[IDEA] XBian-backup

[IriDium]

Currently the xbian-backup "/home to file"can only be run manually and then copied/FTP to alternative storage. The image is lost on a reboot and thus lost if you forget to copy it.

I think it would be helpful, like XBian image and snapshots, to have the ability to schedule automatic backups with an option to keep X number and also where it is stored.

This would allow users to have a "online" home backup which can be easily restored using the current restore function.

Another "idea" would be to have the xbian-backup mounted on a NTFS or ext4 partition, so that the partition could be read by most PC's which can't read BTRFS. Yes this bit would require a lot of work, so probably won't happen.

Just an idea but I think most people would appreciate it - especially if it runs in the background.

I agree that snapshots should give the same approach but this is only for the home directory and not system wide.

[Nachteule]

(4th Jun, 2016 03:30 AM)IriDium Wrote:  Currently the xbian-backup "/home to file"can only be run manually and then copied/FTP to alternative storage. The image is lost on a reboot and thus lost if you forget to copy it.

That's true, but do not ask me why this has been done

Quote:I think it would be helpful, like XBian image and snapshots, to have the ability to schedule automatic backups with an option to keep X number and also where it is stored.

Good idea, we could think about that

Quote:Another "idea" would be to have the xbian-backup mounted on a NTFS or ext4 partition, so that the partition could be read by most PC's which can't read BTRFS. Yes this bit would require a lot of work, so probably won't happen.

IMO makes no sense

Quote:Just an idea but I think most people would appreciate it - especially if it runs in the background.

I would suppose most people are too lazy and never using our backup functions

Quote:I agree that snapshots should give the same approach but this is only for the home directory and not system wide.

Yeah, snapshots are great but if filesystem is broken and not mountable this feature is useless, having (image)backups would be better choice

[Nachteule]

WIP, backend is ready, now being at Kodi GUI. Will have same behavior as image backuo

[IriDium]

Great Job. Something for the media guru's then. XBian provides multiple backup and recovery processes that (If used correctly and regularly) you should never have to re-install from scratch ever again.

[f1vefour]

(6th Jun, 2016 03:46 AM)IriDium Wrote:  Great Job. Something for the media guru's then. XBian provides multiple backup and recovery processes that (If used correctly and regularly) you should never have to re-install from scratch ever again.

And that solves a lot of common issues.

[Nachteule]

So, all necessary work has been done and packages (xbian-package-config-shell and xbian-package-config-xbmc) were uploaded to staging repository.

Please test and report issues if there are any

[Nachteule]

(7th Jun, 2016 05:43 PM)f1vefour Wrote:  And that solves a lot of common issues.

I don't believe that solves those issues, because I suppose: users usually are too lazy for configuring and making backups

But anyway, they have now opportunity to:

- make manual and automatic scheduled backups for /home directory and complete sd-card images,
- can specify how many images are stored on backup medium
- and restore /home folders only by some clicks

[f1vefour]

I meant backup/restoration issue, such as being in an non-bootable state therefore btrfs snapshot is no good.

[Nachteule]

Hmmm, ok, that's right. Should be working now. The GUI function(s) was in for a long time, but did not work. So, nobody complained that here (at least in the last 6 month) so I suppose nobody made backups

[IriDium]

(12th Jun, 2016 01:28 PM)f1vefour Wrote:  I meant backup/restoration issue, such as being in an non-bootable state therefore btrfs snapshot is no good.

Which was why I mentioned putting the backup on a NTFS or EXT4 partition which might be readable on another machine. But I fully understand why it probably won't happen as it's a lot of work.

Still the user can still copy the backup to a Flashdrive or NFS.

Shame people don't understand "Data that is not backed up, is data you don't care about".

[f1vefour]

(12th Jun, 2016 09:20 PM)Nachteule Wrote:  Hmmm, ok, that's right. Should be working now. The GUI function(s) was in for a long time, but did not work. So, nobody complained that here (at least in the last 6 month) so I suppose nobody made backups

Just like Iridium said, if it's not backed up it's not important.

A lot of people don't realize how important their XBian installation is until something goes awry.

Best advice to everyone is create a full system image after getting the system to a state they're happy with.

[IriDium]

I think we have done everything that is possible.

Could we implement something like a "Toast" pop up box on /First Boot/boot/periodic interval that says something like.

"Have you backed up your device recently?"
"Backups are important in case problems occur."
"See http://www.wiki.xbian.org/how-to/backups and restore" or whatever the URL will be.
"Click here [ ] to disregard this notice."

Just an idea - my saying of the month.

How-about hot-swap RPi. Two RPi's running in parallel linked to a RAID 1 drive, heartbeat software with automatic switchover on failure.

[Nachteule]

(13th Jun, 2016 03:46 AM)IriDium Wrote:  I think we have done everything that is possible.

Agree

Quote:Could we implement something like a "Toast" pop up box on /First Boot/boot/periodic interval that says something like.

"Have you backed up your device recently?"
"Backups are important in case problems occur."
"See http://www.wiki.xbian.org/how-to/backups and restore" or whatever the URL will be.
"Click here [ ] to disregard this notice."

Unfortunately those toast messages can not displayed until click to respond, only timeout is possible. So, IMO makes no sense

Don't know if addons can put message boxes on screen if not running in foreground

[Skywatch]

(12th Jun, 2016 07:50 AM)Nachteule Wrote:  - can specify how many images are stored on backup medium
- and restore /home folders only by some clicks

I set this up on 2xPi1 and 2xPi2. The images to keep works on the Pi2, but not on the Pi1. I set the limit to keep the last 7 back-ups and Pi2 does this correctly whereas Pi1 keeps adding backups to the directory without removing the older ones.

What are the 'some clicks' needed to restore?

Do I need to also back-up home as well as the image? Whats the reason?

[Nachteule]

(14th Jun, 2016 07:04 PM)Skywatch Wrote:  I set this up on 2xPi1 and 2xPi2. The images to keep works on the Pi2, but not on the Pi1. I set the limit to keep the last 7 back-ups and Pi2 does this correctly whereas Pi1 keeps adding backups to the directory without removing the older ones.

Hmmm, there is no difference between Rpi1 and Rpi2. Did you have enabled any syslog service? The clean function writes some debug messages to the log, like this:

Code:

Jun 14 07:40:14 kmxbilr2 xbian-config: doclean /srv/backup/$(hostname)_backup_home_$(date +%F).img.gz 7
Jun 14 07:40:14 kmxbilr2 xbian-config: doclean ls -t1 /srv/backup/kmxbilr2_backup_home_*.img.gz
Jun 14 07:40:14 kmxbilr2 xbian-config: doclean rm -rf /srv/backup/kmxbilr2_backup_home_2016-06-05.img.gz

1st line: this is your configured image/home file (IMGDEST/HOMEDEST) and # of files to keep
2nd line: this is command to find out matching files
3rd line: this is file to be deleted

Quote:What are the 'some clicks' needed to restore?

Do I need to also back-up home as well as the image? Whats the reason?

It is only possible to restore /home but NOT image backups within XBian config