Using restic

I use Restic on all my machines to make backups, it’s really practical.
I use the software with a S3 bucket.

Setting up the repo

First, go on your S3 solution (be it Minio, Wasabi or others) and create a new bucket named something like backups (or anything you want, really).
Then, generate credentials for the said bucket and you’re all set to begin.

First, we need to initialize the repo:

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=myaccesskey
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=iamverysecure
restic -r s3:s3.server.tld/backups/<my app/server name> init

You will have to choose a password during this process, I recommend using a passfile when using the software in later stages (usually /sec/pass in my commands).

You now have an initialized repository!

Tips

If you use the root bucket: s3:s3.server.tld/backups it will create only one repo per bucket.
If you wish to create multiple repos per bucket, just add the name of your app/server at the end of the path and it will create a new repo in the bucket: s3:s3.server.tld/backups/app (creates a repo app).

Backing up data

It is really easy to backup data (you need to export the S3 config again):

restic -p /sec/pass -r s3:s3.server.tld/backups/app backup /path/to/app

And done, your data is backed up!

Cleaning old backups

You can clean old backups easily with a single command:

restic -p /sec/pass -r s3:s3.server.tld/backups/app forget --keep-last 10 --prune

This command will only keep the 10 latest backups.

Restoring a backup

To restore a backup, it’s as easy as creating one:

restic -p /sec/pass -r s3:s3.server.tld/backup/app restore latest --target /path/to/app

The script

I use a small script on my servers:

#!/bin/bash

export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=myaccesskey
export AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=iamverysecure

restic -p /sec/pass -r s3:s3.server.tld/backups/app forget --keep-last 10 --prune