Ansible Role: Restic

Ansible role for installing and configuring Restic backups.

Requirements

This role has been tested on Ansible 2.9.0+ against the following Linux Distributions:

• Amazon Linux 2
• CentOS 8
• CentOS 7
• Debian 10
• Fedora 29
• Fedora 30
• Fedora 31
• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

The role will likely run against:

• MacOS
• FreeBSD
• OpenBSD
• Solaris

Windows, you will need to run this from WSL.

Disclaimer

If you have any problems please create a GitHub issue, I maintain this role in my spare time so I cannot promise a speedy fix delivery.

Role Variables

Restic Installation

The below are global variables for configuring Restic behaviour.

Variable	Description	Default value
restic_state	State of Restic installation. (present/absent)	"present"
restic_version	Use a specific version of Restic, eg. 0.11.0. Specify false for latest.	false
restic_scheduler	Method for scheduling Restic. (cron/systemd)	"cron"
restic_install_dir	Installation directory for Restic.	$HOME/bin
restic_install_hard_links	Install using hard links rather than symbolic links.	false
restic_repository	Restic repository path or URI.	NULL
restic_repository_password	Restic repository password.	NULL
restic_env_vars	Dictionary of environment vars to pass to Restic. See examples.	{}
restic_backup_tag	Tag to apply to backup.	"automatic"
restic_files	List of paths to backup.	[]
restic_exclude_files	List of paths to exclude from backup.	[]
restic_backup_opts	List of options for your chosen backup repository.	[]

Restic "forget" config

Restic will only be configured to forget snapshots when one of the following variables is defined.

Variable	Description	Default value
restic_keep_last	Keep the last 'n' backups.	NULL
restic_keep_hourly	Keep the last 'n' hours of backups.	NULL
restic_keep_daily	Keep the last 'n' days of backups.	NULL
restic_keep_weekly	Keep the last 'n' weeks of backups.	NULL
restic_keep_monthly	Keep the last 'n' months of backups.	NULL
restic_keep_yearly	Keep the last 'n' years of backups.	NULL
restic_keep_within_duration	Keep snapshots within this duration. eg. 2y5m7d3h	NULL

Cron config

Configuring cron jobs. Requires restic_files | length > 0.

Variable	Description	Default value
restic_backup_cron_schedule	Schedule for running backups with cron.	0 0 * * *
restic_forget_cron_schedule	Schedule for forgetting backups with cron.	0 3 * * *

Systemd unit config

Linux only: If your system has systemd as it's init system, you can schedule backups using timers. Requires restic_scheduler: systemd and restic_files | length > 0.

Variable	Description	Default value
restic_systemd_system_context	Install systemd timer units to system context.	false
restic_backup_systemd_schedule	Schedule for running backups, see OnCalendar for systemd.timer.	*-*-* 00:00:00
restic_forget_systemd_schedule	Schedule for forgetting backups*, see OnCalendar for systemd.timer.	*-*-* 03:00:00
restic_systemd_randomised_delay	Value for RandomizedDelaySec.	0

Dependencies

No dependencies on other roles.

Example Playbooks

Simple playbook

The bare minimum to install and configure Restic, with no scheduled backups.

---

- hosts: all
  become: true
  roles:
    - role: xanmanning.restic
      vars:
        restic_repository: "/backups"
        restic_repository_password: S0m3th?nGo0d_

Home directory backup

Example playbook for installing a specific version to a user account, backing up the user's home directory to remote SFTP on the first Thursday of the month at 10:00am (using cron).

---

- hosts: all
  roles:
    - role: xanmanning.restic
      vars:
        restic_version: 0.11.0
        restic_repository: "sftp:backup@backupserver:/backups/{{ ansible_user }}"
        restic_repository_password: S0m3th?nGo0d_
        restic_backup_cron_schedule: "0 10 1-7 * 4"
        restic_files:
          - "{{ ansible_user_dir }}"

System backup to S3

Example playbook for installing the latest Restic version globally, uploading to an AWS S3 bucket, using reduced redundancy and self pruning (using systemd timers).

Backup runs every morning at 1am. Pruning of old backups happens first Sunday of the month at 6am.

---

- hosts: all
  become: true
  roles:
    - role: xanmanning.restic
      vars:
        restic_install_hard_links: true
        restic_install_dir: /usr/local/sbin
        restic_repository: "s3:s3.amazonaws.com/my_bucket"
        restic_repository_password: S0m3th?nGo0d_
        restic_scheduler: systemd
        restic_systemd_system_context: true
        restic_backup_systemd_schedule: "*-*-* 01:00:00"
        restic_forget_systemd_schedule: "Sun *-*-1..7 06:00:00"
        restic_systemd_randomised_delay: 10min
        restic_keep_daily: 7
        restic_keep_weekly: 4
        restic_keep_monthly: 6
        restic_keep_yearly: 1
        restic_env_vars:
          AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID: AKxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxDF
          AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY: fJz/xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx23
        restic_backup_opts:
          - s3.storage-class=REDUCED_REDUNDANCY
          - s3.region=eu-west-1
        restic_files:
          - /home
          - /root
          - /etc
          - /var/log
        restic_exclude_files:
          - /home/ansible
          - /root/bin

License

BSD 3-clause

Author Information

Xan Manning