Beta of peer-to-peer Nextcloud Backup app now available for testing!

[Cult]

Yeah, no, the app can do fun thing, but I would not use the backup app or its code for something like that.

And the asynchronous 2 way sync between each instance will be a mess to implement.

If you want to have 2 instances, just federated-share the files from the private one to the public one.

[wwe]

Thank you for your feedback. From this discussion I learned the app seems to work in a way I would expect it. majority of critics is caused by the marketing text pointing out backup to another NC instance as preferred/only way for backup - which I don’t expect to work well in the wild because of storage pressure on the destination instance and internet bandwidth…

• sending backups to every kind of NC supported external storage sounds perfect architecture for me (as you use existing capabilities, don’t reinvent the wheel and improve with the product)
• running delta backups is good as you can restore it fast ( I use restic so this how I like the backup - there is backup storage which contains multiple “snapshots” - the drawback your backup is proprietary and could only be restored using the original program )

As the program clearly address private users (professionals already have their backup tools/strategy) it would be great to provide simple use-case when this app is useful and when it doesn’t perform well (in terms of sizing, backup times and recovery tasks).

I’m happy with my backup solution so far but I will definitely test your app once it is available in the official store (with my preferred docker setup is little hard to use beta versions…)

[PackElend]

@Cult

federated-share the files from the private one to the public one.

Started with the same thought but that would exclude app setting or things what stored in the database only, such as contacts

[Cult]

@wwe

(with my preferred docker setup is little hard to use beta versions…)

Well, with the Backup App, you can migrate your setup out of your docker in a blink of an eye !

[tflidd]

Problem with backup solutions, everyone has very specific ideas to do it properly. It nice that they try to provide a solution that integrates well with the NC interface.

@wwe

Assuming this is automatic and robust process it’s only annoying pain point and not a blocker… but as @just stated modern approach like restic or BorgBackup would improve the process.

If you have your preferred backup software, or you want to use other features (copy on write filesystems to do backups without maintenance mode, …) that you can’t expect everybody to use, you can still keep your backup method. Or have an additional one.

[jospoortvliet]

@tflidd

If you have your preferred backup software, or you want to use other features (copy on write filesystems to do backups without maintenance mode, …) that you can’t expect everybody to use, you can still keep your backup method. Or have an additional one.

Exactly. Nextcloud Backup wasn’t designed to replace existing backup solutions, but to offer something super simple and basic for less technical Nextcloud users. @Cult did a pretty amazing job and the app can do more than we even expected him to pull off (heck several of our other engineers said it would not be possible to do at all) but if you have tens of terrabytes of data you might simply want to use another tool.

[wwe]

@tflidd

If you have your preferred backup software, or you want to use other features (copy on write filesystems to do backups without maintenance mode, …) that you can’t expect everybody to use, you can still keep your backup method. Or have an additional one.

full ack! this is definitely true. It makes absolutely no sense to hit every possible wish - in opposite KISS - keep it stupid simple is best way to solid enterprise-grade software. Designing internal Nextcloud (any application) backup solution I would recommend to rely on functions/methods natively available inside of the software (or added by your own package) - from the docs and discussion here this is the case!

@jospoortvliet

but to offer something super simple and basic for less technical Nextcloud users.

definitely a great idea - there is nothing more important then backup… it’s a shame this was not implemented before… but as I pointed out before: the super simple approach to send your whole backup to another NC instance over your home DSL connection doesn’t work for majority of the users… for some reason other perfectly valid (and in my eyes preferred) scenarios for this target group like backup to local workstation were not mentioned in news message…

@jospoortvliet

Nextcloud Backup wasn’t designed to replace existing backup solutions

It can and it should! In fact I absolutely see the potential to replace many own-crafted, buggy and unreliable backup solutions scripts by this integrated, easy to use application.

Rom wasn’t build on one day - knowing the major pain-points like maintenance mode, temporary storage amount and long transfer times on slow connections one might improve over time and cover more requirements…

One more time

@wwe

I really appreciate it!

[Bischi]

Hey Guys,
i want to move my Nextcloud to a other VPS Provider. Can i use these solution to Backup my instance, Install a empty Nextcloud Instance on the new VPS Provider and Restore the Backup with this solution? Or should i do a manual Backup from web/DB/data?
Thanks.
Greets from Germany.

[wwe]

Hi @Bischi welcome in the forum. Please read the rules and use search function - lot of questions have been answered already. In this case just read the full topic, chances are high the answer is there!!

@Cult

Meaning that you do not even need to move the backups files and using the ./occ command from one instance, you can easily create one or multiple clones.

[tflidd]

@Bischi

Or should i do a manual Backup from web/DB/data?

You want to do what the backup solution is supposed to do. However, keep in mind that it is a beta version in testing. So do an additional backup to not lose any of your data, then you can give it a try to move the setup and if you encounter problems, let the developers know about the problems…

[Cult]

@Bischi

Hey Guys,
i want to move my Nextcloud to a other VPS Provider. Can i use these solution to Backup my instance, Install a empty Nextcloud Instance on the new VPS Provider and Restore the Backup with this solution? Or should i do a manual Backup from web/DB/data?
Thanks.

Yes, the only condition is that you cannot migrate from one type of database to another (ie. mysql to postgres)

Documentation is not complete, but you might find some descent hint on the repository

[AndyXheli]

This product needs some improvements. But is very nice and i do have to say awesome job. I sure its not for everyone.

1. I the software should not put the server in maintenance mode it should run in the back end and back up data like every other backups software while users are working. Bring the system down for backups is not a solution
2. Stream line backups currently when running a back it creates mini folder with max 3.9gb files if someone has 200Gb or 1Tb worth of files its going to take forever to backup the data
3. Give a user interface or cli interface on how long backup will take and the percentage, right now it puts the system in maintenance and hope it completes successfully and with no issues.
4. Give ability to cancel backups

If anyone is looking for a free backup enterprise solutions Veeam Backup & Replication is free up to 10 host physical or virtual. Free Backup Solution - Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition i’ve been using the free version for myself and i love it

[Alain1]

Hi

I think that I understand that backup uses some zip variant without compression in the first pass. In the past I timed the speed difference between no compression and a minimum compression and some compression was almost always faster.