borgcronic

A cron script to run Borg Backup

Install with local repo

Install borg

sudo apt install borgbackup            # On Debian / Ubuntu

Install borgcronic

sudo ./borgcronic install /smb/borgserver/repo      # Local

Edit file /etc/borgcronic.conf. After editing the configuration, restart borgcronic daemon.

sudo systemctl restart borgcronic

Check that it works

sudo borgcronic exec list              # Get a list, say yes.
sudo borgronic summon                  # Trigger backup

Install with SSH server

In this setup, we connect to a remote borgbackup server through ssh. Since borgbackup will run locally as root, we must create a new ssh profile for root.

su -

First create a new ssh key:

ssh-keygen -t ed25519 -f ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_borg_$HOSTNAME -N ""

Print the new key that we will add later to server authorized_keys:

cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_borg_$HOSTNAME.pub

Then we create a new entry in ~/.ssh/config (replace <user>, <server> and <hostname> as necessary):

Host borgbackup
    User           <user>
    HostName       <server>
    ServerAliveInterval 10
    ServerAliveCountMax 30
    IdentityFile   ~/.ssh/id_ed25519_borg_<hostname>

Install borg on client and server:

sudo apt install borgbackup            # On Debian / Ubuntu

Install borgcronic on client:

sudo ./borgcronic install borgbackup:/path/to/repo     # SSH

We must now add this new ssh key to the remote server. For added security (and in fact the whole point of running a borg server), we restrict that ssh key to only run borg serve. Login into the remote server, and add to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys:

command="/usr/local/bin/borg serve --restrict-to-path /path/to/borg/",restrict <ssh-ed25519 AAAAC.... root@...>

Again, edit /path/to/borg/ and <ssh-ed25519 AAAAC.... root@...> as necessary.

Edit file /etc/borgcronic.conf. After editing the configuration, restart borgcronic daemon.

sudo systemctl restart borgcronic

Bootstrap and check that it works

ssh borgbackup                         # Say 'yes'
<ctrl-C>
sudo borgcronic exec list              # Get a list, say 'yes'
sudo borgronic summon                  # Trigger backup

We must connect once to add the remote server to known_hosts:

See also Borg documentation for SSH config tips.

Status

sudo borgcronic last

View available archives

sudo borgcronic list
# ...
# machine_20190101_1234             Sun, 2019-01-01 12:34:40 [589ed823e9a84c56feb95ac58e7cf384626b9cbf4fda2a907bc36e103de1bad2]
# machine_20190102_1234             Sun, 2019-01-02 12:34:32 [163ad79628449681a7af3f8ac4a81d972f7df6e372062e904a0c7874d65c6322]

Extract an archive

# sudo borgcronic ARCHIVE [PATH...]
# Note: PATH *DO NOT* start with a trailing /
sudo borgcronic extract machine_20190102_1234 home/myuser

xeyownt / borgcronic