Backrest

🧾 What Backrest Is

Backrest is a web‑based backup manager that sits on top of Restic and gives you:

• A GUI for creating and managing backup plans
• A scheduler for automated backups
• A repository browser for snapshots
• A restore interface for pulling files or full directories
• A centralized configuration system for multiple backup jobs
• A Docker‑friendly deployment model

🚀 Docker Installation Steps

1. Update your system
   sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
2. Install Docker
   

   curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
   sudo sh get-docker.sh

3. Install Docker Compose
   sudo apt install docker-compose-plugin
4. Add your user to the Docker group
   sudo usermod -aG docker $USER
5. Enable Docker at boot
   sudo systemctl enable docker
6. Reboot
   sudo reboot
7. Test Docker
   docker run hello-world

📁 Setup Backrest

mkdir ~/docker
mkdir ~/docker/backrest

🧾 Docker Compose File

In /volume2/docker/backrest create docker-compose.yml

services:
  backrest:
    image: garethgeorge/backrest:latest
    container_name: backrest
    hostname: backrest
    ports:
      - "9898:9898"
    environment:
      - BACKREST_PORT=9898
      - BACKREST_DATA=/data
      - XDG_CACHE_HOME=/cache
    volumes:
      - ./config:/config
      - ./data:/data
      - ./cache:/cache
      - /mnt/backup_target:/backup         # the destination/target for your backups. Probably a NAS Share or a USB drive
      - /mnt/backup_target_1:/backup-1     # Another destination/target
      - /mnt/backup_target_2:/backup-2     # Another destination/target
      - /:/userdata                        # The source of your backups. I use "/" so that I have access to everything, then browse in the gui to select what I want to backup

▶️ Start Backrest

From within /volume2/docker/backrest run:

📜 View Logs

View logs for the Backrest server:

🌐 Access Web Interface

Open your browser and go to http://<YOUR_DEVICE_IP>:9898. Click on "Add Repo". Give it a name and the "Repository URI". In my example, it would be "/backup", "/backup-1", or "/backup-2". Give it a Password and click Submit. It will create some needed directories. Do NOT delete these or you'll have to recreate your repository.

Now, click on "Add Plan". Give it a "Name" and select the "Repository" you just created. Add the "Paths you want to back up and anything you want to exclude. Set the "Backup Schedule and "Retention Policy" and click Submit.