Simplifying The OMV Configuration Backup and Restore Process

Zitat von Kai

Does the USB 3.0 stick, when mounted in a rear panel 3.0 slot, still access RAM for the purpose of being able to put OMV4 into a Wake On LAN scenario?

depends on the sleep mode. suspend to ram would but suspend to disk would write the contents of ram to your usb stick (not good for life). The usb version doesn't make a different. If you are going to suspend your OMV system, I would first look at arm devices because you are really concerned about energy. If they can't do what you want, don't use a usb stick on an amd64 system. Use an ssd or hard drive.

Zitat von Kai

Thus the downside for USB OMV OS

If you need usb, you could use a usb-to-sata adapter. It would probably be cheaper than finding a usb stick that could handle the writes. Or you could just not sleep your NAS since it seems to cause more problems than a lot of other things.

Zitat von Kai

are you implying that OMV4 simply does not sleep well or function with WOL well or were you providing that sentence to the USB OMV4 OS scenario solely?

I have no experience with sleeping OMV 4 since I don't use it and most of my OMV installs are VMs. But I have read many posts where systems don't sleep correctly or wake up. I would guess it is due to the bios incompatiblity with linux of most desktop boards since manufacturer generally only care about Windows and you don't put servers to sleep in the business world. So, none of this is really about OMV but more Linux in general. Sleep works very well on my Dell XPS13 laptop but it is 100% supported on Linux by Dell.

Zitat von Kai

Does the USB 3.0 stick, when mounted in a rear panel 3.0 slot, still access RAM for the purpose of being able to put OMV4 into a Wake On LAN scenario?

OMV will boot from a rear panel USB socket (were it won't be broken off). There's only one exception that I know of, where booting from USB had to be from a specific socket (in the back), and that particular hardware and BIOS was very old.

WOL is more of a function of the power supply and motherboard, keeping the Ethernet interface running while the PC is shut down. This is a BIOS function - USB had nothing to do with this. (Note: In some BIOS versions, WOL must be enabled in BIOS.) If the "magic packet" is received at the Ethernet interface, the boot process is triggered much as it is with the front panel switch. Thereafter, it doesn't matter if the boot device is a CD/DVD, a USB drive (of any type) , or a hard drive.

I'm currently waking up an OMV backup server, from my main server, twice a month. (Both are booted from a USB thumbdrive, BTW.) The backup server does it's thing and shuts down at midnight. In this case, no configuration change was required on the backup device, other than config'ing OMV on the main server to wake it up.

Zitat von flmaxey

WOL is more of a function of the power supply and motherboard, keeping the Ethernet interface running while the PC is shut down. This is a BIOS function - USB had nothing to do with this. (Note: In some BIOS versions, WOL must be enabled in BIOS.) If the "magic packet" is received at the Ethernet interface, the boot process is triggered much as it is with the front panel switch. Thereafter, it doesn't matter if the boot device is a CD/DVD, a USB drive (of any type) , or a hard drive.

But waking up a system with WOL requires the system to be sleeping first. The reason why I said don't use usb was if the system was suspend-to-disk which would wear out a usb stick quickly if the system slept a lot.

Zitat von ryecoaaron

But waking up a system with WOL requires the system to be sleeping first

WOL support doesn't require the OS to be in a sleep mode. It requires BIOS and motherboard support.

The vast majority of current systems that support WOL, and that's most of them, are in a type of "low power mode" even when they're shut down. Modern PC's are never really off, with 5 volts continually powering some components. This is what makes the front momentary contact (logic) switch work, while the NIC is powered. (It's been a long time since a front panel PC switch was an actual AC breaker.)

My understanding of "sleep mode" and "hybernate" are low powered states where memory is preserved, as it is, while suspending the CPU and peripheral functions. "Suspend to disk", with the entire state of ram and the system written to disk, would be hard on a USB drive. But, outside of VM's, I can't see where that would be useful for a server running on physical hardware.

Does OMV support "Suspend to disk" in the GUI? Is that what the " = Standy By" menu option does?
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In any case, after I use the shutdown command on my backup server; the wakeonlan command and the servers Mac address can remotely start it. I'm doing this from scheduled tasks.

Zitat von flmaxey

WOL support doesn't require the OS to be in a sleep mode. It requires BIOS and motherboard support.

When I say sleeping, that can mean suspend to ram, suspend to disk, or powered off. They are just C states. It also requires ethernet adapter support.

Zitat von flmaxey

Does OMV support "Suspend to disk" in the GUI? Is that what the " = Standy By" menu option does?

I don't remember which state "Standy By" uses but the autoshutdown plugin allow you to select. It has an option to power off, hibernate (suspend to disk), suspend (suspend to ram), and suspend-hybrid (suspend to both disk and ram).

Zitat von ryecoaaron

It also requires ethernet adapter support.

True. (An add-on wired adapter didn't come to mind. ) But, if a Mobo supports WOL, the integrated NIC supports it.

I've been doing automated shutdowns and WOL in scheduled tasks.
I need to look at those plugins.

Zitat von Kai

So, as ryecoaaron and flmaxey have discussed back and forth - is the issue of wearing out a usb of concern? And, what would be the advised state for suspend . . . suspend-to-disk, -ram, -hybrid? -and- if possible please add for what reason in choice.

suspend-to-disk and suspend-hybrid are definitely going to add a lot of writes to your disk. suspend-to-ram seems dangerous especially if you don't have a UPS. Personally, I wouldn't suspend the server at all. If it is still using too much power after sleeping the disks, get a more power efficient system.

Zitat von Kai

I am using this guide by tekkb. I didn't get past step 3. NO Clonezilla tab showing. So . . . where do I come up with the Clonezilla tab?

The guide is 3.5 years old. A lot has changed. I moved the clonezilla stuff to the kernel tab in omv-extras instead of the backup plugin itself.

Zitat von Kai

I would assume there is nothing wrong/prohibitive with performing a system backup and restore within a Virtual Box OMV4 machine, correct???

Nope.

Zitat von Kai

That said . . . is there a better option for step by step? Just trying to get the learning process moving in the right direction here.

The only difference is you install and set boot in the kernel tab of omv-extras instead of the clonezilla tab in the backup plugin. Some of the pics might be slightly different.