Backing up InteLIS to Another Linux Machine

Keep a copy of InteLIS on a second Linux machine, updated automatically every 8 hours.

One script sets up every kind of backup destination. This guide covers sending the backup to another Linux machine over SSH. To send it to a Windows shared folder instead, see Backing up to a Windows Machine.

Before you start

• The backup machine runs Linux and is reachable from the InteLIS server.
• You know a username and password on the backup machine.
• You can run commands with sudo on the InteLIS server.

Set up the backup

On the InteLIS server, run:

intelis backup setup

If intelis is not recognised

The installation predates the command. Fetch the script directly instead:

cd ~
wget -O remote-backup.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/deforay/intelis/master/scripts/remote-backup.sh
sudo chmod u+x remote-backup.sh
sudo ./remote-backup.sh

The script asks these questions:

Question	Example answer
Lab name or lab code	kigali-central
InteLIS folder path	Press Enter to accept the detected path
Where should the backup be sent	1 for another Linux machine
Username on the backup server	lisbackup
Hostname or IP of the backup server	192.168.1.60
SSH port	Press Enter to accept 22

The script asks for the backup machine's password once, to install a key. After that it connects without a password.

Wrong answers do not end the script. It reports the problem and asks again.

Confirm it worked

The script runs the first backup before it finishes, and reports the result. To check again at any time:

intelis backup status

A working setup looks like this:

Lab            : kigali-central (kigali-central-3f9a2b1c)
Backing up to  : lisbackup@192.168.1.60:/home/lisbackup/backups/kigali-central-3f9a2b1c
Last good backup: 2026-08-07T09:14:22Z (12 minutes ago)
Size on backup  : 4.2G
Last attempt    : succeeded in 47s
Schedule        : every 8 hours and after every restart

If the last good backup is more than a day old, the status output says so.

Where the backup lands

Each installation gets its own folder, named after the lab and a short identifier unique to that machine:

/home/lisbackup/backups/kigali-central-3f9a2b1c/

Two labs that choose the same name still get separate folders. One lab can never overwrite another lab's backup.

The backup holds the whole InteLIS folder, including the database dumps written to backups/db every 6 hours. It leaves out files that are rebuilt on install: vendor/, caches, logs, and version-control folders.

Commands

Task	Command
Check the last backup	intelis backup status
Test the connection without copying	intelis backup test
Back up right now	intelis backup
Watch a backup as it runs	tail -f /var/log/intelis-backup.log
Stop the scheduled backups	intelis backup disable
Start them again	intelis backup enable
Change any setting	Re-run intelis backup setup

Getting the backup back

See Restoring from a Backup.

Troubleshooting

Cannot reach the backup server

Check that the machine is on and on the same network. Run ping 192.168.1.60. Check that its SSH port is open.

Could not install the key

The username or password is wrong, or the backup machine refuses password logins. Ask whoever runs that machine to allow password logins once, or to add the contents of /root/.ssh/id_ed25519_intelis.pub to the backup user's ~/.ssh/authorized_keys.

The backup folder does not belong to this installation any more

The folder at the destination was replaced by another machine's backup. Re-run intelis backup setup to set the destination up again.

The newest database dump is more than 24 hours old

The scheduled job that dumps the database has stopped. The file copy still works, so the backup looks healthy while the data inside it goes stale. Check that cron.sh is in the crontab on the InteLIS server.

One copy is not a disaster-recovery plan

A backup machine in the same room as the server does not survive a fire or a theft. Add an off-site copy as well. See Backing up to Google Drive with Rclone.