This is an original planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, an official standard, or legal advice. Example addresses use documentation ranges. Review every command before you paste it.
What this hour is for
restic and Borg both keep deduplicated backups. The builders draft a command. They do not create a repository and they do not connect. The password is prompt-for-this. It does not go in the command or in git.
The repository is storage you administer. Do not point either tool at a server you do not run. Pick one tool for the dataset. Two repositories for the same data in the first hour is two designs.
A prune is not the first command. 192.0.2.10/24 and example.com are documentation. They stay in the note.
The change you can finish
Apply nothing while you are writing the note. When the lab window opens, it is one change on the host named in the ticket. Read the draft, then the host, then decide.
Rollback is the file, the package version, or the snapshot you saved first. You do not invent a rollback after the only copy is gone.
- Name the data and the storage you administer.
- Pick restic or Borg.
- Draft an init only as a note.
- Keep the password out of the command.
- Do not run it during the reading.
- Leave prune out.
Mistakes that outlive the command
restic vs BorgBackup goes wrong in a small set of ways. The list is here so the ticket can forbid them before the window.
- A repository on a host you do not administer.
- The password in the command.
- Prune as the first command.
- Both tools started in one hour.
- The command run during the reading.
Decisions to write down
One decision for restic vs BorgBackup: One tool. The storage is yours. No password is in the draft. Prune is absent. And nothing was run.
Checks before you call it done
Confirm this before you call the change done: The tool is chosen. The storage is written. No password is present. Nothing was run. And prune is not in the draft. If one of those fails, stop.
# One tool.
# prompt-for-this is not the repository password.
# Storage you administer.
# Do not init during the reading.
Before you leave the host
restic vs BorgBackup ends when the hostname in the prompt matches the hostname in the ticket. If it does not, you are on the wrong host. Stop. A command that succeeded on the wrong host is not progress.
The draft stays a draft until a person has read the names in it. A generator does not log into the host and does not know which disk is empty. You delete a line that names a host, a path, or an account you did not write down.
192.0.2.10/24, gateway 192.0.2.1, 198.51.100.0/24, 203.0.113.0/24, and 2001:db8::/32 are documentation. example.com is a documentation name. They belong in the note. They are not values you leave on a host because a draft included them.
prompt-for-this is a reminder that a secret is missing. It is not a password, a key, or a token you save in the ticket or in git. The real secret stays in the password store.
One change is the window. If two things move and the result is wrong, you will not know which one did it. The next change waits for its own page.
If the same step fails twice, stop for the day. The failure is the result. Adding a forum command beside a half-applied change produces a host nobody can rebuild. Restore the copy you took first.
A second person reads the hostname and the change aloud. If they cannot find them in the ticket, the note is not done. Silence is not agreement. Then leave the host alone.
This page is a planning guide. It is not a vendor manual, not an official standard, and not permission to touch a host you do not administer. You do not disable a firewall, AppArmor, or SELinux to make a check pass.
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