Automate borg backups with Cron

Install dependencies

---

To be able send an email from the backup bash command, we have to install mailutils:

apt install mailutils

Create borg_backup.sh

---

First, create a script which will execute the backups. This could look like the following script and be under /home/server_backup/scripts/borg_backup.sh.

#!/usr/bin/env bash

################################################
####      borg create and borg prune        ####
####    PLEASE CHECK BACKUP DIRECTORIES     ####
################################################


##
## Set environment variables
##

## if you don't use the standard SSH key,
## you have to specify the path to the key like this
export BORG_RSH="ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_rsa_borg"

## You can save your borg passphrase in an environment
## variable, so you don't need to type it in when using borg
# export BORG_PASSPHRASE="top_secret_passphrase"

# ACTIVATE VENV
source /usr/local/venvs/borg-env/bin/activate

##
## Set some variables
##

LOG="/var/log/borg_backup.log"
BACKUP_USER="u123456"
REPOSITORY_DIR="jobsitehr"
SERVER_EMAIL="My Server<root@mydomain.com>"
ADMIN_EMAIL="myadmin@gmail.com"

## Tip: If using with a Backup Space you have to use
## 'your-storagebox.de' instead of 'your-backup.de'
REPOSITORY="ssh://${BACKUP_USER}@${BACKUP_USER}.your-storagebox.de:23/./backups/${REPOSITORY_DIR}"

##
## Output to a logfile
##

exec > >(tee -i ${LOG})
exec 2>&1

echo "###### Backup started: $(date) ######"

## some helpers and error handling:
send_admin_mail() {
    echo "$(cat $LOG)" | mailx -a "From:"$SERVER_EMAIL -s "$1 - $REPOSITORY_DIR Backup $(date)" $ADMIN_EMAIL
}

info() { printf "\n%s %s\n\n" "$( date )" "$*" >&2; }
trap 'echo $( date ) Backup interrupted >&2; send_admin_mail ERROR; exit 2' INT TERM


##
## At this place you could perform different tasks
## that will take place before the backup, e.g.
##
## - Create a list of installed software
## - Create a database dump
##

##
## Transfer the files into the repository.
## In this example the folders root, etc,
## var/www and home will be saved.
## In addition you find a list of excludes that should not
## be in a backup and are excluded by default.
##

echo "Transfer files ..."
borg create -v --stats                  \
    $REPOSITORY::'{hostname}-{now}'     \
    /root                               \
    /etc                                \
    /var/www                            \
    /var/lib                            \
    /var/spool                          \
    /home                               \
    /mnt/HC_Volume_12737458/backup      \
    --exclude /dev                      \
    --exclude /proc                     \
    --exclude /sys                      \
    --exclude /var/run                  \
    --exclude /run                      \
    --exclude /lost+found               \
    --exclude /var/lib/lxcfs            \
    --exclude /tmp                      \
    --exclude /root/.cache


backup_exit=$?

info "Pruning repository"

# Use the `prune` subcommand to maintain 7 daily, 4 weekly and 6 monthly
# archives of THIS machine. The '{hostname}-' prefix is very important to
# limit prune's operation to this machine's archives and not apply to
# other machines' archives also:

borg prune -v                       \
    --stats                         \
    --list                          \
    --prefix '{hostname}-'          \
    --show-rc                       \
    --keep-hourly   12              \
    --keep-daily    7               \
    --keep-weekly   4               \
    --keep-monthly  6               \
    $REPOSITORY

prune_exit=$?

# use highest exit code as global exit code
global_exit=$(( backup_exit > prune_exit ? backup_exit : prune_exit ))

if [ ${global_exit} -eq 0 ]; then
    info "Backup and Prune finished successfully"
    subject="SUCCESS"
elif [ ${global_exit} -eq 1 ]; then
    info "Backup and/or Prune finished with warnings"
    subject="WARNING"
else
    info "Backup and/or Prune finished with errors"
    subject="ERROR"
fi

echo "###### Backup ended: $(date) ######"

send_admin_mail "$subject" 

exit ${global_exit}

Resolve “-bash: ./borg_backup.sh: Permission denied”

---

Change the permissions of the file “borg_backup.sh” using the command below:

sudo chmod u+x borg_backup.sh

Crontab

---

If everything works fine, you can now run the script as a cronjob. Open crontab as root:

crontab -e

And add the following line to run a daily backup at 00:00.

0 0 * * * /home/server_backup/scripts/borg_backup.sh > /dev/null 2>&1




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