Pika Backup -An open source linux backup solution that rivals the ease of Time Machine!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 11 ก.ค. 2024
- === Links ===
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=== Timestamps ===
00:00 Beginning
00:08 Introduction to Pika Backup
03:12 InstallingPika Backup
04:11 Thank you to all my Patrons at Patreon
04:57 Select the Backup Destination
07:08 Backup Options
09:57 Scheduling Backups
13:34 Testing Restoration of Backups
14:33 Versioning in Backups
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I use restic for all my backups now. It is not a GUI app so it works well within containers, VMs and cloud servers. It is full featured, straight-forward and rock solid.
I like the idea of other CLI tools, and of course backup my servers using command line rsync. I have been wanting to look into Borg more, but definitely prefer a GUI when it's available.
i also like if there is a gui there , and with all community help really it helps us alot . hope this will continues
@@AwesomeOpenSource for borg you need to setup borg server where as with restic you only need ssh access. I use restic + minio + Backblaze B2
@@AwesomeOpenSourcei believe Pika is using Borg in the background
@@thebaldmaniacit does, it's just a gui for borg
You are genuine and humble technocrat. Your contents are priceless. Learned many things. May god bless you for spreading the real asset i.e."Knowledge".
From Land of knowledge ( India )
I truly appreciate that! Thank you..
I switched from Deja-Dup to Pika Backup ~6 Month ago and i am amazed how well it works and how easy it is to use. The biggest problem i had with Deja-Dup was setting up the same repository after a reinstallation of my PC. I got so annoyed that i found Pika on my hunt for an alternative. With Pika even this just works!
That's awesome to hear. I love it when things just work.
You sold me on Pika. Installing now!
That's awesome! Hope it works well for you.
Great video! Pika looks to be a great frontend to BorgBackup. I'm using Borgmatic on my servers to configure regular Borg backups, and I also use Vorta on desktops, which provides very similar functionality, but it's from the Qt/KDE family.
Oh nice! Borgmatic is on my list as well.
Pro tip: Timeshift does work with external hard drives you just have to either format it using ext3 or create a partition and then format it using ext3. (Because it uses hard links to avoid copying the data that didn't change, and NTFS or fat32 don't really support the hard linking that Timeshift would require)
However still, nice video I like how this can backup over the network as well and easily encrypt the backups.
Why ext3? ext4 supports hard links as well and it's more modern than ext3.
Interesting. Yeah, TimeShift is a really cool tool when you have BtrFS and do snapshots IMO.
It is a good wrapper, it uses Borg. Pika-backup is great for average joe that wants a simple yet very powerful backup solution.
Part of my backup offering, i use Borg extensively for backuping client's servers to my backup hosting servers, controlled by bash script i wrote that takes care of each backup name, automatic pruning, writing to syslog, sending email, etc. (quite simple script scheduled by cron) It supports encrypting backups, de-duplication, compression. Obviously, i use it for my own laptops backups! I love the fact that i can use the borg command to remotely mount one backup and it becomes a local directory that i can run any command on it, like find, rsync, etc.
That's an awesome setup! Love it! Putting Open Source to work in Business!
Backintime has been my goto timemachine alternative on linux
BackInTime is good, but last I looked ( a few years now) it hadn't been updated in a long time.
@@AwesomeOpenSource I am sadly aware of, also annoyed by old gui but... it still does the job pretty good
Timeshift not only has the option to make system snapshots via BTRFS subvolumes, (as you say, "local backups"), but it can also do exactly what Pika does, i.e. back up the system in multiple scheduled versions to an external device via RSYNC.
Indeed, but it's not quite the simple setup of Pika IMO.
@@AwesomeOpenSource SMH, who cares if it's simple to setup, what matters is how it works. Timeshift does everything Pika does and more. I'm sure you can wrap your head around it.
@@Error8x8 timeshift is not made for data backups. it´s made for system backup and restore. read the docs!
@@orko2027 The docs won't say it but your wrong. Laughably wrong.
Another great gui for borg backup is Vorta.
Definitely have to check into that one.
I like your videos
Thank you so much!
I can recommend kopia. It's more performant than borg or restic and has an optional (cross platform) gui.
I've seen Kopia. It's on my list to dig into.
A Video about miniflux would be great, ttrss or freshrss are also an option, but miniflux seems to be the best.
I'll look into it.
Works like a charm on Pop! OS. Works sans scheduler (fails) on latest Linux Mint Cinnamon. Seems to be due to an issue with LM using a very old version of flatpak.
Could be a flatpak versioning issue. Can't the flatpak version be updated though?
@@AwesomeOpenSource I think it's more the case that the background task scheduler org.freedesktop.portal.Background is only supported on Gnome (also running Cinnamon Mint here, so scheduling fails). Kopia might work better for me but the UI is not in the same class as Pika Backup :(
restic is great, but this tool about GUI, and nice GUI, Windows like one. Which is cool and good.
Glad you like it!
🎉
Cheers!
I tried using Pike Backup but the issue with it is actually the maintainer and the lack of some basic features. Even though multiple users requested certain basic features, because the maintainer herself does not use them and find them useful, she just says no and closes your issue. I would probably recommend people use Vorta backup which is made by BorgBase themselves over Pika Backup. The maintainers actually care what their users want and it is more full featured.
I understand the frustration you feel, and that's part of development. I've seen plenty of closed source applications say 'no' to a feature request. It's not a slight against anyone, but more about not the direction the product maintainer wants to go. That's the great thing about open source too, though. In closed source, you're out of luck, but in open source, you can fork the repo and add the feature yourself, or have someone else add it (maybe via Fiverr, or the like). Vorta sounds cool, so I'll be covering it in the future. I do kind of like the simplicity of PIka though.
@@AwesomeOpenSourceThat is essentially the conclusion I came to as well. I forked it and have been using it as a reason to learn rust. Will at some point put up another flatpak with the changes for everyone.
That said there are still some things in Vorta I like better. You can actually pick an ssh key on disk vs having to have the host and key configured in your ssh config. You can mount a single archive like Pika but you can also mount all archives at once. Support for '.nobackup' files. Backups also just seem faster but I'm not sure why.
The GUI is definitely function over aesthetics but I'm OK with that in backup software. Apparently it has a dark mode but I have yet been able to trigger it.
Thanks for your positive response. Can't wait for your video on Vorta.
Love it! Let me know when you PR the changes too. This is why Open Source is so awesome! It's the opportunity to make improvements to something, and share that with everyone.
I want to backup to my Unraid server, and I've already set up an NFS share. But it seems that Pika Backup can't just selected that NFS share as a destination?
That's interesting. Do you have the NFS share mounted to the machine where Pika BAckup is running, or were you looking to use the NFS URL in pika backup somewhere?
@@AwesomeOpenSource Yesterday when I selected a folder on the NFS share, Pika only brought up a temporary path. But I just tried again, and it seems to have found the correct /mnt/nfs/folder. So I might be all set! You can have the credit xD
This is pretty good. Will it run in a container?
No container that I know of. This is a full Gnome GTK app as far as I can tell.
I installed this on Debian 12 running XFCE and I got 'Background Process Inactive - this is required for scheduled backups...' any idea what the problem could be?
No. Not sure what process may not be starting. Probably a good question to post on their gitlab page (linked in the video description).
Except my default editor is vim so I cannot restore my files because when I do a browse in the Pika gui, the directories open in vim as a tree, It appears that this app only works if the OS FM is a gui app, like thunar or pcman.
Might be a limitation for sure.
TimeShift is used to backup the system itself, not user files.
Dejà Dup backups user files.
I wish I could get something like this for Mac OS for something more customized than the limited control time machine gives
You can use Vorta backup. I have on my Mac. Vorta is a gui front end to Borg backup just like pika backup.
The control in TimeMachine is a bit limited, but also it's meant to be a super simple thing to setup, start, and just let it be.
@@AwesomeOpenSource the only thing I've come across that is advanced control like is that you can use mac terminal to adjust the priority of the backup process from background to normal priority: sudo sysctl
debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0
I'll look into it, but I already have a Time Machine like backup script, which is used by the thousands by Linux and Windows users.
That's awesome. If what you have is working for you, then keep using it.
Any chance you can put a video about Tactical RMM, thanks
No, Tactical RMM is not open source. It uses MeshCentral in the background though.
can pika be managed from the commandline or a browser inferface?
Not browser that I'm aware of, but Pika is a frontend for Borg Backup, so you can use CLI for Borg, and Borgmatic, I believe is a web browser front end for Borg.
thanks u @@AwesomeOpenSource
What I would like to do is have backups that do NOT get deleted when I delete them from my computer. I guess that is an archive?
Does this do that?
It does, this does archived backups.
So if you want to leave Apple, then what do you do with your backups? That's why they made it good to keep you.
True, Apple makes it so easy it's hard to find nice alternatives, but this is one.
I just gave this the once over both in Fedora 39 installation and my Arch (Cinnamon DE) install. What really bothers me is the clumsyness of doing a restore. Unless I'm missing something, I have to go in and copy from my backup archive and manually paste back in to my desired destination. This is cumbersome if say, I have my entire /home directory backed up, I then reinstall my Linux dist and then want to restore the entire /home directory back. I have to individually go through ALL my /home content and copy/paste it manually, including hidden files of course. I just find this clunky. Just wondering out loud why dev didn't include a "Restore/Restore To" button as well.
I just copied the entire folder from the backup to the location I wanted to restore the multiple files to. it was pretty simple for me. But, you can always ask the developer on github if they'd be willing to add a restore function.
I would like to see a scheduled integrity check, maybe with a message if something went wrong
I can't claim that it doesn't do one after the backup rund, but a great suggestion for their gitlab page (link in the video description).
does it also do pull based backups?
edit: aah no... thought this is like a service to backup other servers
No, this is really meant to be a backup for your local home directory.
Great video. no s3 support?
No, not with this one. Duplicati would be your tool for that.
for me it is like a GUI for borg backup
It is exactly that.
Seems only to be able to backup the users home folder. No Restore built in function. Can't backup say /etc folder or any other system folder.
I show you how to restore, and no it's not like a "Restore" button. You literally open the backup in the file manager, and move / copy the backup to where you want it. It's really designed just to backup the items your user has permissions for (thus the home folder).
@@AwesomeOpenSourceSorry, I did not mean to offense you. To me that Pica Backup is an unfinished product.
Not at all. Never offended. Just trying to provide insight. I'm not always sure my videos give the whole picture. I love comments, and thoughts from others. I will say, you might like URBackup or Duplicati as an alternative to this one. Not sure if you've looked at those.
I thought, as you wrote "Linux" you meant really a new backup solution, maybe replacement for my BorgBackup..
But Pika Backup is just a GUI for borgbackup basically :(
Indeed, it uses Borg backup in the background. It is just a way to lower the barrier to usage for the end user.
So this is only for Linux? (No Windows client correct?)
You can use it for Windows too, you only need to think out of box. Mount remote windows share and take windows backup from Linux... Nothing can stop you.
It's not built for Windows, no. But there is a really good alternative, if you haven't looked at it. Duplicati is really nice, and is made for Linux, Mac, and Windows. www.duplicati.com/
@@AwesomeOpenSource I've been using urbackup for Windows and so far I prefer it to duplicati which is what I used previously. Do you have any thoughts on urbackup?
@@mr.robbotto He did a video on urbackup. Look for it on his playlist.
Yep, URBackup is an awesome tool. I use it to do file backups on a lot of my machines to my TrueNAS system. It's pretty great, and once the agent is installed on clients, the options to manage the backups from one UI is great. Need to cover it again actually.
and it backup using xz tools haha. open source is fun. when it fails
I wouldn't really call that a fail. It was a long term planned attack really. 2 years in the making. Luckily their timeline was pushed up because systemd was patching the very thing they were trying to take advantage of. Additionally, had it not been on open source, we likely would have never known about it, not had it patched so quickly. Open Source for the win.
@@AwesomeOpenSource is than make it any better xD this is good too use it. everyone use it so popular. now we update it. boom. that boom time. nobody checked code
Is this web based? Im not running a gui on my server.
This uses Borg backup in the background, so Vorta is a web GUI for Borg.
Sorry, mis-spoke, borgwarehouse is the web gui. Vorta is another desktop gui.
Ok. Thanks
Unsafe requires full root access
To backup the file systems that are owned by root, it will require admin level access. You don't have to use it to backup those files / folders though.
Why do you think that it is better to have a windows device in your home instead of a apple device?
The only reason that comes to mind is mild privacy protection, but even that is debatable compared to apple.
There a literary hundreds of really important reasons for straight up boicoting apple, so I'm surprised you allow one and not the other.
If anyone is curious I can post my list of reasons.
So, I have a Windows machine in my home, but it's my work provided device, and it's on it's own VLAN. I'm not a fan of microsoft. Their insistence that you have a microsoft account to login to a device you own. Their constant updates that re-enable all of the non-privacy respecting "features" of their OS. Does Mac have this? Yes, but when you turn nit off, it stays off. Does mac have an online account option? Yes, but it's an option that is evidentin setup, and not something where you have to know a special hotkey combo, command line command, and other stuff to get around it. You simply choose to not use an Apple ID for logging onto your computer. I now use Linux as my daily driver for everything personal. My girls also use Linux, including on their SteamDeck gaming systems. My wife is a Linux user as well, but she does get value from the Mac for her business in the form of specialized printer needs. It's just my personal beef with Microsoft. I hold nthing against anyone who uses Windows, and hope they enjoy every moment of using it, truly.
@@AwesomeOpenSource So you use both Ubuntu and Fedora desktops? You switch between them based on what your or doing, or just to stay current on both?
Distro-hopper. I've historically stuck with Ubuntu, but the past few months have been trying Fedora, and so far like it. Sometimes it's a bit more involved to get certain things to work, but worth it partially as a way to give data to my Linux User Group. Also, just becuase I like to jump around here and there on my desktop.
Rivals the ease of TM...video needs 10+ minutes to explain the thing. :D
TM is literally: 1. switch it on 2. choose target 3. there is no 3.!
It always pains me to see that open source products are so many times doomed to fail due to their complexity...
I don't fully understand your comment. If you like the software, great. If not, that's okay. I can't tell exactly. If you just don't like the video format then I'm sorry. I do long form content because a large part of my audience are beginners, or at least new to Linux.
Veeam Backup and Replication is spectacular, free for 10 Workloads or VMs
If only it were open source.