So I just recently backed up my unraid box offsite to B2 and going through the process I noticed I hadn't been backing up my flash drive via the CA Backup Tool... Well being the noob I am I figured I needed to put the dir of the flash drive as /boot/config... Well this morning I got an email saying my CA Backup started and then shortly after I got this lovely error message... " /bin/sh: line 1: 28346 Terminated /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/ca.backup2/scripts/backup.php &> /dev/null 2>&1" Then I didn't get any of my other nightly emails... So I go to SSH into my box and go to run rclone and rclone says I have no config... GREAT! So I go to load up the web UI and see the theme is set back to default and I noticed my banner is now gone... So to make matters worse I rebooted the box and now I'm met with a broken web UI "Error Connection Refused" and when I tried to SSH into the SSH key has changed and my box is now labeled Tower...

 

After some digging in ssh I found I now have a config folder within the config folder... "/boot/config/config/" and within that last config folder is a plugins folder listing the plugins I had installed. Picture of "ls /boot" and "ls /boot/config" https://i.imgur.com/84kJmhb.png

 

Looks like after copying files off of the FD and looking through syslog.txt I found when/where everything went wrong...

https://pastebin.com/uXV6Fm1q

 

Does anyone have an idea how to get my config back or am I SOL because CA deleted everything and nothing was backed up?

 

TLDR: Noob put in wrong path for flash drive backup and lost config settings and stuck with a broken web UI.

Cross post from reddit

 

Edited October 1, 20187 yr by Killar34

The config folder is where your configuration is. If you have that then it is very simple to get going again from a new install.

 

But probably it overwrote your config folder with the backup before it could backup the config folder. Is there anything in the config/config folder?

 

 

If there isn't anything in config/config, and you don't have some other recent backup of config, then you will have to start over. But your data should be OK as long as you don't accidentally assign a data disk to the parity slot.

 

You will also need your .key file for your license, which would also have been in config but maybe you have an email or something with your .key.

 

Do you know your disk assignments?

No sadly just empty folders... As far as my key I do it in my email and no I don't have the disk assignments... These are also encrypted drives. Would there be anything useful in the diagonstics log dumps?

Edited October 1, 20187 yr by Killar34

What about your .key file? Do you have a copy of that?

 

Do you have a screenshot of your disk assignments? Looks like super.dat is there, which would normally be your disk assignments, but I am guessing it is a new one with nothing assigned. It isn't plaintext so it might be hard to tell.

Yes I believe I have my key in an email somewhere but I do not have the .key file. Just looking through the super.dat file in a text editor I do see the S/N of the drives.

Do you know what version of Unraid you were running (approximately)?

Yes I was on 6.6.0. 6.6.1 dropped while I was ironically backing up my data offsite. Once the data was offsite I wanted to backup my FD Bc I read about someones FD died and they lost their config. Lol

Copy super.dat to your PC. I think the registration email should contain a link to download your key or possibly just an attachment with the key. With these things it should be possible to get to your data and start setting things up again, but unfortunately any other configuration you have done, such as share settings, docker configurations, you will have to start over.

 

For future reference, you can always just download a zipped backup copy of your flash from Main - Boot Device - Flash - Flash Backup.

 

Also, if you do use CA Backup, it is best to store the backup somewhere you can access without booting Unraid. Storing it on flash isn't a good idea since the whole purpose is to get your setup back if the flash fails. And storing it on Unraid storage isn't a good idea either since it may be difficult to access without booting Unraid. There have been some cases recently where I have had to help someone get their Unraid going again so they could get to their flash backup which was stored on the array.

 

I have mine going to NTFS Unassigned Device, so I can just plug it into my PC and read it. Others use Unassigned Devices to store it somewhere on the network.

 

 

I wasn't trying to back it up to flash... I've had CA backing up my Docker settings for a couple of weeks now mainly because I didn't know the "location" of the flash to set it to backup from CA Backup settings. I did some looking and kinda guessed it would be /boot/config well last night after setting that I woke up to this....

 

So I have all my docker settings on an external drive I had CA set to backup to but for some reason it went physico last night after I set that setting...

 

So your saying I need to wipe my flash drive put the super.dat and the .key file and boot it up? Will it auto pull the drive assignment and be asking for my encryption key or what's the next steps? Want to have everything covered and clear before I attempt anything. 

 

Thank you for all your help I greatly appreciate it I'm going to have to send you a cup of coffee or a case of beer for your help. 

Not sure what you mean by your docker settings on an external drive. The docker appdata will still be wherever you had it before, on your Unraid storage or an Unassigned device, but the settings for each docker, such as the volume and port mappings, are stored on flash.

 

When you configure a docker, you fill in a web form with all the information needed to execute the docker run command. The stuff you enter in that form is stored as a template on your flash drive. So while you should be able to get a docker going again using the same appdata it was using before, you will have to tell it where that appdata is, for example, by filling out that form again.

 

And Previous Apps (Community Applications) won't help because it relies on those flash templates.

 

I'm afraid I don't have any experience with encrypted disks in Unraid so someone else will have to step in here.

Well what I'm saying is CA Backup was backing up my docker app data for awhile now and there is a setting in there for you to select the directory of the flash drive for it to back it up as well. What I put in there was clearly wrong because it nuked the directory I put there... Maybe I miss read it and that's not to back it up...

Quote

USB Backup Destination:
If no destination entered, flash drive will not be backed up

with a text box to tell it where to put the backup. It doesn't ask you what to backup, just where to put it. I have this going to an Unassigned Device with NTFS format that can be read in Windows.

 

Also this note at the bottom

Quote

Note: You should specify a backup share (and subfolders) dedicated to that particular backup. It is entirely possible for backups to erase any other files contained within the destinations.

All water under the bridge now.

 

Normally I would say just prepare flash as a new install, restore config or whatever you have left of it, and boot. But I'm not sure how encrypted disks plays here.

 

Let's see if @Squid and @johnnie.black can help.

Oh my God... I read that as that needs to be the location of the flash drive... 🤦🏻‍♂️ not the location the drive will be saved too... I'm stupid... I guess you live and you learn and now I know... 

 

Again thank you for all your help when I get off work today I'm going to go try what you suggested and hopefully fingers crossed I can just decrypt the drives and continue on. 

2 hours ago, trurl said:

But I'm not sure how encrypted disks plays here.

No difference, OP just needs to enter the existing password.

So I just reloaded my flash drive and copied the super.dat and my key file to the root dir and when the system booted it shows unraid is unregistered and is asking for an Install key. I put the link in for my key and registered unraid and when I click the main tab all the devices are blank still and didn't load anything from the super.dat file...

super.dat and the key file belong in the config folder on your flash.

 

Just like everything else specific to your configuration.

Yeah I just plugged it in and noticed those go into that dir. It just booted up and it does have the drive mapping and does look correct and is asking for my key... Here goes nothing... Wooo! It loaded all my shares are there and looks like the data is all still there!!! My dockers even show up but they just have ? marks on them but that's no problem nothing important in them... Thank you guys so much!

Edited October 1, 20187 yr by Killar34

Your shares would be there simply because the data is still there. Any top level folder on cache or array disk is automatically a user share with default settings unless you set them. And you lost those settings.

Thanks again guys for all your help! Looks like I'm back running just need to configure some settings and reflect and learn from my stupidity.