GitHub Backup on Unraid with Gitea Mirror

Your NAS is the right place for this

If you run Unraid, you already have the two things a GitHub backup needs: always-on hardware and storage you control. Most Unraid homelabs also already run a Gitea container. Gitea Mirror is the piece that connects them to GitHub, with scheduled syncs, auto-discovery of new repositories, and metadata mirroring so issues and releases come along with the code.

The result is the same appliance the Proxmox LXC guide builds, on the platform you already manage through a web UI.

Requirements

• Unraid with Docker enabled and the Community Applications plugin installed
• A running Gitea instance (the official gitea/gitea container from CA works fine)
• A GitHub personal access token with repo scope
• A Gitea access token that can create repositories and organizations

Step-by-step

1. Install from Community Applications

Search Gitea Mirror in the Apps tab (template maintained by RayLabsHQ) and click install. The template pulls ghcr.io/raylabshq/gitea-mirror and pre-wires the important settings:

• Port: 4321 for the web UI.
• App Data: /mnt/user/appdata/gitea-mirror mapped to /app/data. This holds the SQLite database and configuration, so it is the only path you need to back up.
• Custom CA Certificates (advanced, optional): mount a folder of .crt files at /app/certs if your Gitea runs behind a private certificate authority.

2. Set the secrets

The template exposes the environment variables that matter:

• BETTER_AUTH_SECRET: session signing secret. Set a long random value.
• BETTER_AUTH_URL: the URL you will actually browse to, e.g. http://tower.local:4321.
• ENCRYPTION_SECRET: encrypts your GitHub and Gitea tokens at rest (AES-256-GCM). Set it once and do not rotate it casually, because stored tokens are only readable with it.

Generate secrets with openssl rand -hex 32 from the Unraid terminal.

3. First login

Browse to http://<unraid-ip>:4321. The first account created becomes the admin. The setup wizard asks for your GitHub token and your Gitea URL and token.

One Unraid-specific note: if Gitea runs on the same box, use the LAN address (http://<unraid-ip>:3000) rather than localhost, because localhost inside the Gitea Mirror container is the container itself, not your Gitea.

4. Import and schedule

Select the owners and organizations to mirror, run the first sync, then enable scheduling. An interval of 8h suits backup use; shorter intervals are cheap thanks to conditional API requests. Enable auto-discovery so new GitHub repositories start mirroring without you touching the UI. The full option set is covered in the automation guide.

5. Fold it into your Unraid backup routine

• Add /mnt/user/appdata/gitea-mirror to your appdata backup (CA Appdata Backup covers it by default).
• The mirrored repositories themselves live in your Gitea container’s data share, which should already be in that routine.
• Watchtower-style auto-updates work normally; the container migrates its database on startup after an update.

Troubleshooting

• Web UI unreachable: check for a port clash on 4321 and remap in the template if needed.
• Sign-in loops or 403s: BETTER_AUTH_URL must match the address in your browser exactly, scheme and port included.
• Gitea connection refused: use the LAN IP, not localhost, and confirm the Gitea container is on a network the Gitea Mirror container can reach (bridge mode on the same host is fine).
• A repository fails to mirror repeatedly at the LFS stage: turn LFS off for that repository in its Mirror Options. The LFS guide explains why this happens.

FAQ

Does this replace backing up my Gitea container?

No, it feeds it. Gitea Mirror keeps Gitea current with GitHub; your existing appdata and share backups protect Gitea itself. Together they give you GitHub, a live local copy, and cold backups of that copy.

How much storage do I need?

Roughly the sum of your repositories’ sizes, plus LFS objects where enabled, plus release assets if you mirror them. The release limit (default: last 10 per repository) keeps asset growth bounded.

Can multiple family members or teammates use one instance?

Yes, Gitea Mirror is multi-user. Each user connects their own GitHub and Gitea tokens, and each token is encrypted at rest.