Troubleshooting¶
Common problems with the restic backup worker, what causes them and how to fix them.
A backup finishes with exit code 3¶
Cause: restic made the snapshot but could not read some of the files, so
the snapshot is incomplete. Files the restic user cannot read are left
out.
Fix: give the restic user read access to everything you back up, or
move the files into /var/lib/restic/include and chown them to
restic:restic. Files under /home, /root and /run/user are hidden from
the scheduled backup; keep the data elsewhere.
RESTIC_BACKUP_PATHS is empty or invalid KEY=value line¶
Cause: /etc/restic/restic.env is missing a key or has a line that is not
KEY=value.
Fix: make sure all four keys are present, one per line, without quotes, see Configuration.
restic password file is missing¶
Cause: the first-boot service has not finished, or
/etc/restic/password was removed.
Fix: wait for first boot. If the password was removed, restore it from your copy: the existing repository cannot be opened without it.
wrong password or no key found¶
Cause: the password in /etc/restic/password does not match the
repository, for example after a new instance created its own password.
Fix: put the original password back in /etc/restic/password, owned by
restic:restic with mode 0600.
The restore script refuses the target¶
Cause: the target is not an absolute path, is not empty, or is /,
/var, /etc, a backed-up folder or the local repository.
Fix: pass a new, empty directory such as /tmp/restore-<date>, then copy
the files you need from there.
S3 repository errors¶
Cause: the repository has not been initialized, the instance has no IAM role, or the role does not allow the bucket and prefix.
Fix: check the role's permissions and run restic init once for the new
repository, see Use an Amazon S3 repository.
First boot failed¶
Fix: read the log and retry:
If it still fails, contact info@softwaresushi.com.