Bluecherry DVR → Backblaze B2 Backup Scripts

A set of bash scripts to back up Bluecherry DVR recordings (MP4 + JPG files) to a private Backblaze B2 bucket using rclone, with automated retention management.

Bluecherry splits recordings into 15-minute MP4 segments. These scripts are designed around that structure.

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Scripts

Script	Purpose
b2-full-copy.sh	One-time full backup of all recordings
b2-incremental-copy.sh	Incremental daily backup across all camera channels (designed for cron)
b2-retention.sh	Deletes files older than 30 days from B2 (can be run once per day)

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Prerequisites

• rclone installed and configured with two B2 remotes (see below)
• A Backblaze B2 bucket
• Bluecherry DVR writing recordings to the local filesystem

Configuring rclone for B2

These scripts use two separate rclone remotes, each backed by a B2 application key with different permission scopes. This follows the principle of least privilege — the backup scripts cannot delete files, and only the retention script can.

Run rclone config twice to create both remotes:

Remote name	Required B2 permissions	Used by
b2-readonly	listFiles, readFiles, writeFiles	b2-full-copy.sh, b2-incremental-copy.sh
b2-readwrite	listFiles, readFiles, writeFiles, deleteFiles	b2-retention.sh

Create separate application keys in the Backblaze dashboard (Buckets → App Keys → Add a New Application Key), one per remote, with the appropriate permissions for each. Recommend setting object lock on Backblaze bucket 1d below 30d to ensure against accidental deletion, as the script is dependent on the host machine having the correct time.

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Configuration

Each script has a configuration block near the top. Edit these variables before use.

b2-full-copy.sh

SOURCE_BASE="/path/to/bluecherry-docker/recordings/"  # Local Bluecherry recordings path
RCLONE_REMOTE="rclone-config-name-here"               # rclone remote (no delete permissions)
B2_BUCKET="b2-bucket-name-here"                       # B2 bucket name
B2_DEST_PATH="b2-bucket-path-here"                    # Path within the bucket
LOG_FILE="/var/log/b2-fullbackup.log"

b2-incremental-copy.sh

SOURCE_BASE="/path/to/bluecherry-docker/recordings/"  # Local Bluecherry recordings path
RCLONE_REMOTE="rclone-config-name-here"               # rclone remote (no delete permissions)
B2_BUCKET="b2-bucket-name-here"                       # B2 bucket name
B2_DEST_PATH="b2-bucket-path-here"                    # Path within the bucket
LOG_FILE="/var/log/b2-backup.log"

# Add or remove channel IDs to match your Bluecherry camera setup
CAMERA_CHANNELS=(
    "000001"
)

# Optional healthcheck URLs (leave empty to disable — e.g. healthchecks.io)
HEALTHCHECK_OK=""
HEALTHCHECK_FAIL=""

b2-retention.sh

RCLONE_REMOTE="rclone-config-name-here"      # rclone remote (requires delete permissions)
B2_BUCKET="b2-bucket-name-here"              # B2 bucket name
B2_DEST_PATH="b2-bucket-path-here"           # Path within the bucket — must match copy scripts
MAX_AGE="30d"                                # Retention period
LOG_FILE="/var/log/b2retention.log"

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Usage

Initial Full Backup

Run once to seed the B2 bucket with all existing recordings:

chmod +x b2-full-copy.sh
./b2-full-copy.sh

This copies the entire SOURCE_BASE directory tree to B2. It can safely be re-run — rclone will skip files that are already present and unchanged.

Incremental Daily Backup

Run on a schedule (every 15–30 minutes via cron) to keep B2 up to date:

chmod +x b2-b2-incremental-copy.sh
./b2-b2-incremental-copy.sh

The script iterates over every channel defined in CAMERA_CHANNELS and backs up each one for the current date. The --min-age 10s flag ensures rclone skips any files still being written by Bluecherry (i.e. the current active 15-minute segment), so only completed segments are uploaded.

It also includes a midnight boundary guard: during the 00:xx hour, the previous day's directories are backed up across all channels to catch any segments that were still being written when the date rolled over.

Recommended cron entry (every 15 minutes):

*/15 * * * * /home/me/b2-b2-incremental-copy.sh

Retention Cleanup

Run daily to purge recordings older than 30 days from B2 and remove empty directories:

chmod +x b2-retention.sh
./b2-retention.sh

The script uses a lock file (/tmp/b2retention.lock) to prevent overlapping runs. It performs two steps:

1. Deletes all files older than MAX_AGE from the configured B2 path
2. Removes any empty directories left behind

Recommended cron entry (daily at 3am):

0 3 * * * /home/me/b2-retention.sh

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Directory Structure

The scripts mirror Bluecherry's on-disk layout in B2:

camera-backups/
└── YYYY/
    └── MM/
        └── DD/
            ├── 000001/       # Camera channel ID
            │   ├── *.mp4
            │   └── *.jpg
            ├── 000002/
            │   ├── *.mp4
            │   └── *.jpg
            └── 000005/
                ├── *.mp4
                └── *.jpg

Channel IDs correspond to Bluecherry's internal camera numbering. Add all of your active channel IDs to the CAMERA_CHANNELS array in b2-b2-incremental-copy.sh.

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Logs

Script	Default log path
b2-full-copy.sh	/var/log/b2-fullbackup.log
b2-b2-incremental-copy.sh	/var/log/b2-backup.log
b2-retention.sh	/var/log/b2retention.log

All scripts append timestamped entries to their log files. rclone's own output is also written to the same log.

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rclone Transfer Settings

The copy scripts use the following rclone flags, tuned for B2:

Flag	Value	Purpose
--transfers	4	Parallel file uploads
--checkers	8	Parallel file comparison checks
--b2-chunk-size	96M	Multipart chunk size
--b2-upload-cutoff	200M	Switch to multipart above this size
--min-age	10s	Skip files modified in the last 10 seconds, preventing upload of segments still being written by Bluecherry

Adjust these based on your available bandwidth and B2 tier limits.

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License

MIT — use and modify freely.