Website Backups with Cronjobs

Since Kirby uses plaintext files, it's straightforward to back up entire sites via cronjob. The zipped archives stay on the same server, which is not ideal — consider dedicated tools like rsnapshot or borg backup for deduplicated off-server backups.

Source: yeahhub.com — Simple Backup Script Cronjob

Setup steps

Create a site_backups folder in the home directory on cyon
```
mkdir site_backups
```
Create the backup script at /sitebackups/sitebackups.sh
Test the commands manually first
Create the cronjob at the hosting provider

The backup script

Adapt CLIENT_FOLDER and PROJECT_FOLDER to match the hosting account and site URL.

#!/bin/bash
DATE=$(date +%d-%m-%Y)

# Back up each website into a dated archive
tar -zcvpf /home/CLIENT_FOLDER/site_backups/backup-dev-PROJECT_FOLDER-de-$DATE.tar.gz \
  /home/CLIENT_FOLDER/public_html/dev.PROJECT_FOLDER.de

tar -zcvpf /home/CLIENT_FOLDER/site_backups/backup-PROJECT_FOLDER-de-$DATE.tar.gz \
  /home/CLIENT_FOLDER/public_html/PROJECT_FOLDER.de

# Delete backups older than 10 days
find /home/CLIENT_FOLDER/backup-* -mtime +10 -exec rm {} \;

Cronjob setup

Example cron entry — runs daily at 4:00 AM:

0 4 * * * /usr/bin/bash /home/CLIENT_FOLDER/sitebackups/sitebackups.sh

On cyon, cronjobs are managed via my.cyon under "Erweitert" → "Cronjobs". Reference: cyon.ch — Cronjob erstellen

Cron schedule format

Minute  Stunde  Tag  Monat  Wochentag
  0       23     *     *       7        → Sundays at 23:00
  0        4     *     *       *        → Daily at 04:00

Use crontab.guru to build and verify cron expressions.

Interpreter prefixes

Bash scripts: /usr/bin/bash /path/to/script.sh
PHP scripts: /usr/bin/php /path/to/script.php

Schedule resource-intensive backups at off-peak hours. Make sure old backups are cleaned up automatically to avoid filling disk space.