Rsync Backup Automation

This is a small abstraction on the RSYNC command found on Unix or Linux to automate some repetitive things you have to do when creating complex backups between two Unix or Linux systems with encryption.

This method of backup is often referred to as a one way sync backup.

There may be other tools out there that can do this better, but I needed something more basic and specific to my needs. It was also fun to create.

This script is ideally suited for the following situations:

• Backup of a remote NAS to local storage. Like off site backups.
• Automation of sync backup from a remote system with Rsync and SSH access to local storage.

Requirements

• Python 3.10.x
• Rsync version 2.6.9 protocol version 29

Getting Started

Clone the repo to where you are going to use it

Note: Versioned releases will be available soon:

git clone git@github.com:mortolian/rsync-remote-backup.git

or

git clone https://github.com/mortolian/rsync-remote-backup.git

Get setup

There is a Makefile included in the root of the project with everything you need to get started. It is recommended that you run the script in the VENV, but you can also run it outside a VENV if you install all the requirements globally.

Setup VENV

make venv-setup
. ./venv/bin/activate
make build
make setup

Setup with global dependencies

python3 -m build
pip3 install -e .

Set up your first config file from the example config provided

You have to set up what you need to be synced. This happens in the config.yaml file. This is the default config if you don't specify a custom one. You can have many config files for different automations.

The config begins with a job name offsite_1, which you specify when you run the backup.py script using the -j attribute.

From there you provide a description of the job to remember what it's for etc.

The remote section of the YAML file provides all the details the script needs for the remote host. The paths will be compiled into one command to run the RSYNC command only once. Notice that these are full path names and does not have a tailing slash.

The local section only has a path to set at this time. This is where all your synced files will end up. Notice that this is a full path and no tailing slash.

The rsync section allows you to set some custom RSYNC attributes if you would like to have some control over how it is run.

You can read the RSYNC documentation for more information on the various attributes. https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.1#OPTION_SUMMARY

offsite_1:
  description: 'Remote Backup Job 1'
  remote:
    host: '10.1.1.1'
    user: 'admin'
    paths:
      - '/share/Datafile'
      - '/share/Backupfiles'
  local:
    path: '/Volumes/offsite1'
  rsync:
    options: '--progress --recursive --archive --delete --verbose --stats --human-readable --copy-links'


offsite_2:
  description: 'Remote Backup Job 2'
  remote:
    host: '10.1.1.2'
    user: 'admin'
    paths:
      - '/share/Datafile'
      - '/share/Backupfiles'
  local:
    path: '/Volumes/offsite2'
  rsync:
    options: '--progress --recursive --archive --delete --verbose --stats --human-readable --copy-links'

Running the script

From the root of the project folder run the following to get the help printout of how to use the script.

python ./backup/backup.py --help

usage: Backup Remote Files. [-h] [-j JOB] [-s] [-c CONFIG] [-d]

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  -j JOB, --job JOB     Specifies what config job to run.
  -s, --show-available-jobs
                        Shows a list of jobs available in the config.
  -c CONFIG, --config CONFIG
                        Specify a config file if you do not want to use the default config file (config.yaml).
  -d, --dry-run         Will run the rsync without making any changes to the source or destination.

Run A Job

When you are set up you can run the job with the following command.

python ./backup/backup.py -j offsite_1

or, if not inside VENV

python3 ./backup/backup.py -j offsite_1

You can also simulate the job with a "dry run", to make sure everything works the way you intended. Add --dry-run to the command for this option.

The password

The password will only be asked once, because the sources that will be synced are compiled into one command.

You can also set up an SSH key authentication between the remote machine and where you are going to run the RSYNC automation script. This will remove the password prompt, and you can then also schedule the command with no intervention required.

There are many tutorials available on the internet to get this setup and here is some basic commands to get you started.

ssh-keygen
ssh-copy-id {remote_user}@{remote_host}

Reference Websites For This Project

• https://setuptools.pypa.io/en/latest/userguide/dependency_management.html
• https://github.com/jazzband/pip-tools
• https://alexo.dev/blog/avoiding-pip-freeze-2/
• https://towardsdatascience.com/stop-using-pip-freeze-for-your-python-projects-9c37181730f9
• https://docs.python.org/3/distutils/configfile.html
• https://download.samba.org/pub/rsync/rsync.html
• https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/368210/how-to-rsync-multiple-source-folders

Future Updates And Additions

• The program should write a log of the backup to file.