This guide shows you how to install and setup a backup system with incremental backups on Linux Debian based system using Tartarus with your own FTP Server. This guide also contains a bash script which automates the whole process of installing and configuring Tartarus.
 
 
Tartarus is a software that provides a nice wrapper around basic Unix tools such as tar, find and curl (well, that’s not that basic) to provide a seamless backup solution, aimed at automatic gathering and backup. It has the ability to do full as well as incremental backups and is published by Stefan Tomanek under the rules of the GPL.
 
Instead of relying on single usage backup scripts or complicated command lines, “tartarus” reads its configuration from easily managable configuration files. It can store gathered data in regular files, or upload the backup directly (on the fly) to an FTP server. For more specific usage scenarios, custom methods can also be defined within the config file.
 
 
Click like to add us to your Facebook News Feed

Import the GnuPG key with which the repository is signed, and to install the program

 
 
The script uses a variety of classic Unix tools using the package management – if not already done – Install the following:

Configuration
Tartarus reads its configuration profile files that are stored in the / etc / tartarus. These are shell scripts that are processed by the backup process, so it is also possible to include on the command “source” other configuration files in a profile. This can be exploited to store generic settings for all profiles backup central
 
Create tartarus general config:

 
 
Edit the settings in the config:

 
Note*: In the end of the generic.inc configuration file I have added a post process hook. This hook is run after the backup has been carried out and delete backups which are older than 7 days. This is a nice feature so you don’t waste your storage with old backups.
 
 
Create a file with your pass phrase. You can create a pass phrase by using the program pwgen or choose your own. Add to the following file.

 
 
Backup
Create a backup operation: A simple profile for the Safety of the root file system (/) might be:
 
Create backup config file:

 
Use these settings

Do your fist backup:

Incremental backups
After a full backup you can start incremental backups. Incremental backups saves only the changes since the last full backup. Tartarus creates marker files to determine the exact date of the last backup. To perform incremental backups, you must first create a directory that contains these files:

After each successful backup the script updates the file. To perform an incremental backup, you start Tartarus incremental with the additional parameter “-i”. So to make an incremental backup you would write:

Automatic backup
The best solution is if you don’t have to think about backup and it is done automatically. It is there for a good idea to create a script to run your different backups. Create a shell script and place it in your favorite bin location. Here I have added it to /usr/local/bin

Here is the contents of the shell script. This runs the backup for the profile you choose to run it with. That is for our example tartarus_backup.sh # root. Add this to the file:

 
 
Make the script executable:

 
Now you can run the full backup script by writing and if the shell script is in your PATH you can leave that out.

And to run incremental backup:

Now add the backup task to your crontab. You edit the crontab by writing crontab -e in the prompt. Here is an example on full backup every Sunday and the other days incremental backups.

Note*: If you have databases on your server it is a good idea to backup these to the file system. Then they are automatically saved to your backup store when running tartarus backup. Here is a guide on how to backup your MySQL databases:
How to backup your MySQL databases automatically with the script AutoMySQLBackup
 
 

Recovery

Since Tartarus is based on simple Unix utilities, a backup is very easy to restore from the rescue system. To unpack the archive in the directory /mnt/restore you do the following:

Setup Tartarus Bash Script

Here is a script which automates the whole process of installing and configure Tartarus:

setuptartarus.sh

If there is a typo in the guide or you have a better solution please post it as comment.

Btw. if you like the post you know what to do ; )