Configuration

Environment Variables

RESTIC_REPOSITORY

Sets the restic repository path.

This is a standard environment variable the restic command will read making it simple for us to enter the container and use the restic command directly.

More about this value and supported backends: https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/stable/030_preparing_a_new_repo.html

RESTIC_PASSWORD

Sets the password is used to encrypt/decrypt data. Losing this password will make recovery impossible.

This is a standard environment variable the restic command will read making it simple for us to enter the container running the command directly.

RESTIC_KEEP_DAILY

Default value: 7

How many daily snapshots (grouped by path) back in time we want to keep. This is passed to restic in the forget --keep-daily option.

RESTIC_KEEP_WEEKLY

Default value: 4

How many weeks back we should keep at least one snapshot (grouped by path). This is passed to restic in the forget --keep-weekly option.

RESTIC_KEEP_MONTHLY

Default value: 12

How many months back we should keep at least on snapshot (grouped by path). This is passed to restic in the forget --keep-monthly option.

The schedule parameters only accepts numeric values and is validated when the container starts. Providing values cron does not understand will stall all backup.

RESTIC_KEEP_YEARLY

Default value: 3

How many years back we should keep at least one snapshot (grouped by path). This is passed to restic in the forget --keep-yearly option.

CRON_SCHEDULE

Default value: 0 2 * * * (daily at 02:00)

The cron schedule parameters. The crontab is generated when the container starts from the CRON_SCHEDULE and CRON_COMMAND env variables.

┌───────────── minute (0 - 59)
│ ┌───────────── hour (0 - 23)
│ │ ┌───────────── day of the month (1 - 31)
│ │ │ ┌───────────── month (1 - 12)
│ │ │ │ ┌───────────── day of the week (0 - 6) (Sunday to Saturday)
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │
* * * * * command to execute

CRON_COMMAND

Default value: source /env.sh && rcb backup > /proc/1/fd/1

The command executed in the crontab. A single line is generated when the container starts from the CRON_SCHEDULE and CRON_COMMAND environment variables.

The default command sources a dump of all env vars, runs the backup command and directs output to pid 1 so it appears in docker logs.

By default the crontab will look like this:

0 2 * * * source /env.sh && rcb backup > /proc/1/fd/1

LOG_LEVEL

Default value: info

Log level for the rcb command. Valid values are debug, info, warning, error.

EMAIL_HOST

The email host to use.

Alerts can be tested using the rcb alerts command. This will send a test message to all configured alert backends.

EMAIL_PORT

The port to connect to

Alerts can be tested using the rcb alerts command. This will send a test message to all configured alert backends.

EMAIL_HOST_USER

The user of the sender account

Alerts can be tested using the rcb alerts command. This will send a test message to all configured alert backends.

EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD

The password for the sender account

Alerts can be tested using the rcb alerts command. This will send a test message to all configured alert backends.

EMAIL_SEND_TO

The email address to send alerts

Alerts can be tested using the rcb alerts command. This will send a test message to all configured alert backends.

DISCORD_WEBHOOK

The discord webhook url. And administrator can quickly set this up by going to server settings in the discord client and create a webhook that will post embedded messages to a specific channel.

The url usually looks like this: https://discordapp.com/api/webhooks/...`

DOCKER_HOST

Default value: unix://tmp/docker.sock

The socket or host of the docker service.

DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY

If defined verify the host against a CA certificate. Path to certs is defined in DOCKER_CERT_PATH and can be copied or mapped into this backup container.

DOCKER_CERT_PATH

A path to a directory containing TLS certificates to use when connecting to the Docker host. Combined with DOCKER_TLS_VERIFY this can be used to talk to docker through TLS in cases were we cannot map in the docker socket.

INCLUDE_PROJECT_NAME

Define this environment variable if your backup destination paths needs project name as a prefix. This is useful when running multiple projects.

EXCLUDE_BIND_MOUNTS

Docker has to volumes types. Binds and volumes. Volumes are docker volumes (docker`volume list). Binds are paths mapped into the container from the host for example in the volumes section of a service.

If defined all host binds will be ignored globally. This is useful when you only care about actual docker volumes. Often host binds are only used for mapping in configuration. This saves the user from manually excluding these bind volumes.

SWARM_MODE

If defined containers in swarm stacks are also evaluated.

Compose Labels

What is backed up is controlled by simple labels in the compose yaml file. At any point we can verify this configuration by running the rcb status command.

Here we can see what volumes and databases are detected for backup.

Volumes

To enable volume backup for a service we simply add the restic-compose-backup.volumes: true label. The value must be true.

Example:

myservice:
  image: some_image
  labels:
    restic-compose-backup.volumes: true
  volumes:
    - uploaded_media:/srv/media
    - uploaded_files:/srv/files
    - /srv/data:/srv/data

volumes:
  media:
  files:

This will back up the three volumes mounted to this service. Their path in restic will be:

/volumes/myservice/srv/media
/volumes/myservice/srv/files
/volumes/myservice/srv/data

A simple include and exclude filter for what volumes should be backed up is also available. Note that this includes or excludes entire volumes and are not include/exclude patterns for files in the volumes.

Note

The exclude and include filtering is applied on the source path, not the destination.

Include example including two volumes only:

myservice:
  image: some_image
  labels:
    restic-compose-backup.volumes: true
    restic-compose-backup.volumes.include: "uploaded_media,uploaded_files"
  volumes:
    - uploaded_media:/srv/media
    - uploaded_files:/srv/files
    - /srv/data:/srv/data

volumes:
  media:
  files:

Exclude example achieving the same result as the example above.

example:
  image: some_image
  labels:
    restic-compose-backup.volumes: true
    restic-compose-backup.volumes.exclude: "data"
  volumes:
    # Excluded by filter
    - media:/srv/media
    # Backed up
    - files:/srv/files
    - /srv/data:/srv/data

volumes:
  media:
  files:

The exclude and include tag can be used together in more complex situations.

mariadb

To enable backup of mariadb simply add the restic-compose-backup.mariadb: true label.

Credentials are fetched from the following environment variables in the mariadb service. This is the standard when using the official mariadb image.

MYSQL_USER
MYSQL_PASSWORD

Backups are done by dumping all databases directly into restic through stdin using mysqldump. It will appear in restic as a separate snapshot with path /databases/<service_name>/all_databases.sql.

Example:

mariadb:
  image: mariadb:10
  labels:
    restic-compose-backup.mariadb: true
  env_file:
    mariadb-credentials.env
  volumes:
    - mariadb:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:
  mariadb:

mysql

To enable backup of mysql simply add the restic-compose-backup.mysql: true label.

Credentials are fetched from the following environment variables in the mysql service. This is the standard when using the official mysql image.

MYSQL_USER
MYSQL_PASSWORD

Backups are done by dumping all databases directly into restic through stdin using mysqldump. It will appear in restic as a separate snapshot with path /databases/<service_name>/all_databases.sql.

Example:

mysql:
  image: mysql:5
  labels:
    restic-compose-backup.mysql: true
  env_file:
    mysql-credentials.env
  volumes:
    - mysql:/var/lib/mysql

volumes:: mysql:

postgres

To enable backup of mysql simply add the restic-compose-backup.postgres: true label.

Credentials are fetched from the following environment variables in the postgres service. This is the standard when using the official postgres image.

POSTGRES_USER
POSTGRES_PASSWORD
POSTGRES_DB

Backups are done by dumping the POSTGRES_DB directly into restic through stdin using pg_dump. It will appear in restic as a separate snapshot with path /databases/<service_name>/<POSTGRES_DB>.sql.

Warning

Currently only the POSTGRES_DB database is dumped.

Example:

postgres:
  image: postgres:11
  labels:
    # Enables backup of this database
    restic-compose-backup.postgres: true
  env_file:
    postgres-credentials.env
  volumes:
    - pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data

volumes:
  pgdata:

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