pi-backups-recovery

Bare-metal backup and recovery for Raspberry Pi using raspiBackup. Creates compressed dd images (.dd.gz / .ddz) that include the partition table, bootloader, and all OS data — fully restorable to any same-size or larger drive.

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Repository Contents

File	Purpose
raspiBackup.conf	Sanitized raspiBackup configuration (no secrets)
raspiBackup-install.sh	One-liner installer for raspiBackup
RESTORE.md	Full restore guide (macOS, Linux, Pi)

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Backup Overview

This setup uses raspiBackup in dd mode with gzip compression (ddz), storing backups on a NAS mount. Docker and other services are stopped cleanly before the image is taken and restarted after.

Backup type

Setting	Value
Type	dd (bit-for-bit image)
Compression	gzip (.dd.gz)
Retention	3 backups kept
Destination	NAS mount (e.g. /mnt/nas_backups)

What gets backed up

A dd backup captures the entire SD card or SSD — partition table, boot partition, root filesystem, and all data. It is a complete clone, not a file-level backup.

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Quick Start

0. Clone the Repository

Clone this repo to your Raspberry Pi to access the configuration templates and installation scripts.

git clone git@github.com:KDN-Cloud/pi-backups-recovery.git
cd pi-backups-recovery

Note: If you already have a setup for your repositories, you can clone directly into your current directory. Otherwise, use the automated setup below:

mkdir -p ~/projects && cd ~/projects && \
git clone https://github.com/KDN-Cloud/pi-backups-recovery.git && \
cd pi-backups-recovery

1. Install raspiBackup

bash raspiBackup-install.sh

2. Configure

sudo cp raspiBackup.conf /usr/local/etc/raspiBackup.conf
# Edit to set your backup path, notification tokens, and NAS mount
sudo nano /usr/local/etc/raspiBackup.conf

3. Run a backup

sudo raspiBackup.sh

4. Schedule via cron

sudo crontab -e
# Run every Sunday at 02:00
0 2 * * 0 /usr/local/bin/raspiBackup.sh

sudo crontab -e
# Run every day at 3am and ensure services are started up
00 03 * * * /usr/local/bin/raspiBackup.sh -m 0 ; /usr/bin/systemctl restart docker cron

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Restore

See RESTORE.md for full restore instructions across macOS, Linux, and Raspberry Pi.

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NAS Mount Setup

raspiBackup writes to a mounted NAS share. Add to /etc/fstab for automatic mounting:

NFS example

192.168.1.x:/var/nfs/shared/RaspberryPi4  /mnt/unas_backups/  nfs  defaults,_netdev,x-systemd.automount,x-systemd.idle-timeout=600  0  0

SMB/CIFS example

//192.168.x.x/pi-backups  /mnt/nas_backups  cifs  credentials=/etc/nas-credentials,_netdev  0  0

# /etc/nas-credentials (chmod 600, never commit)
username=your_nas_user
password=your_nas_password

Mount and verify before first backup:

sudo mount -a
df -h /mnt/nas_backups

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Service Stop / Start

raspiBackup stops services before imaging and restarts them after to ensure a consistent snapshot:

Stopped before backup

systemctl stop docker
systemctl stop cron
systemctl stop containerd

# Restarted after backup
systemctl start containerd
systemctl start cron
systemctl start docker

Adjust DEFAULT_STOPSERVICES and DEFAULT_STARTSERVICES in raspiBackup.conf to match your setup.

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References

• raspiBackup GitHub
• raspiBackup Documentation
• Raspberry Pi Imager
• balenaEtcher