Automatic backup of boot drive

[richardb]

Hey all, I recently had a problem where my USB boot drive failed and had to be replaced. I'd dome some tweaking on the system to get it to work (such as altering syslinux.cfg), and it was kind of a PITA to go through and redo this. So, I was wondering if there is a good and easy way to backup the USB boot drive? Is there a script or plugin that will automatically and regularly create a backup of this drive that can be easily restored?

 

Thanks,

 

Richard

[trurl]

See here

 

Also other posts about this can be found by searching the forum. See search tips in my sig.

[RobJ]

At some point, it might be nice to have a flash backup option built in, but it's not a priority because of how limited it would be.  The problem is, where would you backup the flash to.  If you backup to any drive on the system, on the array or unassigned, how would you get access to that backup if your current flash drive failed and you couldn't boot the system?  You only have 2 choices - either backup to a second flash drive that's also inserted on the system, or go through the hassle of setting up a a remote link (to a shared location on another machine on your network) and backup to it.

 

In general, it's best and easiest to set up a backup procedure on your primary desktop machine.  I use SyncBack on my Windows machine to make periodic backups of the flash drive to a local drive.  That's puts it in easy reach if I had to redo the flash drive, as I'd do it on this machine.

 

Trurl's warning about when you make the backup is a good thing to know, but it's not a blocker.  If you restore a backup made while the array was started, then the new system will complain about an unclean shutdown and start a parity check, but no other issues.  If you wish, you can stop the parity check.  The one thing you don't EVER want to do is restore a backup made with a different drive configuration.  That could cause serious trouble, possibly even data loss.

[richardb]

Thanks for the feedback. I get the technical issues, but I think that the USB drive represents a weak link in the chain. I've had more than one issue of this type, where the USB drive has become corrupted due to a glitch/unexpected power down/cosmic ray/force majeure. In these circumstances, it renders the system unbootable and I have to faff about with restoring the USB drive, recovering the config files, etc. 

 

Because of this kind of thing, I have dual cache drives. But not having an easy way to restore/repair/replace the USB drive means a weak point. So, I would suggest something like a CRON job that syncs the USB drive to a backup USB, an image on the cache  or a remote location. I get that this would require a parity check or a sanity check on the config before use, but it would be easier than having to recover the config files, reimage another USB drive, relicence UNRAID, then cross fingers as you boot from the new drive with the old config...

[Zepius]

At some point, it might be nice to have a flash backup option built in, but it's not a priority because of how limited it would be.  The problem is, where would you backup the flash to.  If you backup to any drive on the system, on the array or unassigned, how would you get access to that backup if your current flash drive failed and you couldn't boot the system?  You only have 2 choices - either backup to a second flash drive that's also inserted on the system, or go through the hassle of setting up a a remote link (to a shared location on another machine on your network) and backup to it

 

i actually would like the option to backup to a share. I have a share setup that is connected to a dropbox docker. I would like to have that backed to that location automatically.

[trurl]

If you forego the bit about stopping the array before taking the backup (not really a showstopper) then all you need is a working cp command that does what you want, and then put it in a .cron file in the config/plugins/dynamix folder. See other .cron files in that folder for examples, and google "cron" to learn how to specify the schedule. Then do "update_cron" from the command line to get it loaded.

 

Ideally this would be even driven based on writes to the flash though. With cron, if you change something in the GUI, your backup won't be current until the next scheduled run.

[Squid]

At some point, it might be nice to have a flash backup option built in, but it's not a priority because of how limited it would be.  The problem is, where would you backup the flash to.  If you backup to any drive on the system, on the array or unassigned, how would you get access to that backup if your current flash drive failed and you couldn't boot the system?  You only have 2 choices - either backup to a second flash drive that's also inserted on the system, or go through the hassle of setting up a a remote link (to a shared location on another machine on your network) and backup to it.

 

In general, it's best and easiest to set up a backup procedure on your primary desktop machine.  I use SyncBack on my Windows machine to make periodic backups of the flash drive to a local drive.  That's puts it in easy reach if I had to redo the flash drive, as I'd do it on this machine.

 

Trurl's warning about when you make the backup is a good thing to know, but it's not a blocker.  If you restore a backup made while the array was started, then the new system will complain about an unclean shutdown and start a parity check, but no other issues.  If you wish, you can stop the parity check.  The one thing you don't EVER want to do is restore a backup made with a different drive configuration.  That could cause serious trouble, possibly even data loss.

See here

 

Also other posts about this can be found by searching the forum. See search tips in my sig.

I've been actually thinking about this a fair amount as of late.

 

The need for a flash backup would actually be a very nice thing to have.  I think that I'm going to incorporate it into CA's backup module -> copy it (sans super.dat) to the appdata folder prior to a scheduled appdata backup.

 

While it's by no means a complete solution (as you will still have some setup to do), the #1 thing that's a real PITA to recreate is the config/plugins folder with all of your docker templates, plugin settings, etc.

 

Not quite sure how I would handle a restore on it as of yet.  Leaning towards a manual restoration (since its a simple copy / paste operation) followed by a reboot.

[jevans04]

The need for a flash backup would actually be a very nice thing to have.  I think that I'm going to incorporate it into CA's backup module -> copy it (sans super.dat) to the appdata folder prior to a scheduled appdata backup.

 

Suggestion for the crowd (like me) that may want to copy the super.dat file and know the risks involved in using an outdated backup copy: copy the super.dat as part of the backup but rename the file (superdat.bak) so an experienced user could rename the file and use it if they were absolutely sure it was the correct disk configuration.

 

 

[Squid]

The need for a flash backup would actually be a very nice thing to have.  I think that I'm going to incorporate it into CA's backup module -> copy it (sans super.dat) to the appdata folder prior to a scheduled appdata backup.

 

Suggestion for the crowd (like me) that may want to copy the super.dat file and know the risks involved in using an outdated backup copy: copy the super.dat as part of the backup but rename the file (superdat.bak) so an experienced user could rename the file and use it if they were absolutely sure it was the correct disk configuration.

Wouldn't actually make a difference, since the backup destination is ultimately to the array, which means you can't access the backup files until super.dat is recreated manually.  In the case of a failure you recreate the array, and then restore the config folders...

 

Everything's a trade off...

[Bjonness406]

Having the ability to use dual usb, with the second one as a failover/mirror would be perfect.

Never understood why unraid don't have that, then one of them fail, just boot with the other one. 

[JonathanM]

Having the ability to use dual usb, with the second one as a failover/mirror would be perfect.

Never understood why unraid don't have that, then one of them fail, just boot with the other one.

How would you handle the license?

[Squid]

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=40262.msg479789#msg479789

[Bjonness406]

Having the ability to use dual usb, with the second one as a failover/mirror would be perfect.

Never understood why unraid don't have that, then one of them fail, just boot with the other one.

How would you handle the license?

You could have the other usb just as an mirror (maybe without the registration key?), and then the main usb fail you just boot up using the second one. Then the array would not start since the licence is not valid, and you have to get a replacement key (tools -> registration).

Would make it way better than it is now at least, but not perfect.

 

* Except that Squid just released an update to CA for flash drive backup, but it would also be nice with an option build in to unraid with dual usb.