External Backup Script using Rclone

All unofficial utilities are provided for your convenience. The scripts are provided as-is and may not be updated or maintained by Ultra.cc. Clients are welcome to use and customize unofficial scripts for their unique needs and requirements. Unofficial support may be offered via Discord only and at the sole discretion of Ultra.cc staff.
Use at your own risk.

This script allows 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 Ultra.cc service.

Initial Setup

Create three new folders, one may already exist this is fine

mkdir ~/lock
mkdir ~/scripts
mkdir ~/rclone-backup

Then you need to enter the new folder called scripts

cd ~/scripts

And create the script file

nano rclone-backup.sh

Paste the following lines into to editor:

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

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

rclone copy -v --bwlimit=5M /home/username/rclone-backup/ remotename:/MyUltraBackup

flock -u "$lock_fd"

Make sure to replace username to your Ultra username.
Make sure to replace remotename to match your Rclone remote name.

You can execute rclone listremotes to see your configured Rclone remotes.

Save the script and exit the nano editor by pressing Ctrl+X then Y then ENTER.

Test Script

First, navigate to the ~/scripts folder.

cd ~/scripts

Next, we need to make the script executable.

chmod +x rclone-backup.sh

The script is now ready to be executed, which can be done with the following command.

./rclone-backup.sh

If the script is running and you were to rerun it, you may see an error message ERROR: flock() failed. This is a file lock to stop multiple script executions running simultaneously. If you are sure the script is not in fact running, you can delete the lock file from the ~/lock directory.

Check Progress

You can also check the progress of the backup script, which is running in a screen session.

Attach to the screen session with the following command.

screen -rd rclone-backup

To detach from the screen session and leave the script running in the background, press ctrl+a and then press d.

Automate Script

Once you have concluded the script to be running successfully, you can schedule it to be automatically executed via crontab.

Open crontab with the following command:

crontab -e

Inside the crontab add the following line at the bottom of the crontab file.

Make sure to replace ultra with your Ultra username.
The script will run at midnight every 3 days, but can be reconfigured to your liking. See crontab.guru for more information.

0 0 */3 * * /home/ultra/scripts/rclone-backup.sh

Save and exit crontab by pressing Ctrl+X then Y and ENTER.

If you require further assistance, you can open a support ticket here!

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