Hands-on guide series
Backups & Disaster Recovery: A Hands-On Guide
A four-part, hands-on guide to backups that actually restore: an encrypted deduplicated restic repository in object storage, snapshots and cheap history, the restore test that most teams skip, and retention plus a nightly systemd timer. Every command tested on a live server.
What you will build
Security is layers, not a switch. Each part closes a different category of attack, from the automated sweep that finds a brand-new server, to the day one gets in anyway. Read them in order, or jump to what you need.
- 1
A Backup RepositorySet up restic against S3 object storage and take a first encrypted, deduplicated backup into a repository that lives off your app server.7 min - 2
Snapshots and DeduplicationSee restic deduplication in action: a second backup stores almost nothing, and your snapshots stay full points in time you can restore.7 min - 3
The Restore That MattersRun the one restic restore test that turns a backup into a recovery: restore a snapshot to a clean location and confirm the data comes back intact.8 min - 4
Retention and AutomationGive restic a retention policy that prunes old snapshots, then wrap backup automation in a systemd timer that runs nightly and alerts on failure.8 min