.. title: Automating Borg .. date: 2020-02-02 .. slug: automating-borg .. updated: 2020-02-02 .. status: published .. tags: backup, borgbackup, borg, borgmatic .. category: backup .. authors: Elia el Lazkani .. description: We've had a look at **Borg** before, let's find out how to automate it. .. type: text In the :doc:`previous blog post `, I talked about **borg**. If you read that post, you would've noticed that **borg** has a lot of features. With a lot of features come a lot of automation. If you were thinking about using **borg**, you should either make a *simple cron* or you're gonna have to write an elaborate script to take care of all the different steps. What if I told you there's another way ? An easier way ! The **Borgmatic** way... What would you say ? .. TEASER_END Borgmatic ========= **Borgmatic** is defined on their `website `_ as follows. borgmatic is simple, configuration-driven backup software for servers and workstations. Protect your files with client-side encryption. Backup your databases too. Monitor it all with integrated third-party services. If you go down to it, **borgmatic** uses **borg**'s *API* to automate a list of configurable *tasks*. This way, it saves you the trouble of writing your own scripts to automate these steps. **Borgmatic** uses a *YAML* configuration file. Let's configure a few tasks. Location ======== First, let's start by configuring the locations that **borg** is going to be working with. .. code:: yaml location: source_directories: - /home/ repositories: - user@backupserver:sourcehostname.borg one_file_system: true exclude_patterns: - /home/*/.cache - '*.pyc' This tells **borg** that we need to backup our ``/home`` directories excluding a few patterns. Let's not forget that we told **borg** where the repository is located at. Storage ======= We need to configure the storage next. .. code:: yaml storage: # Recommended # encryption_passcommand: secret-tool lookup borg-repository repo-name encryption_passphrase: "ReallyStrongPassphrase" compression: zstd,15 ssh_command: ssh -i /path/to/private/key borg_security_directory: /path/to/base/config/security archive_name_format: 'borgmatic-{hostname}-{now}' In this section, we tell borg a little big of information about our repository. What are the credentials, where it can find them, etc. The easy way is to go with a ``passphrase``, but I recommend using an ``encryption_passcommand`` instead. I also use ``zstd`` for encryption instead of ``lz4``, you better do your research before you change the default. I also recommend, just as they do, the use of a security directory as well. Retention ========= We can configure a retention for our backups, if we like. .. code:: yaml retention: keep_hourly: 7 keep_daily: 7 keep_weekly: 4 keep_monthly: 6 keep_yearly: 2 prefix: "borgmatic-" The part of what to keep from *hourly* to *daily* is self explanatory. I would like to point out the ``prefix`` part as it is important. This is the *prefix* that **borgmatic** uses to consider backups for **pruning**. .. warning:: Watch out for the retention ``prefix`` Consistency =========== After the updates, we'd like to check our backups. .. code:: yaml consistency: checks: - repository - archives check_last: 3 prefix: "borgmatic-" .. warning:: Watch out, again, for the consistency ``prefix`` Hooks ===== Finally, hooks. I'm going to talk about hooks a bit. Hooks can be used to backup **MySQL**, **PostgreSQL** or **MariaDB**. They can also be hooks for ``on_error``, ``before_backup``, ``after_backup``, ``before_everything`` and ``after_everything``. You can also hook to third party services which you can check on their webpage. I deployed my own, so I configured my own. Borgmatic Configuration ======================= Let's put everything together now. .. code:: yaml location: source_directories: - /home/ repositories: - user@backupserver:sourcehostname.borg one_file_system: true exclude_patterns: - /home/*/.cache - '*.pyc' storage: # Recommended # encryption_passcommand: secret-tool lookup borg-repository repo-name encryption_passphrase: "ReallyStrongPassphrase" compression: zstd,15 ssh_command: ssh -i /path/to/private/key borg_security_directory: /path/to/base/config/security archive_name_format: 'borgmatic-{hostname}-{now}' retention: keep_hourly: 7 keep_daily: 7 keep_weekly: 4 keep_monthly: 6 keep_yearly: 2 prefix: "borgmatic-" consistency: checks: - repository - archives check_last: 3 prefix: "borgmatic-" Now that we have everything together, let's save it in ``/etc/borgmatic.d/home.yaml``. Usage ===== If you have **borg** and **borgmatic** already installed on your system and the **borgmatic** configuration file in place, you can test it out. You can create the repository. .. code:: text # borgmatic init -v 2 You can list the backups for the repository. .. code:: text # borgmatic list --last 5 borgmatic-home-2020-01-30T22:01:30 Thu, 2020-01-30 22:01:42 [0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000] borgmatic-home-2020-01-31T22:02:12 Fri, 2020-01-31 22:02:24 [0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000] borgmatic-home-2020-02-01T22:01:34 Sat, 2020-02-01 22:01:45 [0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000] borgmatic-home-2020-02-02T16:01:22 Sun, 2020-02-02 16:01:32 [0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000] borgmatic-home-2020-02-02T18:01:36 Sun, 2020-02-02 18:01:47 [0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000] You could run a check. .. code:: text # borgmatic check -v 1 /etc/borgmatic.d/home.yaml: Pinging Healthchecks start /borg/home: Running consistency checks Remote: Starting repository check Remote: Starting repository index check Remote: Completed repository check, no problems found. Starting archive consistency check... Analyzing archive borgmatic-home-2020-02-01T22:01:34 (1/3) Analyzing archive borgmatic-home-2020-02-02T16:01:22 (2/3) Analyzing archive borgmatic-home-2020-02-02T18:01:36 (3/3) Orphaned objects check skipped (needs all archives checked). Archive consistency check complete, no problems found. summary: /etc/borgmatic.d/home.yaml: Successfully ran configuration file But most of all, if you simply run ``borgmatic`` without any parameters, it will run through the whole configuration and apply all the steps. At this point, you can simply add the ``borgmatic`` command in a **cron** to run on an interval. The other options would be to configure a ``systemd`` **timer** and **service** to run this on an interval. The latter is usually provided to you if you used your **package manager** to install **borgmatic**. Conclusion ========== If you've checked **borg** and found it too much work to script, give **borgmatic** a try. I've been using borgmatic for few weeks now with no issues at all. I recently hooked it to a monitoring system so I will have a better view on when it runs, how much time each run takes. Also, if any of my backups fail I get notified by email. I hope you enjoy **borg** and **borgmatic** as much as I am.