How to maintain /etc/rsnapshot.conf through reboot

[Keith Ellis]

Hi there, I’ve been using unraid for about a month and love it. I had installed rsnapshot and configured it to backup a VPS I have. However at the weekend I rebooted unraid and it appears the rsnapshot config file in /etc/rsnapshot.conf was not maintained.  This is not a docker or plugin, it’s software installed directly into the unraid system.  
 

How can I maintain /etc/rsnapshot.conf through a reboot please.

[Frank1940]

You do understand that Unraid is installed to a RAM disk.   Thus, /etc/rsnapshot.conf is (actually) being stored in memory.  You have basically two choices:

 

First, copy the file to a location on a hard disk or to the flash drive before shutdown.  You would then restore it during the rsnapshot install process. (It could well be that you will have restore it and stop-and-restart rsnapshot so that it re-reads the file.)

 

Second, change the location of where the program saves its setup parameters and configuration files so that they are on a physical device.

Edited February 17, 2020 by Frank1940

[Keith Ellis]

Thanks this is useful. I was aware that the system ran in ram, but I was/am unsure what the extent was. Is it basically like a ‘live DVD” distro?

I installed rsnapshot with the Nerd Pack plugin, maybe I need to investigate how that works, it must effectively install rsnapshot on every boot.  I thought it might have edited the image file, but maybe not.

Sounds like I need to create a script to copy the .conf file off the array and restart rsnapshot in every boot.

[itimpi]

2 minutes ago, Keith Ellis said:

I installed rsnapshot with the Nerd Pack plugin, maybe I need to investigate how that works, it must effectively install rsnapshot on every boot.

Yes, this is exactly what the NerdPack does.

 

3 minutes ago, Keith Ellis said:

Sounds like I need to create a script to copy the .conf file off the array and restart rsnapshot in every boot.

It is normally better to store such files on the USB stick.  Storing them on the array means they will not be available until after the array is started.

 

In terms of copying the file into its runtime position you can either add appropriate commands to the config/go file on the USB stick, or do it via the User Scripts plugin.

[gfjardim]

7 hours ago, Keith Ellis said:

Hi there, I’ve been using unraid for about a month and love it. I had installed rsnapshot and configured it to backup a VPS I have. However at the weekend I rebooted unraid and it appears the rsnapshot config file in /etc/rsnapshot.conf was not maintained.  This is not a docker or plugin, it’s software installed directly into the unraid system.  
 

How can I maintain /etc/rsnapshot.conf through a reboot please.

You can move it to /boot/rsnapshot.conf and always invoke rsnapshot using "rsnapshot -c /boot/rsnapshot.conf" command.

Edited February 17, 2020 by gfjardim

[Keith Ellis]

2 hours ago, itimpi said:

Yes, this is exactly what the NerdPack does.

 

It is normally better to store such files on the USB stick.  Storing them on the array means they will not be available until after the array is started.

 

In terms of copying the file into its runtime position you can either add appropriate commands to the config/go file on the USB stick, or do it via the User Scripts plugin.

This is excellent information, thank you.

[Keith Ellis]

1 hour ago, gfjardim said:

You can move it to /boot/rsnapshot.conf and always invoke rsnapshot using "rsnapshot -c /boot/rsnapshot.conf" command.

This is also excellent information, I think this is what I need to do, I can just edit my script in User Scripts to call rsnapshot linking to the .conf file in /boot.

thank you.