backups

Backups

The media library is re-downloadable. The service configs are not — API keys, quality profiles, indexer setup, and the SQLite database behind every arr. backup/ has two scripts for them; run at least the first.

Both snapshot SQLite with sqlite3 .backup before archiving, so containers keep running — a plain copy of a live SQLite file can be torn mid-write and restore corrupt. Both run as root so root-owned state (notably Tailscale's 0600 tailscaled.state) is captured; as a normal user they still work but silently omit those files.

Local backup (start here)

Tarballs CONFIG_ROOT onto another physical disk. No credentials, no account.

sudo ./backup/install-local-backup-timer.sh   # weekly systemd timer

Paths come from .env unless overridden: BACKUP_SRC (default CONFIG_ROOT), BACKUP_DEST (default MEDIA_ROOT/backups, already a different disk in a typical setup), BACKUP_KEEP (default 8).

The script refuses to run if source and destination share a backing device, so a wrong default fails loudly rather than writing a backup onto the disk it exists to protect against.

This is not off-site — it defends against losing the disk holding CONFIG_ROOT, including a WSL virtual disk, not against losing the machine.

Off-site backup (optional)

Encrypted, deduplicated restic to S3-compatible storage. After the first upload each run sends only what changed, typically a few MB.

apt install -y restic sqlite3

cd backup
cp .env.example .env      # S3 credentials, restic password, BACKUP_PATH
set -a && source .env && set +a
restic init               # once
./backup-config.sh        # test run

sudo ./backup/install-restic-timer.sh   # daily systemd timer

Retention is 7 daily, 4 weekly, 3 monthly, pruned only after a snapshot is confirmed to have landed.

Store RESTIC_PASSWORD somewhere other than this machine. There is no reset — without it the repository is unrecoverable, and a backup you can't decrypt isn't a backup. Keeping it only in backup/.env on the host you're protecting defeats the point.

Restore

cd backup
set -a && source .env && set +a
restic snapshots
restic restore latest --target /tmp/restore

Local tarballs are plain tar xzf. Stop the stack before restoring over a live CONFIG_ROOT.

Live database files and journals are excluded from both — only the .bak snapshots are archived, and those are deleted after each run.