BorgBackupSource:modules/services/backup/borgbackup.nixUpstream documentation:
BorgBackup (short: Borg)
is a deduplicating backup program. Optionally, it supports compression and
authenticated encryption.
The main goal of Borg is to provide an efficient and secure way to backup
data. The data deduplication technique used makes Borg suitable for daily
backups since only changes are stored. The authenticated encryption technique
makes it suitable for backups to not fully trusted targets.
Configuring
A complete list of options for the Borgbase module may be found
here.
Basic usage for a local backup
A very basic configuration for backing up to a locally accessible directory
is:
{
opt.services.borgbackup.jobs = {
{ rootBackup = {
paths = "/";
exclude = [ "/nix" "/path/to/local/repo" ];
repo = "/path/to/local/repo";
doInit = true;
encryption = {
mode = "repokey";
passphrase = "secret";
};
compression = "auto,lzma";
startAt = "weekly";
};
}
};
}
If you do not want the passphrase to be stored in the world-readable
Nix store, use passCommand. You find an example below.
Create a borg backup serverYou should use a different SSH key for each repository you write to,
because the specified keys are restricted to running borg serve and can only
access this single repository. You need the output of the generate pub file.
# sudo ssh-keygen -N '' -t ed25519 -f /run/keys/id_ed25519_my_borg_repo
# cat /run/keys/id_ed25519_my_borg_repo
ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAID78zmOyA+5uPG4Ot0hfAy+sLDPU1L4AiIoRYEIVbbQ/ root@nixos
Add the following snippet to your NixOS configuration:
{
services.borgbackup.repos = {
my_borg_repo = {
authorizedKeys = [
"ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAID78zmOyA+5uPG4Ot0hfAy+sLDPU1L4AiIoRYEIVbbQ/ root@nixos"
] ;
path = "/var/lib/my_borg_repo" ;
};
};
}Backup to the borg repository serverThe following NixOS snippet creates an hourly backup to the service
(on the host nixos) as created in the section above. We assume
that you have stored a secret passphrasse in the file
/run/keys/borgbackup_passphrase, which should be only
accessible by root
{
services.borgbackup.jobs = {
backupToLocalServer = {
paths = [ "/etc/nixos" ];
doInit = true;
repo = "borg@nixos:." ;
encryption = {
mode = "repokey-blake2";
passCommand = "cat /run/keys/borgbackup_passphrase";
};
environment = { BORG_RSH = "ssh -i /run/keys/id_ed25519_my_borg_repo"; };
compression = "auto,lzma";
startAt = "hourly";
};
};
};The following few commands (run as root) let you test your backup.
> nixos-rebuild switch
...restarting the following units: polkit.service
> systemctl restart borgbackup-job-backupToLocalServer
> sleep 10
> systemctl restart borgbackup-job-backupToLocalServer
> export BORG_PASSPHRASE=topSecrect
> borg list --rsh='ssh -i /run/keys/id_ed25519_my_borg_repo' borg@nixos:.
nixos-backupToLocalServer-2020-03-30T21:46:17 Mon, 2020-03-30 21:46:19 [84feb97710954931ca384182f5f3cb90665f35cef214760abd7350fb064786ac]
nixos-backupToLocalServer-2020-03-30T21:46:30 Mon, 2020-03-30 21:46:32 [e77321694ecd160ca2228611747c6ad1be177d6e0d894538898de7a2621b6e68]Backup to a hosting service
Several companies offer (paid)
hosting services for Borg repositories.
To backup your home directory to borgbase you have to:
Generate a SSH key without a password, to access the remote server. E.g.
sudo ssh-keygen -N '' -t ed25519 -f /run/keys/id_ed25519_borgbase
Create the repository on the server by following the instructions for your
hosting server.
Initialize the repository on the server. Eg.
sudo borg init --encryption=repokey-blake2 \
-rsh "ssh -i /run/keys/id_ed25519_borgbase" \
zzz2aaaaa@zzz2aaaaa.repo.borgbase.com:repoAdd it to your NixOS configuration, e.g.
{
services.borgbackup.jobs = {
my_Remote_Backup = {
paths = [ "/" ];
exclude = [ "/nix" "'**/.cache'" ];
repo = "zzz2aaaaa@zzz2aaaaa.repo.borgbase.com:repo";
encryption = {
mode = "repokey-blake2";
passCommand = "cat /run/keys/borgbackup_passphrase";
};
BORG_RSH = "ssh -i /run/keys/id_ed25519_borgbase";
compression = "auto,lzma";
startAt = "daily";
};
};
}}Vorta backup client for the desktop
Vorta is a backup client for macOS and Linux desktops. It integrates the
mighty BorgBackup with your desktop environment to protect your data from
disk failure, ransomware and theft.
It is available as a flatpak package. To enable it you must set the
following two configuration items.
services.flatpak.enable = true ;
# next line is needed to avoid the Error
# Error deploying: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown:
services.accounts-daemon.enable = true;
As a normal user you must first install, then run vorta using the
following commands:
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install flathub com.borgbase.Vorta
flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=vorta com.borgbase.Vorta
After running flatpak install you can start Vorta also via
the KDE application menu.
Details about using Vorta can be found under https://vorta.borgbase.com
.