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implementing-backup-strategies

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Description

Execute use when you need to work with backup and recovery. This skill provides backup automation and disaster recovery with comprehensive guidance and automation. Trigger with phrases like "create backups", "automate backups", or "implement disaster recovery".

Tool Access

This skill is limited to using the following tools:

ReadWriteEditGrepGlobBash(tar:*)Bash(rsync:*)Bash(aws:s3:*)
Supporting Assets
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assets/README.md
references/README.md
scripts/README.md
Skill Content

Implementing Backup Strategies

Overview

Design and implement backup strategies for databases, file systems, and cloud resources using tools like tar, rsync, pg_dump, mysqldump, AWS S3, and cloud-native snapshot APIs. Covers full, incremental, and differential backup schemes with retention policies, encryption, and automated verification.

Prerequisites

  • tar, rsync, or restic installed for file-level backups
  • Database client tools (pg_dump, mysqldump, mongodump) for database backups
  • AWS CLI configured with S3 write permissions (or equivalent GCP/Azure storage access)
  • Sufficient storage capacity at backup destination (local, NFS, or object storage)
  • Cron or systemd timer access for scheduling automated backups
  • GPG or OpenSSL for backup encryption at rest

Instructions

  1. Inventory all data sources requiring backup: databases, application data directories, configuration files, secrets/certificates
  2. Classify data by RPO (Recovery Point Objective) and RTO (Recovery Time Objective) requirements
  3. Select backup strategy per data class: full daily + incremental hourly for databases, snapshot-based for block storage, rsync for file systems
  4. Generate backup scripts using appropriate tools (pg_dump --format=custom, tar czf, rsync -avz --delete)
  5. Configure retention policy: daily backups kept 7 days, weekly kept 4 weeks, monthly kept 12 months
  6. Add encryption for backups containing sensitive data (gpg --encrypt or S3 server-side encryption with KMS)
  7. Set up automated scheduling via cron jobs or systemd timers with proper logging
  8. Implement backup verification: restore to a test environment on a weekly schedule and validate data integrity
  9. Configure alerting for backup failures via email, Slack, or PagerDuty

Output

  • Backup shell scripts with logging, error handling, and lock files to prevent concurrent runs
  • Cron entries or systemd timer/service unit files
  • Retention policy configuration (lifecycle rules for S3, cleanup scripts for local)
  • Restore runbook with step-by-step recovery procedures
  • Monitoring configuration for backup success/failure alerts

Error Handling

ErrorCauseSolution
No space left on deviceBackup destination fullVerify retention cleanup is running; increase storage or reduce retention window
pg_dump: connection refusedDatabase not accepting connections or wrong credentialsCheck pg_hba.conf, verify connection string, and test with psql first
rsync: connection unexpectedly closedNetwork interruption or SSH timeoutAdd --timeout=300 and --partial flags; use persistent SSH tunnel
S3 upload failed: Access DeniedIAM policy missing s3:PutObject permissionAttach proper IAM policy; verify bucket policy allows writes from the backup source
Backup file corrupted on restoreIncomplete write or disk error during backupAdd checksum verification (sha256sum) after backup; test restores regularly

Examples

  • "Create a backup strategy for a PostgreSQL database: full dump nightly to S3, WAL archiving for point-in-time recovery, 30-day retention."
  • "Generate rsync scripts to mirror /var/www to a remote NAS with incremental daily backups and weekly full backups."
  • "Implement encrypted backups for a MongoDB replica set with automated restore testing every Sunday."

Resources

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Stars1669
Forks210
Last CommitMar 11, 2026

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