title	author	date	tags	categories	draft
Resticara - a wrapper of Restic	Blagovest Petrov	2023-09-11T00:54:19+02:00	[Backup Projects]	[DevOps]	false

Hey folks, hope you're all doing well! If you've ever had to deal with backups, you know it can be a chore. Enter Restic — an excellent command-line tool for backups. But wouldn't it be nice to skip the bash scripting for simple projects? That's exactly why I decided to build Resticara over a weekend. I was working with a client and realized that both of us needed a more streamlined way to use Restic.

>>GitHub page<<

What is Resticara?

Simply put, Resticara is a wrappera around Restic . If you're not yet acquainted with Restic, I highly recommend checking it out. But even though Restic is powerful, it can be cumbersome to use at times. That's where Resticara steps in. It provides an easy-to-use interface for Restic, aiming to make your backup process more straightforward.

Currently, it supports backup of directories and MySQL/MariaDB databases. PostgreSQL support is on the TODO and pull requests with more functionality will be highly appreciated!

Simplicity

The configuration is made in a single INI file, no complex scripting involved. This is an example config:

[general]
; if hostID=hostname, the actual hostname of the machine will be shown
hostID=hostname

[smtp]
enabled = false
;from = "user@example.com"
;username = "user@example.com"
;pass = "#################3"
;to = "admin@example.com"
;server = "mail.example.com"
;port = "587"

[dir:website]
bucket = s3:s3.amazonaws.com/mysitebackup204:wpsites/
directory = /var/www
retention_daily = 4
retention_weekly = 7
retention_monthly = 3

[mysql:maindb]
bucket = b2:bucket:mariadb/
database = --all-databases
retention_daily = 4
retention_weekly = 7
retention_monthly = 3

As the saying goes, a good system administrator should be lazy—in a smart way, of course! The idea is to reduce repetitive tasks to a minimum for maximum effectiveness. And what could be lazier, in the best sense of the word, than putting all your backup configurations in a single, straightforward INI file? No intricate scripts, no lengthy commands—just pure, unadulterated simplicity. It's also easier for automating with tools like Ansible!

Reporting

As you see, Resticara already supports integrated reports through SMTP and it's pushing the logs to Syslog.

Example usage with SystemD timers

First, install Restic independently. Here is the official documentation: https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/stable/020_installation.html
Then, install Resticara from an RPM or a DEB package or extract it from a ZIP. It can be downloaded from the GitHub Releases page

Once the two packages are both installed. initialize the repositories with `restic init`. This functionality is not included inside Resticara. You might need some secrets given as ENV variables, depending on the cloud provider. For MySQL/MariaDB backups, the user which is running Resticara will also need credentials to the database. They must be set in the ~/.my.cnf file.
When the repositories are initialized, configure them in `/etc/resticara/config.ini`, as it is described in the file.

SystemD setup

Create a service file config but don't enable it, it's not a daemon. The service will be triggered by the SystemD timer: /etc/systemd/system/resticara.service:

[Unit]
Description=Run Resticara

[Service]
Environment="B2_ACCOUNT_ID=MyB2Account"
Environment="B2_ACCOUNT_KEY=010101"
Environment="RESTIC_PASSWORD=u4U0ECIjqJxD56g9Ra63XuYgHnwjYvVMbw7nEAR4zWX5dvZHnUvkeXXbVbcC"
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/resticara run

The required secrets will be stored in the service (RESTOC_PASSWORD is the key for encrypting the Restic repositoies). This might be not the best practice but it works for me for now.

Create the timer configuration /etc/systemd/system/resticara.timer:

[Unit]
Description=Run Resticara twice daily

[Timer]
OnCalendar=*-*-* 12,18:00:00
Persistent=true

[Install]
WantedBy=timers.target

The current config will run the backup twice a day - at 12:00PM and 6:00PM. Also, you will need to enable the timer (Only the timer, not the service!):

systemctl enable resticara.timer

This is everyting for now. Any contributions welcome!