OpenBSD Server Backup Script

A robust, production-ready backup solution for OpenBSD servers that compresses directories and uploads them to cloud storage with comprehensive logging and email notifications.

Author

Biswa Kalyan Bhuyan
📧 [email protected]

Features

✅ Individual tar archives for each directory
✅ Maximum gzip compression (level 9)
✅ Cloud upload via rclone
✅ Automatic cleanup after successful upload
✅ Email notifications with detailed logs
✅ Directory validation before backup
✅ Disk space checking (1GB minimum requirement)
✅ Log rotation (keeps last 10 logs)
✅ Permission validation with root privilege warnings
✅ Dry-run mode for testing
✅ Server-optimized with production-ready configurations

Requirements

System Requirements

OpenBSD (tested and optimized for OpenBSD)
Root access (recommended for complete system backups)
Minimum 1GB free space in /tmp

Dependencies

# Install required packages
pkg_add rclone mailx

# Configure rclone (setup 'cf' remote)
rclone config

Installation

1. Clone Repository

git clone <repository-url>
cd openbsd-backup-script

2. Deploy to Server

# Copy script to system location
sudo cp backup.sh /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/backup.sh
sudo chown root:wheel /usr/local/bin/backup.sh

3. Configure

Setup rclone remote named 'cf' pointing to your cloud storage
Verify email functionality: echo "Test" | mail -s "Test" [email protected]
Edit script to change EMAIL_RECIPIENT if needed

Usage

Basic Commands

# Test mode (no actual upload)
sudo backup.sh --dir /etc --dry-run

# Backup single directory
sudo backup.sh --dir /etc

# Backup multiple directories  
sudo backup.sh --dir /etc,/var/www,/var/log

# Process existing tarball
sudo backup.sh /path/to/existing.tar

# Show help
backup.sh --help

Server-Specific Examples

Web Server Backup

sudo backup.sh --dir /etc,/var/www,/var/log

Mail Server Backup

sudo backup.sh --dir /etc,/var/mail,/var/spool/mail,/usr/local/etc

Database Server Backup

sudo backup.sh --dir /etc,/var/lib/mysql,/var/postgresql,/usr/local/etc

Complete System Backup

sudo backup.sh --dir /etc,/var/www,/var/log,/home,/usr/local,/var/mail

Automation with Cron

Daily Backup (2:00 AM)

# Edit root's crontab
sudo crontab -e

# Add daily backup
0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh --dir /etc,/var/www,/var/log >/dev/null 2>&1

Weekly Full Backup (Sunday 3:00 AM)

# Weekly comprehensive backup
0 3 * * 0 /usr/local/bin/backup.sh --dir /etc,/var/www,/var/log,/home,/usr/local/etc >/dev/null 2>&1

Multiple Schedules

# Daily configs (2 AM)
0 2 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh --dir /etc,/usr/local/etc >/dev/null 2>&1

# Daily web content (3 AM)  
0 3 * * * /usr/local/bin/backup.sh --dir /var/www >/dev/null 2>&1

# Weekly logs (Sunday 4 AM)
0 4 * * 0 /usr/local/bin/backup.sh --dir /var/log >/dev/null 2>&1

Configuration

Script Configuration

Edit these variables in backup.sh:

RCLONE_REMOTE="cf:backups/"              # Cloud storage remote
EMAIL_RECIPIENT="[email protected]"    # Email for notifications
COMPRESSION_LEVEL=9                       # Gzip compression level
MIN_FREE_SPACE_MB=1024                   # Minimum required space (MB)
MAX_LOG_FILES=10                         # Log retention count

File Naming Convention

Archive files: etc-20250606.tar.gz, var-www-20250606.tar.gz
Log files: /var/log/backup-log-20250606.log
Backup staging: /tmp/backups-20250606/

Monitoring & Logs

Log Locations

Primary: /var/log/backup-log-YYYYMMDD.log
Fallback: /tmp/backup-log-YYYYMMDD.log (if /var/log/ not writable)

Email Reports

Success: [SUCCESS] Backup Script Log - hostname - date
Failure: [FAILED] Backup Script Log - hostname - date
Content: Complete execution log with statistics

Log Rotation

Automatically keeps last 10 log files
Older logs are automatically removed

Output Examples

Archive Creation

[INFO] Creating tar archive for: /var/www
[INFO] Directory size: 486M
[INFO] Available space in backup location: 5229 MB
[INFO] Creating archive: /tmp/backups-20250606/var-www-20250606.tar
[SUCCESS] Tar archive created in 3 seconds
[INFO] Archive size: 484 MB

Compression & Upload

[INFO] Compressing 'var-www-20250606.tar' with maximum compression (level 9)...
[SUCCESS] Compression completed in 45 seconds
[INFO] Original size: 484 MB
[INFO] Compressed size: 156 MB
[INFO] Compression ratio: 67%
[INFO] Space saved: 328 MB
[INFO] Uploading 'var-www-20250606.tar.gz' to cf:backups/...
[SUCCESS] Upload completed successfully in 23 seconds

Error Handling

Common Issues & Solutions

Permission Denied

# Run as root for system directories
sudo backup.sh --dir /etc

Insufficient Disk Space

# Check available space
df -h /tmp
# Clean up old files or increase disk space

Directory Not Found

# Script validates directories before starting
[ERROR] Directory does not exist: /var/www

rclone Not Configured

# Configure rclone remote
sudo rclone config
# Setup remote named 'cf'

Security Considerations

Run as root for complete system access
Sensitive files (like /etc/shadow) may show permission warnings (normal behavior)
Cloud credentials stored in rclone config
Log files contain backup statistics but not file contents
Email logs sent to configured recipient

Performance

Typical Performance

Compression: ~10-15MB/s (depends on data type and CPU)
Upload: Depends on network bandwidth and cloud provider
Disk Usage: Temporary files in /tmp/ (auto-cleaned)

Optimization Tips

Schedule during off-peak hours (2-4 AM)
Separate large directories into different backup jobs
Monitor disk space in /tmp/
Use SSD storage for better compression performance

Contributing

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/amazing-feature)
Commit your changes (git commit -m 'Add amazing feature')
Push to the branch (git push origin feature/amazing-feature)
Open a Pull Request

License

This project is open source and available under the BSD License.

Support

For issues, questions, or contributions: - Email: [email protected] - Issues: Use my email for bug reports and feature requests

Changelog

v1.0.0

Initial release
OpenBSD optimized backup script
Cloud upload via rclone
Email notifications
Comprehensive logging
Directory validation
Dry-run mode
Automatic cleanup
Log rotation

Made with ❤️ for OpenBSD servers