Creating Backups (Linux)

Contents

• Create a Shared Folder
  • Ubuntu
  • Mint
  • Other Linux
• Create a backup

Create a Shared Folder

Ubuntu

1. Install Samba if not already:

   sudo apt install samba && sudo systemctl enable smbd
   

2. Add your user to samba, replacing $USER with your Linux username.

   sudo smbpasswd -a $USER
   

   You will be prompted for your linux password. Then, you must create a new SMB password for the user with permission to write to your new backup share. Keep the password somewhere safe, such as Vaultwarden.

3. Identify or create a folder to store your server backups.

   Tip

   This folder can be located on an external drive connected to your Linux machine.

4. Right click the folder and click "Properties".

5. Click "Local Network Share".

6. Select "Share this folder" and give the folder a Share name. Remember the name, you will need it later. Then click "Create Share".

7. If your installation of Ubuntu is running a firewall by default or due to your own custom configuration, enter this command to allow connections to Samba. If it generates an error, you can safely ignore it:

   sudo ufw allow Samba
   

Mint

1. Install Samba if not already:

   sudo apt install samba && sudo systemctl enable smbd
   

2. Add your user to samba, replacing $USER with your Linux username.

   sudo usermod -a -G sambashare $USER
   sudo smbpasswd -a $USER
   

   You will be prompted for your linux password. Then, you must create a new SMB password for the user with permission to write to your new backup share. Keep the password somewhere safe, such as Vaultwarden.

3. Identify or create a folder to store your server backups.

   Tip

   This folder can be located on an external drive connected to your Linux machine.

4. Right click the folder and click "Sharing Options".

5. Select "Share this folder" and give the folder a Share name (maximum 12 characters). Remember the name, you will need it later. Click "Create Share".

6. If your installation of Mint is running a firewall by default or due to your own custom configuration, enter this command to allow connections to Samba. If it generates an error, you can safely ignore it:

   sudo ufw allow Samba
   

Other Linux

1. Install Samba if it is not already installed.

   • Arch:

      sudo pacman -S samba
     

   • Debian and Debian-based:

       sudo apt install samba
     

   • CentOS/Redhat

       sudo yum install samba
     

   • Fedora

       sudo dnf install samba
     

2. Identify or create a folder to store your server backups. Make a note of the directory path. For example:

   mkdir -p /home/$USER/start9-backup
   

   replacing $USER with your Linux username and "start9-backup" with whatever you want the folder to be named.

   Tip

   This folder can be located on an external drive connected to your Linux machine.

   Warning

   If you are on Fedora 38+, you need to do an extra step to allow the Samba share in SELinux:

   sudo semanage fcontext --add --type "samba_share_t" "/home/$USER/start9-backup(/.*)?"
   sudo restorecon -R /home/$USER/start9-backup
   

3. Configure Samba by adding the following to the end of your /etc/samba/smb.conf file:

   [backup-share]
       path = "/home/$USER/start9-backup"
       create mask = 0600
       directory mask = 0700
       read only = no
       guest ok = no
   

   Where:

   • [backup-share] can be replaced with whatever you want (must remain inside brackets). This is your Share Name. Remember the name, you will need it later.
   • path is the directory path to the share folder from above.

4. Open a terminal and enter the following command, replacing $USER with your Linux username:

   sudo smbpasswd -a $USER
   

   This creates a password for the Local Network Share. Keep it somewhere safe, such as Vaultwarden.

5. If your Linux system has a firewall enabled by default or due to custom configuration, you may need to allow connections to Samba. The command varies depending on the firewall in use:

   • For systems using UFW (commonly found on Debian-based distros):

     sudo ufw allow Samba
     

   • For systems using firewalld (common on RHEL-based distros):

     sudo firewall-cmd --permanent --add-service=samba
     sudo firewall-cmd --reload
     

Create a Backup

1. In StartOS, go to System > Create Backup.

2. Click "Open New".

3. Complete the form:

   1. Hostname: The name of your Linux machine on the LAN.

   2. Path - The "Share Name" (name of the share in your samba config), not the full directory path. (e.g. "backup-share" in the example).

   3. Username - Your Linux username on the remote machine that you used to create the shared directory.

   4. Password - The password you set above using smbpasswd

4. Click "Connect".

   Troubleshooting

   • If you receive Filesystem I/O Error mount error(13): Permission denied, ensure you have entered all the correct values in the form. The hostname can be particularly tricky.