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Backup Types

BackupX supports five built-in backup types. Type determines which runner executes the job.

When a task is routed to a remote Agent, the source tools and paths are resolved on that Agent host. Multi-target uploads are still tracked per storage target; if at least one target succeeds, the backup record is marked successful and the per-target result table shows partial failures.

File / Directory​

File tasks offer three backup modes:

  • Full archive — writes a self-contained tar artifact on every run
  • Differential archive — writes only changes since the current full baseline and periodically refreshes that baseline
  • CDC repository — splits content with stable 512 KiB / 1 MiB / 4 MiB boundaries, stores new chunks in immutable 32 MiB packs, and writes a small snapshot manifest for each run

The CDC repository deduplicates identical content across files and snapshots. Restore, selective restore, verification, download-as-tar, retention, and garbage collection all resolve data through the repository index. Compression and encryption are applied per chunk; encrypted repositories use keyed chunk IDs so plaintext hashes are not exposed.

Repository mode currently uses a single-writer index and therefore runs on the Master only. To keep repository copies on multiple backends, select multiple primary storage targets on the task. Object-level replication is intentionally disabled because a snapshot manifest without its shared packs and indexes is not a complete backup.

Common file-task options:

  • Source accepts multiple paths — one per line in the UI
  • Exclude patterns accept gitignore-style globs
  • Supports following symlinks, preserving permissions
  • Full and differential modes output .tar, .tar.gz, or .tar.zst artifacts

MySQL​

Uses mysqldump under the hood. Requires mysqldump to be on $PATH of the host running the task (Master or Agent).

  • Host / port / user / password / database — multi-database allowed (comma-separated)
  • Output: .sql or .sql.gz
  • Default flags: --single-transaction --routines --triggers --events

PostgreSQL​

Uses pg_dump. Same connection fields as MySQL plus database name.

SQLite​

Copies the database file directly (with a consistency snapshot). No external tool required.

SAP HANA​

Two modes are supported — see the dedicated SAP HANA page.

Deletion behavior​

When a task is deleted, BackupX removes backup artifacts from every storage target but preserves backup records for audit. Task deletion also tears down the cron schedule entry.