in source — be careful
• First backup takes longest (copies everything), subsequent are incremental
• Cloud backups depend on upload speed
• Always test restores — a backup you can't restore is worthless
• Database backups should happen before file backups (consistency)