Backup&Restore Scenario without a second Syncloud device

Platform Storage and Disk Issues
1

Hi everyone. Scenario is automated Backups (as is good practice) without having to buy and run two syncloud devices.

If I

  1. regularly backup my “data” folder (/opt/disk/internal) to an external storage medium
  2. do a clean install of Syncloud to a new SSD and SD like described in the Wiki
  3. insert both into my device (Odroid)
  4. replace my “data” folder with my backup

Will my Syncloud installation be completely restored to the way it was when I did the backup? Will I have to setup anything else afterwards (like DNS registration etc)?
If backing up “data” isn’t sufficient, would I be better of just taking out the whole SSD everytime and cloning it to a 2nd one?

Thanks :slight_smile:

2

You do not have to buy Syncloud devices, you can run Syncloud on your own hardware and it will be ready to use when first one dies. Why complicate things?

3

Because it’s easier than running Syncloud on my Windows PC and I don’t have a spare Raspberry etc lying around. So would restoring the “data” folder restore all the Syncloud Settings etc? Or would it mean I’d have to reconfigure some things?

4

Because it’s easier than running Syncloud on my Windows PC

You can run a virtual box vm it will still be easier.

If you want to implement backup yourself then you will have to what mirror feature does, backup every app, sync to another device, restore every backup.

data is just for files produced by apps not settings.
You will need to backup every app and then restore every app that is what syncloud mirror does

5

Aha! I see. I think the documentation about mirroring is not really precise then because it doesn’t specify that I should set the root directory as the sync folder. Just “Share Data and save” so I thought you meant the “data” folder.
We can’t mirror certain system folders, though, right? Like /dev

6

Sorry my bad let me clarify, /data dir is for apps generated data, but when you enable auto backup you naturally start gererating backups of every app into /data/platform so /data becomes the ultimate source.

You can then use /data and that is exactly what device mirror does:

  1. Auto Backup all apps
  2. Transfer /data to another device
  3. Auto Restore all backups

In that case your are right.

7

I see. Thank you very much! I actually also prefer this because in case of corruption the damage might be synced to the 2nd Syncloud device if Syncthing is active at all times (versus having a backup synced once a week).

So the solution without having a VM or second device running would be:

  1. Auto Backup all apps
  2. Setup some automatic transfer of /data to my PC backup drive (via FTP or Syncthing)

And in case a restore is needed:

  1. Setup Syncloud device
  2. Transfer backup to /data
  3. Restore all Backups in Settings

?

What about the other settings, like device activation to assign the DNS? These would have to be done manually, right?

8

Currently platform and syncthing apps are excluded from automatic backup as it will break mirroring.

Platform app is the main device admin which contains dns, user accounts, settings when to backup …

So cutrently these are not backed up, which probably is not great especially users. But it allows you to create another device under a different domain name mirrored live. So in your case it is not live and any issue you have in the backup you may find out when primary device is dead already. So make aure you test it from time to time.

9

I see. Why would including Platform to automatic backups break mirroring? Maybe Backups has to become it’s own app instead of being included in Platform, so it doesn’t try to backup itself.

Yep, trying if restoring a backup works is important I guess. Should try it sometime.

A) Are the contents of the SD Card ever changed, should they be backed up, too? As far as I can see in the docs they are only used for boot, right?

B) About Platform: If I wanted to back this up together with all the settings I could just manually back up /snap/Platform, right?

10

Are the contents of the SD Card ever changed, should they be backed up, too? As far as I can see in the docs they are only used for boot, right?

Depends on device, odroid hc1/2 images have 2 separate parts, one for sd card with only kernel boot on it and another for root file system, yes

About Platform: If I wanted to back this up together with all the settings I could just manually back up /snap/Platform, right?

Yes, in theory.

You need to test all this

11

makes sense. I don’t want to break anything and don’t have the time to reconfigure my whole Syncloud device right now so I’m just occasionally cloning the whole SSD (taking it out and attaching it to a laptop). So worst case I can just swap out the SSD and have a working Syncloud and put the nextcloud files I’ve changed the last months back on.