---
title: Backup Strategies
description: Practical backup strategy guidance for self-hosted services, containers, and virtualized homelabs
tags:
  - backup
  - self-hosting
  - operations
category: self-hosting
created: 2026-03-14
updated: 2026-03-14
---

# Backup Strategies

## Introduction

Backups protect against deletion, corruption, hardware failure, ransomware, and operational mistakes. In self-hosted environments, a backup strategy should cover both data and the information needed to restore services correctly.

## Purpose

This guide covers:

- What to back up
- How often to back it up
- Where to store copies
- How to validate restore readiness

## Architecture Overview

A good strategy includes:

- Primary data backups
- Configuration and infrastructure backups
- Off-site or offline copies
- Restore testing

The 3-2-1 rule is a strong baseline:

- 3 copies of data
- 2 different media or storage systems
- 1 copy off-site

For higher assurance, also consider an immutable or offline copy and zero-error verification.

## Step-by-Step Guide

### 1. Inventory what matters

Back up:

- Databases
- Application data directories
- Compose files and infrastructure code
- DNS, reverse proxy, and secrets configuration
- Hypervisor or VM backup metadata

### 2. Choose backup tools by workload

- File-level backups: restic, Borg, rsync-based workflows
- VM backups: hypervisor-integrated backup jobs
- Database-aware backups: logical dumps or physical backup tools where needed

### 3. Schedule and retain intelligently

Use a retention policy that matches recovery needs. Short retention for frequent snapshots and longer retention for off-site backups is common.

### 4. Test restores

Backups are incomplete until you can restore and start the service successfully.

## Configuration Example

Restic backup example:

```bash
export RESTIC_REPOSITORY=/backup/restic
export RESTIC_PASSWORD_FILE=/run/secrets/restic_password

restic backup /srv/app-data /srv/compose
restic snapshots
```

Example restore check:

```bash
restic restore latest --target /tmp/restore-check
```

## Troubleshooting Tips

### Backups exist but restores are incomplete

- Confirm databases were backed up consistently, not mid-write without support
- Verify application config and secret material were included
- Check permissions and ownership in the restored data

### Repository size grows too quickly

- Review retention rules and pruning behavior
- Exclude caches, transient files, and rebuildable artifacts
- Split hot data from archival data if retention needs differ

### Backups run but nobody notices failures

- Alert on backup freshness and last successful run
- Record the restore procedure for each critical service
- Test restores on a schedule, not only after incidents

## Best Practices

- Back up both data and the configuration needed to use it
- Keep at least one copy outside the main failure domain
- Prefer encrypted backup repositories for off-site storage
- Automate backup jobs and monitor their success
- Practice restores for your most important services first

## References

- [restic documentation](https://restic.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
- [BorgBackup documentation](https://borgbackup.readthedocs.io/en/stable/)
- [Proxmox VE Backup and Restore](https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/chapter-vzdump.html)