Testing a Borg backup?

[HiPhish]

What app is this about, and its version: Borg Backup, 1.4.3~ynh1
What YunoHost version are you running: 12.1.39 (stable)
What type of hardware are you using: Old laptop or computer

Describe your issue

Hi there, I am close to committing to YunoHost, but there is just one detail I want to ensure before I upload all my personal files to it. I have set up the Borg Backup app and have it set to upload to a remote repository via SSH (it’s a Hetzner Storage Box in case that matters). All of this works fine.

I wanted to to try it out and mount the repo locally on my daily driver machine (Void Linux):

BORG_REPO='ssh://xxx@yyy.your-storagebox.de:23/~/borg/homeserver' borg mount :: yuno-backup/
cd yuno-backup

This part works, I can see all my backups when I execute ls. However, when I cd into one of the directories only the two files backup.csv and info.json) are readable, the apps directory gives me the error ls: cannot open directory 'apps': Permission denied.

Is this working as intended? How would I go about restoring a backup if my server get completely busted? I would have to set up YunoHost on a new machine, but I think that new machine would get permission errors as well.

Also, in the Borg Backup app settings under “What should be backed up?” there are three settings: configuration, data and multimedia. What is the difference between data and multimedia? I want to backup any apps which deal with personal files like NextCloud or Immich, so which of the two do I pick? Both? Is there a way to tell what is data and what is multimedia in general?

Share relevant logs or error messages

• My local OS: Void Linux
• My local Borg version: borg 1.4.3

[Mamie]

From what I understand with borg, you can not mount the whole repository, but only backups ore per one.

Something like this :

sudo env BORG_RSH=“ssh -i /root/.ssh/id_$borg_ed25519 -p 22 -oStrictHostKeyChecking=yes " BORG_PASSPHRASE=”$(sudo yunohost app setting borg passphrase)" BORG_RELOCATED_REPO_ACCESS_IS_OK=yes BORG_REPO=“$(sudo yunohost app setting borg repository)” /var/www/borg/venv/bin/borg mount ::auto_nextcloud-2026-02-20T02:53:44 yuno-backup/

This command works with YunoHost, and can be simplified with :

yunohost app shell borg
borg mount ::auto_nextcloud-2026-02-20T02:53:44 /full/path/to/yuno-backup/

For the 3 options (not 100% sure) :

1. Configuration : global system configuration
2. Data : /home/users…
3. Multimedia : /home/yunohost.multimedia

I digged all this because I have 4 different borg instances ans wanted to avoid too much duplication.

[HiPhish]

Your command calls Borg from the YunoHost server. What I want to know is how to get my data back if the server is destroyed.

[Mamie]

Do you do your backups on the server or on another one ?

If it is done locally, make an external backup of how to access the server (you will need a borg client with the right keys).

If it is done on another server, make sure you can create another user who will connect to restore data.

In all cases, you will not copy/past the folder but generate a tar archive that YunoHost will use for restauration.

[HiPhish]

OK, I think I got it now. Using borg export-tar produces a tarball of the backup which contains all the files and it’s all readable. To recap for posterity, this is what I ran on my PC:

BORG_REPO='ssh://xxxx@xxxx.your-storagebox.de:23/~/borg/homeserver' borg export-tar ::auto_immich-2026-02-20T00:00:40 immich.tar

The YunoHost sever does not need to be involved in any way. Here auto_immich-2026-02-20T00:00:40 is the name of the particular backup to export and immich.tar is the name of the tarball to produce. To get a list of all backups I can use borg list:

BORG_REPO='ssh://xxxx@xxxx.your-storagebox.de:23/~/borg/homeserver' borg list ::

The Borg Backup app creates a separate backup for each app. In the case of Immich the backup also contains the original images, so even if the YunoHost or Immich projects were ever to die it would still be possible to get back the originals.

Do you do your backups on the server or on another one ?

The backup process runs on the server (using the Borg Backup app), but the repository is on a remote machine (Hetzner storage box). I want off-site backups in case the server gets destroyed.