Borgmatic Docker – An Efficient Backup Solution for Docker Host

Borg/Borgmatic is an effective backup solution for web servers. It compresses and deduplicates data to save storage space, encrypts backups for security, and only backs up changed data to increase speed. Borgmatic automates backups, verifies integrity, and simplifies restoration.

BorgBase is an affordable, dedicated storage service for Borg, offering SSH key support, monitoring, and offsite backups. Combining it with Borgmatic ensures secure and cost-effective web data protection.

Once again, we will deploy Borgmatic on Docker following the EasyEngine approach.

Create Borgmatic Container

I’m using the official Docker image for Borgmatic.

Create a directory for Borgmatic and work within it:

mkdir -p /opt/borgmatic/data/{borgmatic.d,repository,.config,.ssh,.cache}

Download the docker-compose.yml and borgmatic.d/config.yaml files for the Borgmatic container. Adjust the volumes in docker-compose.yml to fit your backup needs. For example, if you don’t use Fail2Ban, you can remove that line. My default setup here includes backing up websites, borgmatic, fail2ban, crontab, and databases.

curl -o /opt/borgmatic/docker-compose.yml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dinhngocdung/easyengine-stack/refs/heads/main/borgmatic/docker-compose.yml
curl -o /opt/borgmatic/data/borgmatic.d/config.yaml https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dinhngocdung/easyengine-docker-stack/refs/heads/main/borgmatic/data/borgmatic.d/config.yaml

Download and edit the .env file, or copy-paste it from your local machine (Password, repo, passphrase repo, etc.):

curl -o /opt/borgmatic/.env -L https://github.com/dinhngocdung/easyengine-dock-stack/raw/refs/heads/main/borgmatic/.env

# Edit variables as appropriate
vi /opt/borgmatic/.env

Initialize Borgmatic Docker:

sudo docker compose -f /opt/borgmatic/docker-compose.yml up -d

Connecting Borgmatic to BorgBase

Before setting up backups, we need a storage location. If your website data is around 200GB, BorgBase is an excellent choice at only $2/month. For smaller websites, they offer 10GB free storage.

Steps to Set Up BorgBase

1. Register and create an account if you don’t have one:
   👉 BorgBase Registration

2. Log in and create a Repository. Save its URL, which usually looks like this:
   ssh://XXXXX@XXXXX.repo.borgbase.com:repo

3. Generate an SSH Key on the Borgmatic container:

   # Connect to Borgmatic container shell
   cd /opt/borgmatic && docker-compose exec borgmatic bash
   
   # Generate SSH key (skip passphrase prompt)
   ssh-keygen -o -a 100 -t ed25519
   
   # Display and save the key
   cat ~/.ssh/id_ed25519.pub

4. Add the public key from the container to BorgBase:

   • Click “Add Key” under SSH Keys
   • Paste the public key from step 3
   • Name it and save

5. Assign the SSH key to the repository created in step 2:

   • Click “Edit” on the repository
   • Under Access, select the newly added key
   • Save and complete the setup

6. With all new repo borgbase, to init one time:

   cd /opt/borgmatic && \
   sudo docker compose up -d
   borgmatic init -e repokey-blake2
   borgmatic create

Managing Borgmatic Backups

List backup archives:

docker-compose exec borgmatic borgmatic list

View stored database backups in the latest archive:

docker-compose exec borgmatic borgmatic list --archive latest --find *borgmatic/*_databases

Extract path/1 from the latest backup and restore it to /restore:

docker-compose exec borgmatic borgmatic extract --archive latest --path path/1 --destination /restore

Scheduling Automatic Backups

Using Cron Inside the Docker Container

Add a cron schedule inside the container’s crontab.txt file:

nano /opt/borgmatic/data/borgmatic.d/crontab.txt

Add the following line:

0 3 * * * PATH=$PATH:/usr/local/bin /usr/local/bin/borgmatic --stats -v 0 2>&1

Running Borgmatic Only When Needed

To optimize resources, I set up a cron job that starts Borgmatic only when backup is needed and removes the container afterward.

Stop the Borgmatic container:

cd /opt/borgmatic && docker-compose down

Edit cron jobs:

crontab -e

Add this schedule:

0 3 * * * cd /root/borgmatic/ && /usr/local/bin/docker-compose run --rm borgmatic borgmatic >> /root/borgmatic/cron.log 2>&1

At 3 AM daily, Docker will launch, perform a backup, and then remove the container upon completion.

References

• Borgmatic Documentation
• BorgBase
• Docker Borgmatic