This script backs up directories of your choice to a Box account. It does not perform any kind of deduplication of data already backed up, so it suits better accounts with unlimited storage and environments with a good internet connection. On the other hand, it will not require another service subscription; and uses tar, therefore not depending on any proprietary software, which could be discontinued, to recover your files.
Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install cadaver
Fedora/CentOS: sudo yum install cadaver
export ENV_BOX_USERNAME='[email protected]'
export ENV_BOX_PASSWORD='passw0rd'
For convenience, add these lines to your ~/.bashrc
BACKUP_DESTINATION: Path to the Box folder where the backups will be placed, not beginning or ending with a slash. Use \⋅ (backslash + space) instead of space when necessary. The files will not be placed directly on the folder. A folder will be created matching the hostname, and inside of it, a folder for each day.
DIRS_TO_BACK_UP: List of local directories to back up. Should not end with a slash. If the path contains a whitespace, white within quotes (single or double). A wildcard asterisk may be used and will be expanded by bash, but note that files not contained in a directory will not be backed up (e.g. if choosing to back up /etc/*, only directories inside /etc will be backed up, not individual files). Backing up /home will create a single tar, while /home/* will create a tar for each directory inside /home
MAX_FILE_SIZE: Box limits the size of a single file according to your plan. The script is set to a 5GB limit. If yours is different, change it appropriately:
250MB - 262144000
2GB - 2147483648
Files larger than 5GB will be split. To merge them, simply use cat. For example: cat backup-home-hostname-2018-01-01.tar.gz.part* > backup-home-hostname-2018-01-01.tar.gz
Some versions of cadaver do not recognize a wildcard certificate, which is used by Box, and you will see a message like this:
WARNING: Untrusted server certificate presented for '*.box.com':
Certificate was issued to hostname '*.box.com' rather than 'dav.box.com'
This connection could have been intercepted.
Issued to: Box, Inc., Redwood City, California, US
Issued by: GeoTrust Inc., US
This is known to happen when running cadaver on Ubuntu 14.04. To check whether or not this bug is present in your version, simply run cadaver https://dav.box.com/dav. If the warning is not shown, no changes are required. If it is, simply install expect, comment out the line 75 and uncomment the line 81. This way, the certificate will be automatically accepted.
To install expect:
Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install expect
Fedora/CentOS: sudo yum install expect
It is highly advisable to run it as root, since a regular user won't have permissions to read all the files in the system, possibly resulting in incomplete backups.
sudo ./backup.sh
To back up your system regularly and automatically, you can schedule this script on crontab.
When scheduling, use the root crontab (sudo crontab -e) and set the username and passsword for Box before running. For example, to run it every day at midnight:
0 0 * * * export ENV_BOX_USERNAME='[email protected]' ; export ENV_BOX_PASSWORD='passw0rd' ; /path/to/script/backup2box/backup.sh