External Backup Script using Rclone

This Shell script will allow for an automatic backup of important information related to the configuration of your applications excluding Plex.. It can then be configured to store it or either google drive or a local folder on your Ultras Slot.

Initial Setup and Configuration

create three new folders, one may already exist this is fine mkdir ~/lock mkdir ~/scripts mkdir ~/autobackup

Then you need to enter the new folder called scripts

cd ~/scripts

And create the script file

nano backup.sh

Paste the following lines into it :

#!/bin/bash
exec {lock_fd}>/home/your-username/lock/BackupLock || exit 1
flock -n "$lock_fd" || { echo "ERROR: flock() failed." >&2; exit 1; }
if [ -z "$STY" ]; then exec screen -dm -S autobackup /bin/bash "$0"; fi

DATE=$(date +%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S)
tar --exclude="$HOME"/.config/plex -czvf "$HOME"/autobackup/MyUSBbackup-$DATE.tar.gz "$HOME"/.apps "$HOME"/.config



rclone copy -v --bwlimit=5M /home/your-username/autobackup/ remotename:/”My USB Backup”


flock -u "$lock_fd"

Save it by pressing Ctrl+X then Y then Enter.

You will need to change the paths home/your-username to match your own home and username. You will also be required to change remotename to match your rclone remote name which can be found with the rclone config command or rclone listremotes. These need to be run via SSH Command line.

Testing

So to test first we navigate to ~/scripts folder we made earlier

cd ~/scripts

Then we need to allow the backup.sh permissions to run

chmod +x backup.sh

And finally, run it

./backup.sh

If all went well * tar -ztvf ~/autobackup/.tar.gz should show a bunch of files starting with /home/username/.config and /home/username/.apps inside.

If the script is running and you were to rerun it, you may see an error message “Flock Failed” this is a file lock to stop multiple downloads running and is normal. If you are sure it isn’t running you can delete the lock file from ~/lock. You can also check the progress of the backup script, which is running in a screen with the command screen -rd autobackup and then to exit the screen while keeping the command running use the keyboard combo CONTROL + A + D

If all is well after the test, we can automate the check via crontab

Open crontab with

crontab -e

You may have a choice of editors. We recommend Nano

Inside the crontab add a single line under everything else in the file that looks like this

0 0 */3 * * /home/your-username/scripts/backup.sh

Save it by pressing Ctrl+X then Y then Enter.

The script will now run every 3 days, checking for files that have changed and syncing them to the destination folder