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rsync: Daily, Weekly and Monthly backups

I want to use rsync to store daily, weekly and monthly backups of my /home/ directory on my production server to a backup server.

I want seven daily backups to be kept. So every day, the oldest daily backup should be deleted and a new backup added.

I want five weekly backups to be kept. So every week, the oldest weekly backup should be deleted and the newest daily backup should be kept as a weekly backup.

I want twelve monthly backups to be kept. So every month, the oldest monthly backup should be deleted and the newest daily backup should be kept as a weekly monthly backup.

IanTh

there are a number of linux backup tools available are you sure you want to use rsync

hankknight

ASKER

I am using an online service that only supports rsync.

SOLUTION

IanTh

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SOLUTION

robthewolf

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

arober11

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bman21

just to expand on robthewolf and IanTh's suggestion, the cron daemon would have to look something like this:
####################################################
# Daily backups: This will run rsync every night at #
# 1:00 a.m. (you can change the time to whatever you want) #
####################################################
#Sunday
0 1 * * 0 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/SUNDAY/

#Monday
0 1 * * 1 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/MONDAY/

#Tuesday
0 1 * * 2 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/TUESDAY/

#Wednesday
0 1 * * 3 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/WEDNESDAY/

#Thursday
0 1 * * 4 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/THURSDAY/

#Friday
0 1 * * 5 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/FRIDAY/

#Saturday
0 1 * * 6 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/SATURDAY/

##############################
# Keep 4 WEEKLY "snapshots" #
# runs at 2 am Saturdays if the day #
# of the month falls on the given #
# day range #
##############################

#Week 1
0 2 1-7 * 6 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/WEEK_1/

#Week 2
0 2 8-14 * 6 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/WEEK_2/

#Week 3
0 2 15-21 * 6 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/WEEK_3/

#Week 4
0 2 22-31 * 6 rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/WEEK_4/

#################
# Monthly backups #
#################

#January
0 3 * 1 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/January/

#February
0 3 * 2 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/February/

#March
0 3 * 3 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/March/

#April
0 3 * 4 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/April/

#May
0 3 * 5 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/May/

#June
0 3 * 6 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/June/

#July
0 3 * 7 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/July/

#August
0 3 * 8 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/August/

#September
0 3 * 9 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/September/

#October
0 3 * 10 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/October/

#November
0 3 * 11 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/November/

#December
0 3 * 12 * rsync -avu --delete /LOCAL/DIRECTORY/ -e ssh remote_server:/REMOTE/DIRECTORY/December/

##################
# End of Crontab file #
##################

**NOTE** you can use the --dry-run option to ensure it is doing what you want to do without actually copying anything over.

**NOTE** just for clarity, the * * * * * in front of the rsync command tells cron when to run rsync. Each * stands for MINUTES, HOUR, DAY_OF_MONTH, MONTH, DAY_OF_WEEK.

**NOTE** I am not to sure if the weekly scripts will work. Technicaly, the Daily scropts we created is the way to do weekly cron jobs, but since you are wanting to keep a weekly backup, that is the only way that i know how to do it short of actually creating a shell script.

The Daily and Monthly scripts will work though. Notice that I added the "-u" and "--delete" commands. The -u, or update, switch saves time on your backups after the first one has been created. The --delete will delete any files off the remote directory that are no longer existent on the local filesystem.

I know that was a lot to dump on you. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. The above written code should be a "plug and play" minus a few alterations to the actually directory and the ssh connection to your backup site.