Need to Make Backup Script for Multiple Directories

**Voreskin** · November 27th, 2012

Hello,

I am very new at all this server stuff. I am needing to make a backup script to backup individual users home directories to a backup server on the same LAN. I need to keep a minimum of 8 backups, and backups need to happen at one hour intervals. I also need a way to restore any files the users may accidentally delete back to their home directory. I am using Ubuntu 12.04.1. Any help I could get would be greatly appreciated, I have had almost no scripting experience at all, so any pointers you could give would be great

Thanks!!

**oldfred** · November 27th, 2012

Some places to look.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/rsync
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CronHowto

Some files to exclude from /home:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1883834

Some examples:
rsync confirmation list:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1692800
Check for mount of backup partition
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1701292
#http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1555647&page=4
more scripts:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1319155
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1555647&page=4

**Voreskin** · November 29th, 2012

This is what i tried for a test backup. You will probably laugh when you read it, but I'm VERY new at this. Could someone take a look and tell me why I'm getting the errors i'm getting please?

Code:

#!/bin/bash

FILE="testbackup`date +%Y.%m.%d.%H.%M`.tgz"
FOLDER="/home/justin/"

tar czf $FOLDER > $FILE
scp $FILE jvore@10.17.4.235:/home/jvore/backups

Returns

Code:

tar: Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.
testbackup2012.11.28.15.57.tg 100%    0     0.0KB/s   00:00

Any help would be appreciated!

**bab1** · November 29th, 2012

Originally Posted by Voreskin

This is what i tried for a test backup. You will probably laugh when you read it, but I'm VERY new at this. Could someone take a look and tell me why I'm getting the errors i'm getting please?

Code:

#!/bin/bash

FILE="testbackup`date +%Y.%m.%d.%H.%M`.tgz"
FOLDER="/home/justin/test/"

tar czf $FOLDER &gt; $FILE
scp $FILE jvore@10.17.4.235:home/jvore/backups

Returns

Code:

./backup.sh: line 6: gt: command not found
tar: ./backup.sh: line 6: testbackup2012.11.28.15.47.tgz: command not found
Cowardly refusing to create an empty archive
Try `tar --help' or `tar --usage' for more information.
testbackup2012.11.28.15.47.tgz: No such file or directory

Any help would be appreciated!

Why beat yourself up? The scripts are already written for rsync. The app/scripts is called rsnapshot. See here for information.

Just configure it and it will do exactly what you want.

**SeijiSensei** · November 29th, 2012

Just so you'll know why the tar command did not work, if you use the "f" parameter it expects the name of the tar file to follow immediately thereafter like this

Code:

tar czpf $FILE $FOLDER

You definitely need to include the "p" option to preserve the ownerships, permissions, and datestamps on the files. If you replace "z" with "j" it uses the slower to create, but more compressed bzip2 format. If you add "v", you'll get a list of the files being stored.

If you want to see an example where multiple backups are rotated, see this posting.

**Voreskin** · November 29th, 2012

Thank you all! It's so nice to have a place where noobs like me can go to get some professional help! It's people like you that make Linux fun!

I will start off with the rsnapshot, and see where that gets me!