docs/services/backrest.md

Backup Strategy

Single Backrest instance on CT 103 (192.168.1.3:9898) backing up offsite to JottaCloud via rclone. CT 103 has UNAS NFS mounted at /mnt/pve/unas, so it can read all service data without SSH-ing other hosts.

Goal: every piece of critical state has an offsite copy. CT 104 loss is recoverable within hours; UNAS loss is recoverable (slower) from JottaCloud.

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Current state

Backrest (CT 103) — Phase 1b live since 2026-05-21

Item	Value
UI	http://192.168.1.3:9898 (LAN-only, auth disabled)
Config	/opt/backrest/config/config.json (timestamped .bak files on every edit)
rclone remote	jottacloud: Archive section (default device/mountpoint); token at /root/.config/rclone/rclone.conf
Offsite plan	JottaCloud Unlimited €9.91/mo (Norway, EEA) — see provider comparison
BW throttle	RCLONE_BWLIMIT=05:30,7.5M 01:00,20M (20 MB/s overnight, 7.5 MB/s daytime)

Repos (both autoInitialize: true; passwords currently tapirnase — see blind spot #5):

Repo	Target	Prune	Check
services-repo	rclone:jottacloud:services	weekly Sun 05:00, ≤10 % unused	monthly, 10 % subset
media-repo	rclone:jottacloud:media	monthly, ≤10 % unused	monthly, 10 % subset

Plans:

Plan	Repo	Schedule	Retention	Paths
services-backup-plan	services-repo	0 1 * * 1-5 weekdays 01:00	7d · 4w · 6m · 1y	15 paths (below)
media-backup-plan	media-repo	30 1 * * 1-5 weekdays 01:30	4w · 6m · 1y	/mnt/pve/unas/media/images/library
video-projects-plan	media-repo	nightly 02:00	per config	/mnt/pve/unas/media/video-projects

Services plan paths (all under /mnt/pve/unas/):

services/vaultwarden    services/n8n         services/memos
services/karakeep       services/traccar     services/gitea
services/coder          services/nextcloud   services/pocketid
services/arcane         services/arr-stack   services/gluetun
backup/home-assistant   backup/immich        backup/nextcloud

services/shared-db was removed when CT 113 came online — postgres is now WAL-G → Garage S3 → JottaCloud.

JottaCloud web UI tip: rclone writes to the Archive section. The default landing page shows only Sync + Backup. Browse to https://www.jottacloud.com/web/archive to see the restic repos.

Postgres (CT 113) — Phase 2 live since 2026-05-21

Dedicated db LXC at 192.168.1.6:5432 running postgres:17 in Docker, pgAdmin on :5050. WAL-G archives continuously to Garage S3 (ct113-pg-backup on CT 104):

• archive_mode = on, archive_command = 'wal-g wal-push %p'
• Daily wal-g backup-push cron at 02:00
• DBs hosted: vaultwarden, paperless, litellm, memos, n8n, gitea, coder

Garage → JottaCloud offsite sync runs daily 02:30 on CT 103 via /usr/local/sbin/walg-offsite-sync.sh (read-only Garage key GKef577420aadd26d667f2ca4f; mirrors ct113-pg-backup, lobe-pg-backup, immich-pg-backup → jottacloud:WAL-G/).

Exceptions (stay on original hosts):

DB	Host	Why
lobe-postgres (paradedb pg17)	CT 104	Uses pg_search USING bm25 indexes; stock postgres 17 can't host. WAL-G → lobe-pg-backup + Backrest secondary on data dir.
Nextcloud AIO postgres	CT 105	AIO manages it; Borg archives the whole stack to UNAS.
Immich postgres	CT 104	Version-pinned by Immich. WAL-G → immich-pg-backup.

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Coverage map

Host / data	Method	Offsite
CT 103 Backrest binary + config	Manual (small)	On-CT only
CT 104 Docker app state on UNAS	services-backup-plan	✓ JottaCloud
CT 104 lobe-postgres (paradedb)	WAL-G → Garage → JottaCloud sync	✓
CT 104 Immich postgres	WAL-G → immich-pg-backup → sync	✓
CT 113 postgres (7 DBs)	WAL-G → ct113-pg-backup → sync	✓
CT 101 Shepard	Source in Gitea (gitea path covers it)	✓
CT 102 AdGuard	Phase 3 git push → fkrebs/adguard-conf	✗ not deployed
CT 105 Nextcloud user files	services/nextcloud	✓
CT 105 Nextcloud AIO volumes	AIO Borg → /mnt/pve/unas/backup/nextcloud/ → Backrest	✓
CT 108 Zoraxy	Phase 3 git push → fkrebs/zoraxy-conf	✗ not deployed
CT 110 Pocket-ID	services/pocketid	✓
CT 111 Gitea + Coder	services/{gitea,coder}	✓
VM 100 HAOS config	Phase 3 git addon → fkrebs/ha-config	✗ not deployed
VM 100 HAOS daily tar	HA → UNAS → Backrest	✓
PVE host /etc/pve/	Phase 3 git push → fkrebs/pve-conf	✗ not deployed
UNAS media/images/library	Phase 1a rclone sync → jottacloud:Photos/	✗ not deployed
UNAS personal data (documents, _sortMe, video-projects, …)	Phase 1a rclone sync → jottacloud:UNAS/	✗ not deployed

Intentionally not backed up

Immich thumbnails / encoded video, ComfyUI / Speaches models, arr-stack metadata, Redis / Meili / Elastic caches, CT 101 dev volumes — all regenerable or re-downloadable.

Deferred — include if needed

Host	Data	Notes
CT 109 observe	Prometheus TSDB, Grafana dashboards, Arcane SQLite, sshwifty config	Low priority — metrics are ephemeral; dashboards can be re-exported from Grafana; add to services plan if state becomes hard to recreate

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Open work

Phase 1a — rclone sync for UNAS personal data

Two sync jobs on CT 103, Saturday 01:00:

• Job 1: media/images/library/ → jottacloud:Photos/ (Immich originals, visible at jottacloud.com/photo).
• Job 2: /mnt/pve/unas/ → jottacloud:UNAS/ (documents, video-projects, _sortMe, musical-sheets, audiobooks, ebooks, code; excludes Immich-generated, re-streamable media, torrents, services/ already in Backrest).

Initial upload ≈ 820 GB personal + 822 GB Immich (days). Script target /usr/local/sbin/unas-sync.sh. Full script in appendix.

Tradeoff vs Restic: no point-in-time versions; deletions propagate. Acceptable for personal media.

Phase 3 — Config-to-git for infrastructure

Daily 03:00 cron on each host pushes config to a private Gitea repo. Repos already exist:

• fkrebs/zoraxy-conf (CT 108 — /opt/zoraxy/conf/)
• fkrebs/adguard-conf (CT 102 — AdGuardHome.yaml)
• fkrebs/pve-conf (PVE — /etc/pve/, excludes priv/, *.key, authkey.pub*)
• fkrebs/ha-config (VM 100 — /config/, excludes secrets.yaml, .storage/)

Script template in appendix.

Blind spots

#	Severity	Issue	Fix
4	MEDIUM	n8n encryption key in /opt/stacks/n8n/data/ on CT 104 local FS — not in any plan. If CT 104 dies, DB restore is unusable.	Move n8n data volume to /mnt/pve/unas/services/n8n/ (already in plan).
4b	MEDIUM	Nextcloud AIO Borg passphrase only in container env. Borg repo encrypted — without it, restore impossible.	Store BORG_PASSWORD in Vaultwarden.
5	MEDIUM	Both Backrest repo passwords are tapirnase.	Rotate before first scheduled run completes; restic key passwd re-encrypts in place. Store in Vaultwarden.
6	LOW	litellm DB password is the placeholder literal litellm_password_here.	Generate real password; update ai/.env, litellm-config/config.yaml, CT 113 user.
7	LOW	Migration dumps at /mnt/pve/unas/dump/*-migration-20260521.sql not in any plan.	Decide: keep as manual archive or delete now that WAL-G is archiving.

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Operations

Restore

UI: Repos → snapshots → Browse → file → Restore.

CLI on CT 103:

restic -r rclone:jottacloud:services snapshots
restic -r rclone:jottacloud:services restore latest \
  --target /restore \
  --include /mnt/pve/unas/services/vaultwarden

Monitoring (planned)

In Backrest UI → each repo → Hooks:

• CONDITION_BACKUP_ERROR / CONDITION_CHECK_ERROR → POST Gotify priority 8
• CONDITION_BACKUP_SUCCESS → POST Gotify priority 3

curl -s -X POST 'http://gotify:80/message?token=TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"title":"Backrest: {{.Plan}}","message":"{{.Summary}}","priority":3}'

Applying a new config

# on CT 103
systemctl stop backrest
cp /opt/backrest/config/config.json /opt/backrest/config/config.json.bak.$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)
# paste new config.json
systemctl start backrest

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History

Provider comparison

Researched 2026-05-21. Sized for ~3 TB/mo.

Provider	~3 TB/mo	Backend	EU DC	Egress	Verdict
JottaCloud Unlimited	€9.91 flat (unlimited)	rclone native	Norway (EEA)	Free	✅ Chosen
Hetzner BX31	€20.80 flat (10 TB)	SFTP/WebDAV	DE, FI	Free	2.5× the price, capped
Backblaze B2	~$18 pay-per-GB	S3	Frankfurt	Free (≤3× stored)	US CLOUD Act risk
Cloudflare R2	~$45 pay-per-GB	S3	EU auto	Zero	Expensive at scale; no EU residency lock
Wasabi	~$21–24	S3	FRA/AMS	Free (≤ stored)	❌ 90-day min billing per object → Restic prune disaster
Storj DCS	~$30	S3	EU-geofenced	1× free	Complex, $5 minimum
pCloud	€399 one-time / 2 TB	WebDAV	Luxembourg	Free	WebDAV too slow
Infomaniak kDrive	~€36+ / 3 TB	WebDAV	Switzerland	Free	WebDAV only; non-EU
Proton Drive	—	rclone beta	Switzerland	Free	rclone backend broken since late 2025

Phase 2 — postgres consolidation onto CT 113 (✅ done 2026-05-21)

Decision: provision a dedicated db LXC (CT 113, 192.168.1.6) running postgres in Docker rather than reuse shared-postgres on CT 104. Direct-to-target avoided migrating twice (CT 111 → CT 104 → CT 113).

Specs: Debian 12 unprivileged, 2 GB RAM, 2 cores, 20 GB local-zfs, mp0=/mnt/pve/unas. Stack in Gitea fkrebs/stacks-db. pgAdmin pre-registers postgres via pgadmin-servers.json.

Migration order: vaultwarden → paperless → litellm → memos → n8n → gitea → coder. Procedure per DB:

docker exec <container> pg_dump -U <user> <db> > /mnt/pve/unas/dump/<db>-migration.sql
psql -U postgres -c "CREATE USER <user> WITH PASSWORD '...'; CREATE DATABASE <db> OWNER <user>;"
psql -U <user> <db> < /mnt/pve/unas/dump/<db>-migration.sql
# Update connection strings → 192.168.1.6:5432, restart service, verify, remove old PG container + volume

Stale DBs dropped from shared-postgres post-migration: daytona, lobechat (duplicate), paradedb (duplicate).

WAL-G enabled 2026-05-21: archive_mode = on, archive_command = 'wal-g wal-push %p' via ALTER SYSTEM; first base backup verified (base_000000010000000000000012). Daily wal-g backup-push cron at 02:00. Garage → JottaCloud offsite sync added at 02:30.

Phase 1a rclone sync script

#!/bin/bash
set -e
LOG=/var/log/rclone-unas-sync.log

# Job 1: Immich originals → JottaCloud gallery
rclone sync /mnt/pve/unas/media/images/library/ jottacloud:Photos/ \
  --transfers=4 --checkers=8 \
  --log-file=$LOG --log-level INFO

# Job 2: all other irreplaceable personal data
rclone sync /mnt/pve/unas/ jottacloud:UNAS/ \
  --transfers=4 --checkers=8 \
  --exclude "media/images/library/**" \
  --exclude "media/images/upload/**" \
  --exclude "media/images/thumbs/**" \
  --exclude "media/images/encoded-video/**" \
  --exclude "media/images/profile/**" \
  --exclude "media/images/backups/**" \
  --exclude "media/movies/**" \
  --exclude "media/emulation/**" \
  --exclude "media/Torrents/**" \
  --exclude "media/music/**" \
  --exclude "media/podcasts/**" \
  --exclude "services/**" \
  --exclude "backup/**" \
  --exclude "backup-staging/**" \
  --exclude "test_perm" \
  --log-file=$LOG --log-level INFO

Cron (Saturday 01:00): 0 1 * * 6 /usr/local/sbin/unas-sync.sh

Phase 3 config-to-git scripts

Same pattern on each host. Replace GITEA_TOKEN with the value from /opt/stacks/ai/.env or a dedicated scoped Gitea token.

CT 108 — Zoraxy (/usr/local/sbin/zoraxy-conf-backup.sh):

#!/bin/bash
set -e
REPO_URL="https://fkrebs:GITEA_TOKEN@git.nuclide.systems/fkrebs/zoraxy-conf.git"
WORK="/opt/zoraxy/conf"
git -C "$WORK" init -b main -q 2>/dev/null || true
git -C "$WORK" remote set-url origin "$REPO_URL" 2>/dev/null \
  || git -C "$WORK" remote add origin "$REPO_URL"
git -C "$WORK" add -A
git -C "$WORK" commit -q -m "auto: $(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" 2>/dev/null || true
git -C "$WORK" push -q origin main 2>&1 | grep -v "Everything up-to-date" || true

CT 102 — AdGuard — same template, copy /opt/AdGuardHome/AdGuardHome.yaml into /tmp/adguard-conf-work checkout first.

PVE host — same template, rsync -a --exclude='priv/' --exclude='*.key' --exclude='authkey.pub*' /etc/pve/ /tmp/pve-conf-work/ then commit.

VM 100 — HA — native Git Pull addon pushing /config/ (exclude secrets.yaml, .storage/) to fkrebs/ha-config. HA daily tars already covered by services-backup-plan via /mnt/pve/unas/backup/home-assistant/.

Cron on each host: 0 3 * * * /usr/local/sbin/<host>-conf-backup.sh

Why Wasabi was rejected

Restic creates many small pack files during normal operation. Wasabi charges 90 days of storage per object regardless of deletion — every restic forget --prune generates surprise costs. Well-documented Restic-on-Wasabi trap.

Why lobe-postgres stays on CT 104

Migration 0093_add_bm25_indexes_with_icu.sql creates USING bm25 indexes on 7 tables (agents, topics, files, knowledge_bases, user_memories, chat_groups, user_memories_contexts). bm25 is paradedb-only (pg_search extension); stock postgres 17 has no such index access method and the migration fails. Container stays paradedb/paradedb:latest-pg17. WAL-G archives to lobe-pg-backup; Backrest secondary copies the data dir.

UNAS data inventory (basis for Phase 1a sizing)

Path	Size	Notes
media/documents/	9.5 G	Personal documents
media/video-projects/	425 G	Creative work, irreplaceable
media/musical-sheets/	23 G
media/audiobooks/	23 G
media/ebooks/	6.8 G
media/3d-prints/	65 M
media/Recipes/	113 M
_sortMe/	335 G	images/ 171 G, work Flo/ 147 G, Anne/ 17 G
code/	6.7 M
Excluded media/movies/	118 G	re-streamable
Excluded media/emulation/	57 G	re-downloadable
Excluded media/Torrents/	19 G	temporary
Excluded media/music/, media/podcasts/	—	re-streamable