Ahmed and I run this blog on the standalone Ghost for almost four years. Around the same time, I created a small cron task that backs up the site content, dumps the database, and uploads archives to Google Drive. But now it's time for the change.

Google Drive was a good option in 2019, but product upgrades, site growth, and the fast decaying of the meaning "unlimited" made the current approach obsolete. Plus, I have another purpose for these backup files in mind. So here is the list of the backup requirements that fit my bill:

  • Use free or very inexpensive cloud storage;
  • Leverage versions and lifecycle policies to keep space usage in check;
  • Do not use passwords in the command line;
  • Suitable for quick cloning and testing.

Although almost the same could be done with any big cloud player, I decided to see how it works with Google Cloud and how it fits my final goal requirements. But before changing my backup scripts, some preparations are due.

Cloud Storage Preparation

  1. Create or activate your Google Cloud account. If it's your first account, don't forget to grab your $300 voucher.
  2. Create a new project to group your cloud artifacts.  
  3. Create a new Cloud Storage bucket.
  4. Enable Object Versioning
  5. Create Lifecycle rules regarding how many object versions you want to keep and how long.
Bucket object protection.

Since we have a few monthly updates, I will keep two previous versions of each file for two weeks. The bi-weekly backup will give the current and two earlier copies of the site at any given moment.

Environment Preparation

Install and configure Google Command Line Interface.

  1. Install Google Cloud CLI, following the documentation steps. Instructions are straightforward and shouldn't give you any trouble.

  2. During the CLI configuration, be ready to open an URL in the browser and log in with your cloud account credentials. Then, paste a confirmation key back to the terminal upon successful authentication and permission consent.

  3. Make sure that your configuration works and you see your target bucket.

     gcloud config configurations describe default
 gcloud storage ls

  4. Enable parallel file uploads for the best performance and suppress warnings.

     gcloud config set storage/parallel_composite_upload_enabled True

Configure your MySQL database and tools.

  1. MySQL v8 requires additional global privileges for full database exports.

     GRANT PROCESS ON  *.* TO ghostuser@localhost;

  2. The utility mysql_config_editor allows you to encrypt passwords for database tools. Enter the database user password at the prompt.

     mysql_config_editor set --login-path=mysqldump --host=localhost --user=ghostuser --password

  3. Test the full database export; You should not see any prompts or warnings.

     mysqldump -u ghostuser --databases ghostdb > /dev/null
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The key --databases may seem excessive since we export only one database at a time. But it makes an important difference: it creates a new database if it does not exist. 

Assembly backup script

Essentially we have everything we need to compile a shell script. I stripped down all the bells and whistles from the original, but it will do.

#!/bin/sh

#Backup Site
tmp_f="/tmp/ghost.bkp"
pref="your-site-name"
gs_bucket="gs://put-your-name-here/"
ghost_home=/var/opt/ghost/

# Create temp folder
mkdir -p $tmp_f

# Export Ghost Database 
mysqldump --user your_dabase_user --databases your_ghost_db |gzip >"${tmp_f}/${pref}.sql.gz"

# Archive non text content
cd $ghost_home
tar zcf "${tmp_f}/${pref}.content.tgz" content

# Upload to the GC
gcloud -q storage cp $tmp_f/* $gs_bucket
rc=$?

if [ $rc == "0" ]; then
 printf " Done.\n"
 rm $tmp_f/*
fi

# Remove temp folder
rmdir $tmp_f

echo -e "==========================================================================="
echo -e "         Backup completed"
echo -e "==========================================================================="

Save the backup script to your ~/bin/  folder and adjust execution permissions.

Now, use crontab to schedule your backups and watch for cloud storage content.  By the way, I always struggle with the cron schedule syntax, but https://crontab.guru is very helpful.