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Vykar: a backup tool faster than borg, restic, and kopia with multi-machine backups, direct database dumps, and built-in scheduling

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By:/u/manu_8487
Vykar: a backup tool faster than borg, restic, and kopia with multi-machine backups, direct database dumps, and built-in scheduling

I run a backup hosting service, and built Vorta, a desktop GUI for Borg. After years of seeing how people set up backups, the pattern is always the same: a backup tool, plus a wrapper for config, a systemd timer for scheduling, a bash script for database dumps, and a curl to healthchecks.io for monitoring. It works, but it's fragile and breaks silently.

So I built Vykar, a Rust-based backup client where all of that lives in one YAML config file. It also uses modern deduplication and crypto libs to incorporate learnings from existing backup tools.

Fast, and built for multiple machines

Vykar is the fastest tool I tested for both backup and restore, with the lowest CPU usage. Full benchmarks with methodology.

Multiple machines can back up to the same repo simultaneously. Only the brief commit phase is serialized. No lock contention, no coordinating cron jobs across hosts.

(Docker) database backups without bash scripts

Vykar has command dumps that stream stdout directly into the backup. No temp files, no cleanup:

```yaml sources: - label: app-database command_dumps: - name: mydb.dump command: "docker exec my-postgres pg_dump -U myuser -Fc mydb" retention: keep_daily: 30

  • path: /var/lib/docker/volumes/uploads/_data label: uploads retention: keep_daily: 7 ```

Works for MySQL, MongoDB, whatever dumps to stdout. Mix with regular directory sources and give each its own retention policy.

What else is built in

  • Hooks for monitoring (healthchecks.io, ntfy, Uptime Kuma)
  • Multiple backends: local folders, S3 (B2, Wasabi, MinIO), SFTP, REST server with server-side maintenance
  • Rate limiting
  • WebDAV + GUI to browse and restore snapshots
  • Cross-platform: Linux, macOS, Windows

Getting started

```bash curl -fsSL https://vykar.borgbase.com/install.sh | sh vykar config # generates a YAML config

edit the config: add sources and a repository

vykar init # set up the repo vykar backup # first backup ```

Binaries on the release page. Full quickstart guide.

For quick testing, BorgBase already has it as repo format. S3 and SFTP will work too and get tested extensively.

This is still a new tool. Test it alongside your current setup. If there's something you'd want to see added in a new tool or a bug you notice, just let me know here or add a Github issue.

GitHub · Docs · Recipes for Docker, databases, ZFS/Btrfs, monitoring

submitted by /u/manu_8487 to r/selfhosted
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