How to Back Up Your Server with rsync

rsync efficiently copies files between your server and a backup destination.

Basic Backup

rsync -avz /var/www/ /backup/www/

Remote Backup

rsync -avz -e ssh /var/www/ backup@remote-server:/backups/www/

Exclude Files

rsync -avz --exclude='*.log' --exclude='node_modules' /var/www/ /backup/www/

Automated with Cron

crontab -e\n0 2 * * * rsync -avz --delete /var/www/ backup@remote:/backups/www/ >> /var/log/backup.log 2>&1

Flags Explained

• -a archive mode (preserves permissions, timestamps)
• -v verbose
• -z compress during transfer
• --delete remove files at destination that no longer exist at source