Backup OSX client to Ubuntu server using rsync

This is a guideline for backing up your OSX home folder to a Ubuntu Linux server. Some folders are excluded as they are backed up in other ways (see earlier post on how to synchronize images between OSX clients).

Requirements

1. This guideline requires ssh without password (see earlier post on the blog).
   

Limitations

1. The backup method used in this guideline is a mirrored copy of the original data. This means that backups will be replaced by the original data. You will only be able to roll back to the latest version of the data. This will ensure your data if your harddrive fails or if your Mac is stolen. It will not help you if for instance you delete sections in a document and want to revert to an older version. Check the links below for some hints on how to create incremental backups using rsync.
   

Guideline

1. Download and extract the folder backup in /Applications
2. Edit the top of /Applications/backup/scripts/backup.sh. Change to your own username, server IP and set the directory where the backup should be placed (create this directory on the server).
3. Configure what directories shouldn't be backed up by editing the file /Applications/backup/scripts/exclude
4. In the file /Applications/backup/launchd/com.skyandyou.tools.clientbackup.plist you can set the delay between backup's (default is 3 hours)
   
5. Copy /Applications/backup/launchd/com.skyandyou.tools.clientbackup.plist to /Users/username/Library/LaunchAgents
6. Restart your Mac
   
7. Test the backup by executing:
   launchctl start com.skyandyou.tools.clientbackup
8. Watch the log output:
   tail -f /var/log/system.log
   

Links
Using excludes in rsync
Incremental backups using rsync
Mac backup howto