Odi's astoundingly incomplete notes

Restic deserves a shoutout. Only recently I have discovered this outstanding backup solution. It's simplicity is ingenious. It allowed my to replace my 10 year old Bacula solution in just 15 minutes! Now I have a reliable automate backup with no clicky UI, no central database that uses minimal resources.

The coolest feature is its git-like storage. Files are only stored once. There is no need to distinguish between full, incremental or differential backups. Every backup is a full backup, but stores files efficiently only once. That makes backup management a dream.

Restic's key features that make it so cool:

• No database, no central infrastructure: the backup is the database.
• No configuration necessary: just decide where to put the backup and choose a passphrase. Everything else is optional and honestly not really necessary.
• High throughput by using parallel compression/encryption and no database limits what you can do: I was genuinely blown away by the speed.
• Deduplication and efficient storage: git-like storage, no differential backups necessary
• No connectivtiy woes: since there is no central component
• Works on local disk as well as almost any cloud storage protocol: unlike Bacula which is tape library centric and drive backups are a side feature
• Small single binary (go)
• Highly scriptable: the binary has a couple of subcommands to manage everything. Takes arguments or env vars. Provies exit codes.
• No UI: the single binary is the cli and the backup tool itself
• Encryption by default: you can't disable it, but if you don't like it simply select a trival password that you put next to your backup.

posted on 2026-05-03 09:09 UTC in Reviews | 0 comments | permalink