Howto start Vorta backup automatically when usb-disk is plugged in - Linux

[goebbe]

The following describes how to set up automatic Vorta backups when a specific USB-disk is plugged in, on Linux.

This how-to has been tested on Linux Mint 22.3 (based on Ubuntu 24.04) which uses Systemd for service configuration.
No admin/ root privileges are required.

Feel free to add comments and suggestions.

Preparations, aka set up a manual USB-backup in Vorta:

1. Plugin/ mount your USB-device
2. In your file manager: Create a new folder on the USB-Device, with the name of your new repository
3. Using Vorta: Create a new profile for the USB-backup: "USB_backup_profile"
4. Using Vorta: Create a repository on the USB-device and choose the path for your (new) repo on the USB-device
5. In Vorta: Add sources and test the new profile/ repository by creating a manual backup

Set up automatic Vorta backup, in three steps:

1. Identify the mount unit:

• Plugin/ mount the USB device you want to use for automatic backup
• In the terminal: List all .mount units of the current user to identify the .mount-unit of the USB-device:
  systemctl --user list-units -t mount
• Identify the .mount unit of the USB-device. For example, for a USB-device with label "backupDrive", a .mount-unit referring to this label should be available. For example: media-username-backupDrive.mount

2. Create a systemd .service file:

• Using a text editor:
  Create the following Systemd .service-file as ~/.config/systemd/user/vorta-usb-auto-backup.service
• Copy the following text block to this .service file and edit/ adapt the name of your .mount-unit AND adapt your Vorta profile name. Don't forget to save the file.

[Unit]
description=Runs an automatic vorta backup when the specified usb .mount-unit becomes available
After=media-user-backupDrive.mount
BindsTo=media-user-backupDrive.mount

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c 'vorta --create USB_backup_profile'

[Install]
WantedBy=media-user-backupDrive.mount

3. Start and enable the new systemd .service:

• Finally, in the terminal: Start and enable the new backup service:

systemctl enable --user --now vorta-usb-auto-backup.service

Now, when you plugin/ mount your USB-device, the Vorta backup specified by the "USB_backup_profile" will automatically be started.
IMPORTANT: For this to work, Vorta has to be running (in the background) on your computer. Therefore, it might be useful to enable "Automatically start Vorta at login" in the Vorta settings.

• After the backup, manually unmount/ safely remove your USB-device.

Useful terminal commands - for maintenance:

Check the status of the new backup service:
systemctl status --user vorta-usb-auto-backup.service

After changing the .service file, one has to reload:
systemctl --user daemon-reload

Detailed Systemd logs:
journalctl --user -xeu vorta-usb-auto-backup.service

edit: updated the systemd .service file

[goebbe]

If you do not already run Vorta in the background, you can adapt the ExecStart line in the .service-file as follows:

ExecStart=/bin/bash -c 'if ! pidof -x "vorta" >/dev/null; then vorta & sleep 5; fi && vorta --create USB_backup_profile'

This command first checks if Vorta is already running.

• Only if Vorta is not already running: Start Vorta and sleep for 5 seconds to give Vorta enough time to fully start).
• Anyway, create the backup specified by USB_backup_profile.

Vorta will not be closed automatically after the backup.
Manually close Vorta and unmount/ remove your USB-disk safely, e.g. using your file manager.

[goebbe]

In case you use serval similar usb-disks (same model/ label):
The described method relies on the name of the .mount-unit to identify if the USB-disk has been plugged in/ mounted.
By default, the names of the .mount units use the "label" of the device.
So by changing the label of your USB-disk, you can change the name of the .mount unit. This allows to change the names for your .mount-units (to something easily distinguishable for otherwise similar devices).

How-to change the name of the .mount unit:

• install/ open gnome-disk-utility
• select the USB-disk and unmount it.
• Under the disk, on the left side, in "additional partition options" choose "Edit Filesystem"
• change the label of the disk and click on "Change"
• Next time you plugin/ mount the usb-disk, the name of the .mount unit should reflect the new label.