this post was submitted on 17 Jan 2026
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Where to start with backups? (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 days ago by mapleseedfall@lemmy.world to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
30 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

hi peeps.

Im early on my selfhosting journey and managed to setup some things as a test in docker. the main service im looking to run is ERPNext. after a while I got it up and running so now I want to back this up including all the customization I did in the app.

where to start with this? any intuitive guide?

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[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Out of curiosity, how are you doing the drive imaging?

I wrote a script that is fired by a cron job once a month:

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/backup_drive.sh

spoiler

# Directory to store backups

BACKUP_DIR="/mnt/myhdd"

# Drive to backup

DRIVE="/dev/sdX"

# Create a timestamp

TIMESTAMP=$(date +"%Y%m%d")

# Filename for the new image

NEW_IMAGE="$BACKUP_DIR/my_drive_image_$TIMESTAMP.img"

# Create the image

sudo dd if=$DRIVE of=$NEW_IMAGE bs=4M status=progress

# Keep the last 3 images

ls -tp $BACKUP_DIR/my_drive_image_*.img | grep -v '/$' | tail -n +4 | xargs -I {} rm -- {}

Make the script executable:

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/backup_drive.sh

Create Cron:

sudo crontab -e

0 3 1 * * /usr/local/bin/backup_drive.sh

Verify cron:

sudo crontab -l

I'm sure it could be written differently or that there is a better way to do the imaging, but that is the extent of my notes, and it works for me. As with any code you find on the internet, it is wise to evaluate before dropping on a production server.

[–] Cyber@feddit.uk 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Ah, good old dd

When you have some spare time, take a look at partclone - clonezilla uses it because it only backs up used blocks, not free space, so more efficient.

[–] irmadlad@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Thanks for the tip. I'll definitely check it out