Export Backups Automatically Via FTP (Windows)

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gholthaus
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2020 6:58 pm

Fri Jul 15, 2022 3:55 pm

I appreciate the ability to export backups from the GUI and save them locally, but this feature would be much more useful if it could be configured to automatically export at a certain time to an FTP server on a regular basis. (We have Unimus installed on a Windows server.)
Vik@Unimus
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:35 pm

Tue Jul 19, 2022 6:16 pm

A scheduled backup export via FTP is not currently planned, but we released a backup exporter little while ago

https://blog.unimus.net/unimus-backup-exporter/
https://github.com/netcore-jsa/unimus-backup-exporter/

while, by default, we implemented exporting backups (all or latest backups) to either a local filesystem or to a GIT, you could either edit the existing script and add a little snippet of code to upload them to FTP or add an extra small script or even just a command (add them both as a single cron job) and have it ran periodically as needed.
gholthaus
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2020 6:58 pm

Wed Jul 20, 2022 3:02 pm

I'm aware of the Exporter, but it's not designed for Windows, correct?
Vik@Unimus
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:35 pm

Thu Jul 21, 2022 1:26 pm

That is a good point and a correct one. It can be worked around, though, by using a WSL (ideally WSL2) instance for example. There should be just two things needed to be set up (besides getting WSL up and running itself):
- schedule a task in Task Scheduler to start WSL after boot
- enable Cron in within WSL (it is disabled by default, at least in a Ubuntu WSL instance it would be).
With these two done you can have one cron to run the exporter and to subsequently upload the backups to an FTP server.

I can't speak of a particular WSL/WSL2 compatibility with Windows Server, though, the usual resources address W10 and W11, but seldom mention Windows Server in particular. Of course, alternatively there is Docker, which may even be preferred and it could do the same thing.
gholthaus
Posts: 16
Joined: Fri Jun 12, 2020 6:58 pm

Thu Jul 21, 2022 1:51 pm

Ok, thanks for that information Vik. To be honest, it sounds like getting it running on a Windows box is a little beyond my skill set. I attempted to get the Exporter going on an Ubuntu box, but was getting errors when running the script. Perhaps I can forward you the email thread I had going with Tomas about it. If you have time to help, great! If not, no biggie :)
Vik@Unimus
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu Aug 05, 2021 6:35 pm

Thu Jul 21, 2022 2:14 pm

I totally get it, WSL and Docker are not one-clickers and both require little bit of fiddling (unless you already happen to have it deployed), but for the guys not having an option to run Unimus or run the script on a Linux machine, this is a viable alternative.

As for the aforementioned email, we are here to help. Email received and replied to. ;)
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