Allow remote sources in config #99

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christianhauff · 2018-10-06T12:29:54Z

christianhauff commented

2018-10-06 12:29:54 +00:00

Is there a reason why borgmatic allows remote borg repositorys as a destination but no remote folders as a source? I would like to use borgmatic on my backup server to "pull" files from one or several other servers, and borg itself should support this situation.

Am I doing anything wrong with having either user@example.com:/path/to/folder or ssh://user@example.com:/path/to/folder? I always get [Errno 2] No such file or directory

Is there a reason why borgmatic allows remote borg repositorys as a destination but no remote folders as a source? I would like to use borgmatic on my backup server to "pull" files from one or several other servers, and borg itself should support this situation. Am I doing anything wrong with having either `user@example.com:/path/to/folder` or `ssh://user@example.com:/path/to/folder`? I always get `[Errno 2] No such file or directory`

witten added the

question / support

label 2018-10-06 19:59:14 +00:00

witten commented

2018-10-06 20:01:20 +00:00

Thanks for the question.. A remote "pull"-based source isn't something I've tried before. I'll give it a shot and see if I can reproduce locally.

witten commented

2018-10-06 20:11:17 +00:00

Based on the Borg documentation, it doesn't look like using remote sources is supported directly/automatically. Instead, the docs suggest to use an sshfs mount to mount the remote host as if it were a local path. At that point, you can invoke borg create as per usual on a local path:

# Backup a remote host locally ("pull" style) using sshfs
$ mkdir sshfs-mount
$ sshfs root@example.com:/ sshfs-mount
$ cd sshfs-mount
$ borg create /path/to/repo::example.com-root-{now:%Y-%m-%d} .
$ cd ..
$ fusermount -u sshfs-mount

So if you wanted to do this with borgmatic, my recommendation would be to make use of the hooks feature. Basically, you would create the sshfs mount in a before_backup hook, and then unmount in the after_backup hook.

Something like (totally untested):

hooks:
    before_backup:
        - mkdir -p /local/path/sshfs-mount
        - sshfs user@example.com:/path/to/folder /local/path/sshfs-mount
    after_backup:
        - fusermount -u /local/path/sshfs-mount

Let me know if that works for your use case.

Based on the [Borg documentation](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/usage/create.html#examples), it doesn't look like using remote sources is supported directly/automatically. Instead, the docs suggest to use an sshfs mount to mount the remote host as if it were a local path. At that point, you can invoke `borg create` as per usual on a local path: ``` # Backup a remote host locally ("pull" style) using sshfs $ mkdir sshfs-mount $ sshfs root@example.com:/ sshfs-mount $ cd sshfs-mount $ borg create /path/to/repo::example.com-root-{now:%Y-%m-%d} . $ cd .. $ fusermount -u sshfs-mount ``` So if you wanted to do this with borgmatic, my recommendation would be to make use of the [hooks feature](https://torsion.org/borgmatic/#hooks). Basically, you would create the sshfs mount in a `before_backup` hook, and then unmount in the `after_backup` hook. Something like (totally untested): ``` hooks: before_backup: - mkdir -p /local/path/sshfs-mount - sshfs user@example.com:/path/to/folder /local/path/sshfs-mount after_backup: - fusermount -u /local/path/sshfs-mount ``` Let me know if that works for your use case.

christianhauff commented

2018-10-06 20:15:40 +00:00

Thanks for your answer! Then I didn't get that correct from the borg documentation, but I already thought of using sshfs as an alternative, your proposal sounds like a good possibility!

christianhauff closed this issue

2018-10-06 20:15:40 +00:00

witten commented

2018-10-06 20:17:05 +00:00

Cool. Feel free to follow up here and let me know how it works out.

christianhauff commented

2018-10-23 12:25:13 +00:00

Just for documentation, what I've been doing now, if storage space is not an issue, is copying the remote location to a local folder using rsync, which is very fast detecting and copying only the changes, and backing-up that local folder. Even file dates, etc. can be preserved using the rsync -a option.

Just for documentation, what I've been doing now, if storage space is not an issue, is copying the remote location to a local folder using rsync, which is very fast detecting and copying only the changes, and backing-up that local folder. Even file dates, etc. can be preserved using the `rsync -a` option.

witten commented

2018-10-24 05:31:39 +00:00

Okay, that sounds like it'll work. Note that you could also do that with borgmatic hooks if you so desired.

networkjanitor referenced this issue

2020-07-31 02:34:41 +00:00

borg backup in pull mode #346

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