Storages

Backup includes the following Storages:

Cycling Stored Backups

Each Storage (except for RSync) supports the keep setting, which specifies how many backups to keep at this location.

store_with SFTP do |sftp|
  sftp.keep = 5
end

Once the keep limit has been reached, the oldest backup will be removed.

Note that if keep is set to 5, then the 6th backup will be transferred and stored, before the oldest is removed. So be sure you have space available for keep + 1 backups.

See the documentation for your specific Storage, as other options for managing your stored backups may be available.

Storage Identifiers

Each storage supports the ability to specify a storage_id to uniquely identify a specific storage.

store_with SFTP, :my_id do |sftp|
  # etc...
end

When using the Cycler, Backup stores information about each stored backup in YAML files in the configured --data-path (see Performing Backups). These are stored based on the model’s trigger and the Storage used.

Model.new(:my_backup, 'My Backup') do
  store_with SFTP do |sftp|
    sftp.keep = 5
    # etc...
  end
end

Each time the above model is performed, cycling data would be stored in <data_path>/my_backup/SFTP.yml.

When a storage_id is used, that ID will be appended to this filename.

Model.new(:my_backup, 'My Backup') do
  store_with SFTP, :my_id do |sftp|
    sftp.keep = 5
    # etc...
  end
end

Each time this model is performed, cycling data would be stored in <data_path>/my_backup/SFTP-my_id.yml.

This allows you to cycle backups for a single trigger, based on the storage_id.

For example, you can store your backup to multiple servers, using the same Storage:

Model.new(:my_backup, 'My Backup') do

  archive :my_archive do |archive|
    # archive some stuff...
  end

  store_with SFTP, :server_01 do |sftp|
    sftp.username = 'my_username'
    sftp.password = 'my_password'
    sftp.ip       = 'server1.domain.com'
    sftp.port     = 22
    sftp.path     = '~/backups/'
    sftp.keep     = 10
  end

  store_with SFTP, :server_02 do |sftp|
    sftp.username = 'my_username'
    sftp.password = 'my_password'
    sftp.ip       = 'server2.domain.com'
    sftp.port     = 22
    sftp.path     = '~/backups/'
    sftp.keep     = 5
  end

end

:server_01 will keep/cycle the last 10 backups, and :server_02 the last 5. So you always have your last 5 backups stored at 2 different locations.

Another example would be to cycle daily/weekly/monthly backups:

Model.new(:my_backup, 'My Backup') do

  archive :my_archive do |archive|
    # archive some stuff...
  end

  time = Time.now
  if time.day == 1  # first day of the month
    storage_id = :monthly
    keep = 6
  elsif time.sunday?
    storage_id = :weekly
    keep = 3
  else
    storage_id = :daily
    keep = 12
  end

  store_with SFTP, storage_id do |sftp|
    sftp.username = 'my_username'
    sftp.password = 'my_password'
    sftp.ip       = 'server.domain.com'
    sftp.port     = 22
    sftp.path     = "~/backups/#{ storage_id }"
    sftp.keep     = keep
  end

end

The cycle data for these backups would be stored in 3 separate YAML files.
<data_path>/my_backup/SFTP-monthly.yml
<data_path>/my_backup/SFTP-weekly.yml
<data_path>/my_backup/SFTP-daily.yml

Note: It’s not required that the path be updated for each unique Storage (as shown in the example), since each backup is stored in a timestamped folder. Using a separate path simply makes it easier to distinguish between each type of backup.