1. Install rsync on both machines
The first thing to do is install rsync, which can be achieved with the following command:
sudo apt-get install rsync -y
2. Configure rsync on the remote machine
Next, we need to configure rsync on the remote machine. Create a new configuration file with the command:
sudo nano /etc/rsyncd.conf
In that file, paste the following content:
[backup]
path=REMOTE_DIRECTORY
hosts allow = LOCAL_IP
hosts deny = *
list = true
uid = root
gid = root
read only = false
Where REMOTE_DIRECTORY is the directory on the remote machine that will house the backed-up files and LOCAL_IP is the IP address for the local machine.
Save and close the file with the Ctrl+X keyboard shortcut.
Start and enable rsync with the command:
sudo systemctl enable –now rsync
3. Run your backup
We’ll now test the backup process. On your local machine, you’ll run the rsync command like this:
rsync -avz LOCAL_DIRECTORY REMOTE_IP::backup
Where LOCAL_DIRECTORY is the directory you want to back up and REMOTE_IP is the IP address of the remote machine. Notice the ::backup. That is the name of the backup we used in the configuration file on the remote machine (the line [backup]). The backup should run and complete fairly quickly (unless you have a large amount of files in the directory).
Automate the backup
As I said, Linux is very flexible. We can automate this process with the help of the built-in cron tool. What we’ll do is create a bash script for the backup with the command:
nano rsync.sh
In that file, type the same command you used earlier to run the backup, only we’ll add the q option to suppress output, so it looks like this:
rsync -avzq LOCAL_DIRECTORY REMOTE_IP::backup
Save and close the file. Give the file executable permissions with the command:
chmod u+x rsync.sh
Now, we’ll create a cron job with the command:
sudo crontab -e
In that file, paste the following:
00 01 * * * /home/USER/rsync.sh
Where USER is your username. Save and close the file.
Your new cron job will run the rsync backup daily at 1 a.m., so you always have a fresh backup of that directory.
