How to Install UrBackup Server and Client on Ubuntu

The data of any organization is very important, because without data there would be no world. Backing up your data is even more important to save them in case of any kind of accident. In this article, we are going to discuss an open source backup solution called UrBackup.

What is UrBackup

UrBackup is an open source, easy-to-configure client/server backup system that combines image and file backup to ensure both data security and fast recovery time. Backup copies of files and images are created while the system is running without interrupting ongoing processes. UrBackup also constantly monitors folders that need to be backed up to quickly find differences from previous backups. Because of this, incremental file backups are very fast.

How to install UrBackup

Once you get into your Ubuntu server, run the command below to update your system with the latest updates and security patches:

apt update -y

Then run the command below to install the necessary software to work with UrBackup:

apt install software-properties-common

After updating the system and installing the necessary software, we will install the UrBackup server using its official PPA repository and re-update the system due to the fact that we added a new repository by running the following commands in the terminal:

add-apt-repository ppa:uroni/urbackup

apt update -y

And then install the UrBackup server itself with the command:

When prompted, type “Y” and press Enter to begin installing the UrBackup Server along with its dependent packages.

How to set up the UrBackup server

During the installation, you will be prompted to set up the UrBackup server, where you need to specify the path to the backup storage, as shown below:

All backups will be stored in the specified path, click the “OK” tab and press “Enter” to continue.

After the installation is complete, run the following command to check the status of the UrBackup server:

systemctl status urbackupsrv

You can also use the command below to set the service to start automatically after a reboot:

systemctl enable urbackupsrv

Accessing the UrBackup web interface

After the installation is complete, the UrBackup server web interface can be accessed using its default port “55414” provided that it is allowed in your firewall (by default, all ports are open).

Open the URL in your favorite browser as shown below:

http://IP-ADDRESS:55414

After switching to our UrBackup, we see the following result:

How to add a user in the web interface

You now have access to the UrBackup server web interface without providing a login username and password. In order for access to be secured, we must create a user. To do this, click on the Settings button, then on Users and create our user with administrator rights

Once we have created a user, login will only be possible with the password we have set.

Adding a new backup client

To add a new backup client to the UrBackup server, click Add new client as an internet/behind NAT client. Be sure to turn on Internet mode in the settings. Give it the FQDN or IP address of your client host and click “Add client” as shown below.

После добавления мы получили команду, которую мы должны выполнить на клиентском сервере:

We copy the command line, go to the server where the client will be installed and execute it. In our case, it looks like this:

TF=`mktemp` && wget "http://185.94.164.37:55414/x?a=download_client&lang=en&clientid=1&authkey=RHM64UquEQ&os=linux" -O $TF && sudo sh $TF; rm -f $TF

After we have executed the command, press Enter, then select item 5. “Use no snapshot mechanism”

After installation on the client server, run the command below and add the IP of our master server to the “internet_server=” field so that it looks like this:

nano /usr/local/var/urbackup/data/settings.cfg

To commit the changes, we restart the client with the command:

systemctl restart urbackupclientbackend

Then we see if it works correctly. To do this, we execute the command below and in our case we get the following result:

systemctl status urbackupclientbackend

Creating backups from the client side

You can add as many clients as you like. Then run the following command on the client server to add any folder that should be sent to the backup server:

Мы указали папку “/home“, но вы можете указать любую другую папку.

Теперь проверьте, находится ли клиент на сервере UrBackup в состоянии ONLINE. Как только он будет подключен к сети, вы можете вручную запустить резервное копирование, как показано ниже, в противном случае оно будет выполняться в соответствии с расписанием по умолчанию, которое вы можете изменить в настройках клиента.

Conclusion

At the end of this article, you taught how you can install and set up an UrBackup server on Ubuntu. We have also checked how we can add a Linux backup client. The main reason for backing up data is to save important files, if there is a system crash or hard drive failure, you will lose your data. Thus, a backup solution is very important for any data-critical organization.