Butterfly Backup: presentation

The plan is great when the backup plan is excellent!

What is that?

Butterfly Backup is a simple command line wrapper of rsync for complex task, written in python.

Why butterfly?

Butterfly Backup exploits the potential of rsync with maximum simplicity, maximum flexibility and more. Moreover, its greatest strength is the organization of backups in a catalog, easy to consult.

What can I do?

With Butterfly Backup I can perform single or group backups (Full, Incremental, Differential and Mirror), restore, export, list and archive old backups.

How can you do it?

Naturally through the synergy of rsync and OpenSSH technology and the power of Python..

Which platforms support?

Butterfly Backup can backup Linux, BSD, MacOSX and Windows(with cygwin, see config docs)

Real uses

This list consists of only a few examples; applications can be endless:

• Backing up periodically (ex. once a month) a folder where I store my photos over the years;
• Log's backup of one or more servers;
• Backup of users of one or more machines;
• Backup system config of much servers;
• Create a backup snapshot of the my laptop;
• Create a central server than backupping client and server;
• Backup a entire file server, incrementally;

Real possibilities

• Configuration for silently or bulk backup
• All backup are organized into a catalog
• List single or all backup by the catalog
• List detail of a single backup
• Backup single PC, with Full,Incremental,Differential and Mirror mode;
• Backup more PCs, with Full,Incremental,Differential and Mirror mode (with parallelism algorithm);
• Backup custom folder or predefined data (User,Config,Application,System,Log): see backup docs
• Restore backup on the same PC
• Restore backup in other PC
• Restore backup in other operating system
• Apply retention policy to delete old backup
• Archive old backup in other file system or same (zip backup folder)
• Export one backup to another file system

Butterfly Backup: in action

Transform rsync in a powerfully backup/restore/archive tool

Operation

All operation of Butterfly Backup are server to client, agent-less. The server must be Unix machine with latest rsync installed. This means that all commands must be executed by the backup server. Of course, nothing prevents the backup server from being itself (localhost).

To see all the operations and more examples, see the docs.

Test

If you want to try or test Butterfly Backup before installing it, run the test:

$ git clone https://github.com/MatteoGuadrini/Butterfly-Backup.git
$ cd Butterfly-Backup
$ bash test_bb.py
...
[92512a6e-506e-11eb-b747-2ba55b805ea5]
type = Full
path = /tmp/bb_repo/localhost/2021_01_06__23_28
name = localhost
os = Unix
timestamp = 2021-01-06 23:28:59
start = 2021-01-06 23:28:59
end = 2021-01-06 23:29:04
status = 0

Installation

Install Butterfly Backup is very simple; run this:

git clone https://github.com/MatteoGuadrini/Butterfly-Backup.git
cd Butterfly-Backup
sudo python3 setup.py install -f # -f is for upgrade
bb --help
man bb

Backup machine

Backup a single PC or server is a everyday task. But most of the data may not change in the various backups made; then, in these cases, an incremental backup is needed. Butterfly Backup natively supports incremental and differential backups, starting from a full. In this case, the first backup to be performed on the machine will be as follows:

bb backup --computer pc1 --destination /nas/mybackup --data User Config --type MacOS --mode Full

or with short option:

bb backup -c pc1 -d /nas/mybackup -D User Config -t MacOS -m Full

So we created a first Full backup, on a MacOS machine, considering the folders User -> /Users and Config -> /private/etc in the destination /nas/mybackup

Note: if you do not specify the user, Butterfly Backup will assume that the source and the destination know the same user; for example, I start the backup with the above command and my user is calling arthur, he will use the latter to log in to pc1.

Now that we have our first Full backup, we can run incremental for the next few times.

bb backup --computer pc1 --destination /nas/mybackup --data User Config --type MacOS

or with short option:

bb backup -c pc1 -d /nas/mybackup -D User Config -t MacOS

Note: Incremental mode performs a Full backup when they have not been done before.

Restore machine

Before starting any restore, you need to understand what kind of data and in what time period you have to start. So, let's start checking our backups, with this command:

bb list --catalog /nas/mybackup

The result will be the following:

BUTTERFLY BACKUP CATALOG

Backup id: f65e5afe-9734-11e8-b0bb-005056a664e0
Hostname or ip: pc1
Timestamp: 2018-08-03 17:50:36

Backup id: 4f2b5f6e-9939-11e8-9ab6-005056a664e0
Hostname or ip: pc1
Timestamp: 2018-08-06 07:26:46

Backup id: cc6e2744-9944-11e8-b82a-005056a664e0
Hostname or ip: pc1
Timestamp: 2018-08-06 08:49:00

Select (copy) Backup id when you want restore a backup. For exit, press q Now, run this command for more detail (for example, try the first):

bb list --catalog /nas/mybackup --backup-id f65e5afe-9734-11e8-b0bb-005056a664e0

The result will be the following:

Backup id: f65e5afe-9734-11e8-b0bb-005056a664e0
Hostname or ip: pc1
Type: Full
Timestamp: 2018-08-03 17:50:36
Start: 2018-08-03 17:50:36
Finish: 2018-08-03 18:02:32
OS: MacOS
ExitCode: 0
Path: /nas/mybackup/pc1/2018_08_03__17_50
List: etc
Users

Now that we are sure that the selected backup is what we want (both in data and on date), run this command:

bb restore --computer pc1 --catalog /nas/mybackup --backup-id f65e5afe-9734-11e8-b0bb-005056a664e0

So we have restored the data saved on the date indicated in our pc1.

Other operation

With Butterfly Backup, you can perform Full, Incremental and Mirror backups, applying retention or archive rules; you can activate the log function, so as to track any operation over time and/or increase verbosity. Bulk backup operations can be performed using a simple text file, formatted in a list. Is possible create, by means of openssh operations, a configuration and copy them into the machines impacted by the backup without causing the machine to request the password (key exchange). For all this, Read the Docs or run help:

bb --help

Butterfly Backup: supports

One more thing

The name butterfly, is born precisely because agent-less; like a butterfly takes the pollen from a flower and brings it elsewhere. A backup or restore is performed without any iteration responsibility on the part of the final machine. The performances are not altered. While all the operations of Butterfly Backup are carried out, the impacted machine can continuously work with peace of mind.

Follow the project

See the new features in development through this link.

Open source

Butterfly Backup is a open source project. Any contribute, It's welcome.

A great thanks.

For donations, press this

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