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The original was posted on /r/selfhosted by /u/l-duesing on 2025-08-03 16:58:33+00:00.
Like many of you, I'm running a bunch of different services in my homelab โ Docker containers, databases, file shares, and more. For a long time, my backup "strategy" was a messy collection of cron jobs and custom scripts for each service. It was fragile, hard to manage, and I was never 100% sure if everything was actually working.
So, I decided to build a proper solution to scratch my own itch: a modular, client-server backup system that's easy to configure and just works. Today, I'm releasing Version 0.3, which is a huge step forward!
The whole thing is built on a simple, transparent stack: Bash, rsync, and restic for the heavy lifting on the server.
What makes it cool?
๐งฉ Truly Modular with Plugins: Just drop a script for your service into the plugins folder. I've already created plugins for:
Docker Compose (backs up volumes)
PostgreSQL & MySQL/MariaDB (creates a proper DB dump)
InfluxDB
Plain file/directory sync (using rsync)
๐ค Automatic Service Discovery: You define your services in simple .yml files. The main backup script finds them automatically and runs the right plugin. No need to edit a master script.
๐ Powerful Server-Side Backups with Restic: Server fetches their data from the clients, which then uses restic to create efficient, encrypted, and deduplicated snapshots. This saves a ton of space.
๐งน Automatic Maintenance: It comes with systemd timers to automatically run restic forget --prune and restic check, so your repository stays clean and healthy without you having to think about it.
๐ Simple Configuration: There's a central client_config.yml and server_config.yml. To back up a new service, you just create a small file like this:
For example, here's how you'd back up your forgejo:
service:
# REQUIRED: Unique name for the service (used in backup path)
name: "forgejo"
# Optional: Explicitly define type if needed, otherwise derived from parent dir
# type: "docker"
# Task Type: docker (handled by docker_compose.sh plugin)
docker:
# REQUIRED: Path to the docker-compose file. Triggers stop/start.
docker_compose_path: "/opt/forgejo/docker-compose.yml"
# Optional: Seconds to wait after 'docker compose start' before proceeding.
# Useful if services need time to initialize. Default is 0 (no wait).
wait_after_restart: 3
pin_images_to_digest: true
# Task Type: files (handled by files_rsync.sh plugin)
files:
# REQUIRED: List of paths to include (backup relative to basename)
paths:
- "/opt/forgejo/forgejo"
The client script will see this file, run the docker and files plugin with these paths, and ship it off to the server. That's it!
I've put a lot of work into making this stable and have written detailed documentation, including a Disaster Recovery Guide.
I would be thrilled if you checked it out and gave me some feedback! What plugins are missing? Is the documentation clear?
You can find the project and all the documentation on GitHub:
โก๏ธ https://github.com/lduesing/backup-suite
Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think.
