Backing up to external drive!

Server
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Firstly - I’m very, very new to Docker!

I’ve installed Urbackup on my Linux laptop as a container. It works, but the backup data is stored within the container on /media/BACKUP/urbackup, which is not where I would like it. I want to store backups on an external drive (doesn’t everyone?), and am currently using a USB stick for experimental purposes - /media/jim/3F21-4AFB, mounted on the host laptop.

It seems that it’s not quite straightforward to write backups to a location on the host machine, and a search came up with this command

docker run -t -i -v /media/jim/3F21-4AFB/:/media/BACKUP/urbackup ubuntu /bin/bash

Which appears to link the container location to the host location.

I tentatively tried it, but nothing gets written to the USB stick.

I’d be grateful for a bit of handholding, please!
Jim

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docker run -d --name urbackup-server-1 -v /media/backups:/backups -v /media/database:/var/urbackup -p 55413-55415:55413-55415 -p 35623:35623/udp uroni/urbackup-server

replace /media/ with the base path on your local filesystem, i.e /media/jim/3F21-4AFB/

https://www.urbackup.org/download.html#server_docker

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Thanks for the reply ‘macom’.

Hmm - it looks like maybe urbackup isn’t for me!
I was attracted to it because installation and the Web UI configuration looked quite straightforward - and it was up to a point, but as soon as you need to depart a fraction from the defaults you’re up to your neck in obscure docker features and cryptic commands that make SED commands and APL code look as clear as spring water!
Jim

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If you do not feel comfortable with docker you can still install it on you OS without docker.

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Ultimately I may end up installing it without docker, but I see the advantage of docker and will try to get my head around it. But new concepts don’t come easily at my age!
Jim

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Docker can be a bit confusing to get started with but it really isn’t that hard - here is a breakdown of that command line for you:

  • run <-- “run” is a terrible command name - it actually builds a brand new container and then starts it
  • -d <-- use daemon mode instead of running in foreground mode
  • --name urbackup-server-1 <-- give the running container a nice name
  • -v /media/backups:/backups <— mount host direcotry /media/backups inside the container as /backups
  • -v /media/database:/var/urbackup <— mount host directory /media/database inside the container as /var/urbackup (configuration lives here)
  • -p 55413-55415:55413-55415 <-- forward host TCP ports 55413-55415 to the container TCP ports 55413-55415
  • -p 35623:35623/udp <-- forward host UDP port 35623 to container UDP port 35623
  • uroni/urbackup-server <-- image to use for building the container

Additionally - you’ll probably want

  • --restart unless-stopped <-- set the restart policy on the container to ensure it is restarted when you reboot your host

After the container is created, you can use docker start|stop urbackup-server-1 to manually start or stop the newly created container.

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