Server Backup

Status: Active — first snapshot and selected restore tests validated

Plan, implement, and validate file-level backups and a recovery path for mail.doonze.net, the Dell PowerEdge R710 running Debian. The target recovery method is to reinstall the then-current Debian stable release on the existing RAID, install Restic, and restore selected files and service data.

Current state

• Restic 0.14.0 is installed from Debian Bookworm.
• The encrypted repository /nfs/backups/debianr710-restic is initialized. First snapshot: 29ab3833 (2026-10-04); restic check found no errors.
• The first snapshot processed 171.946 GiB and stored 95.814 GiB after Restic deduplication and compression.
• Selected restores passed: package inventory and SQL dump files restored; vmdashboard imported into a temporary schema and passed mariadb-check; the restored qcow2 passed qemu-img check. A full host rebuild is not tested.
• The timer is enabled for daily 05:00 America/Chicago. Each run applies 7-daily/4-weekly/12-monthly retention and prunes unreferenced data. Alerting is a TODO.
• Latest successful run: snapshot 05886861 (2026-10-11 17:11 CDT), 731,949 files / 173.522 GiB processed; 1.351 GiB stored. Retention completed.
• Fixed the autofs probe: the backup script now reads the approved Restic repository marker to trigger the NFS child mount, then verifies its exact filesystem type and source. No autofs configuration was changed.
• The old Déjà Dup set /nfs/backups/debianr710 and the LuckyBackup set /nfs/backups/R710_server_backup have both been removed after validation.
• Future runs publish package inventory at one stable latest-only path rather than a timestamped path per run.
• Planned UI: Backrest at https://server.doonze.net/backrest, behind Apache with password authentication scoped to that path; not installed yet.

Project documents

• PROJECT_CONTEXT.md — systems, paths, conventions, and safeguards.
• BACKUP_PLAN.md — scope, design, and readiness gates.
• DATABASE_BACKUP_POLICY.md — schema/data rules per database.
• RESTORE_RUNBOOK.md — draft rebuild and restore procedure.
• PACKAGE_INVENTORY.md — package snapshot and upkeep rules.
• DISCOVERY_NOTES.md — dated observations and prior-backup findings.

No repository password, database dump, or backup payload belongs in this Git project. See .gitignore and keep recovery secrets outside Git.