This guide explains how to perform backups from server_1 to server_2 using FTP. Here we are assuming that that server_2 has an FTP server running and server_1 is performing the backup.

  1. Make sure you have lftp installed.
  2. Create an FTP user on server_2 and give them a chroot’d home directory.
  3. Create a script file that lftp will use as a set of instructions:
    /root/cron/lftp.script 
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    #!/bin/bash
lftp -c "set ftp:listoptions -a;
open ftp://username:password@hostname;
lcd /path/to/local/directory/on/server_1;
cd /path/on/ftp;
mirror --reverse --delete --verbose
  4. Create a shell script to execute the backup:
    /root/cron/backup.sh 
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    #!/bin/bash
lftp -f /root/cron/lftp.script
  5. Add the command to crontab:
    crontab -e 
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    # Executes at 3am
0 3 * * * nice 19
/root/cron/backup.sh >> /root/cron/logs/backup.log 2>&1