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Beginner ~15 min sudo required

Set Up Automated Backups with Cron and rsync

Create a backup script for files and database, then schedule it with cron to run daily.

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Prerequisites

  • Ubuntu server
  • cron access

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1
Step 1 Command

Create backup script

mkdir -p /opt/scripts /backups
cat > /opt/scripts/backup.sh << 'EOF'
#!/bin/bash
DATE=$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)
BACKUP_DIR=/backups

# Database backup
mysqldump -u root -p'YOUR_DB_PASS' --all-databases | gzip > $BACKUP_DIR/db-$DATE.sql.gz

# Files backup
tar -czf $BACKUP_DIR/www-$DATE.tar.gz /var/www/html

# Keep only last 7 days
find $BACKUP_DIR -name '*.gz' -mtime +7 -delete

echo "Backup completed: $DATE"
EOF
chmod +x /opt/scripts/backup.sh
2
Step 2 Command

Test the backup script

bash /opt/scripts/backup.sh
ls -lh /backups/
3
Step 3 Command

Schedule with cron (daily at 2 AM)

# Add to root crontab:
(crontab -l 2>/dev/null; echo "0 2 * * * /opt/scripts/backup.sh >> /var/log/backup.log 2>&1") | crontab -
crontab -l
4
Step 4 Command

Sync backups to remote server (optional)

rsync -avz --delete /backups/ backup_user@REMOTE_SERVER:/remote/backups/