MCSManager Minecraft Backup Script

This Bash script automates daily backups of Minecraft server instances managed by MCSManager. It safely backs up instance data and removes backups older than 7 days.

🔧 Features

• Reads instance IDs from a text file
• Uses rsync for efficient incremental backups
• Retains backups for 7 days
• Outputs clean logs with local timezone timestamps

📁 Folder Structure

/your-backup-folder/
├── INST_LIST.txt # One instance ID per line
├── 2024-05-20-abc123 # Daily backup folders
└── mcbk.sh # This backup script

📜 Setup Instructions

1. Clone or copy this script to your backup folder.
2. Set your desired values in the script:
   • BACKUP_BASE: Where you want backups stored
   • INSTANCE_LIST: Path to a file listing instance IDs
   • INSTANCE_BASE: Location of instance data (default used by MCSManager)
   • LOG_TZ: Your preferred timezone for logs
3. Create an INST_LIST.txt file with one instance ID per line:

   abc123...
   def456...
   

4. Set up a cron job (after MCSManager shuts down servers):

   0 0 * * * /path/to/mcbk.sh >> /path/to/mcbk.log 2>&1

🕓 Timezone Support

You can customize the time zone used in logs by editing the LOG_TZ variable (e.g., "America/Chicago"). This does not affect the server time — only log formatting.

🧹 Retention

Backups older than 7 days are automatically deleted based on their folder name's date prefix (YYYY-MM-DD- format).

❗ Requirements

• Bash
• rsync
• A working MCSManager environment (to stop and start your instances)
• Proper permissions to read instance directories and write backups

✅ Example Cron Entry

# Run every night at midnight
0 0 * * * /path/to/mcbk.sh >> /path/to/mcbk.log 2>&1

🧪 Example Output

🚀 Minecraft Backup Started
🕒 Start Time: 2024-05-20 00:00:01 CDT
📁 Backup Base: /home/mc/backups
🔄 Backing up instance: abc123...
✅ Keeping recent backup: 2024-05-19-abc123
🗑️  Deleting old backup: 2024-05-12-abc123
✅ Minecraft Backup Completed
📦 Instances Backed Up:
   - abc123...