Help out a Beginner - Backup worries. Clone, Rsync. OMV6+Photoprism.

1. offizieller Beitrag

    Hi everyone.

    I have been experimenting a bit with OMV in virtualbox and have decided to set up a "real" server with an old PC i have laying around.

    Please bear with me, I am a beginner at this, with very limited Linux-experience but I do understand a bit about computers, so I should be able to follow instructions.

    I am an above average copy-paster.


    (warning; semi-long post - If you want to go straight for questions, please scroll to the end.)


    So the idea here is to use OMV 6 with the Photoprism plugin for storing, tagging, browsing, editing, adding to my photolibrary.

    This is the sole purpose of the thing, as of now.

    I will probably be experimenting with other stuff later on.


    My problem now is of course the back-up strategy.

    I know there are probably tons of earlier threads on this, and trust me I have been reading/watching for days.

    But I would just like to have some stuff cleared/confirmed.

    Since this will where all my pictures will live, It would break me if it fails and I loose them all, and the progress made in photoprism (tagging, folders -metadata).


    My idea is this, please correct me if I am a dumb dinosaur.

    I have the OS on a 120gb SSD and one 2tb, 3.5 HDD for data.

    Because of a lack of connectivity and space in the case, I will be forced to use USB for the back-up drives. (Is it very bad? except for speed?)


    1. Identical SSD and HDD inside usb-bays. These are for cloning OS and DATA-drive, using clonezilla (I guess?). I want the clones in order to have an easy way of just replacing a failing drive.

    Also these disks will be kept off-site and probably rotated with the current ones after backup.
    Since this is a manual procedure it will be made maybe bi-weekly or monthly. (Still haven't experimented with clonezilla, only read about it)

    But I guess it is a pretty straight-forward process(?) Would it be the same if I clone the drives connecting them to another system, using whatever software in windows/linux?

    - Also is there a way to automate clones?


    2. On top of the clones, I would like to have a more frequent backup, at least of the data-drive. This would be an external 2tb usb drive for example, connected at all times.

    Using Rsync to backup the 3 folders in Data-drive (Images, Data, Import) - The 3 photoprism folders. Running automatically probably twice a week or every other day.

    Now my questions about Rsync.

    --delete. I feel like I want to use the delete here because if I delete a picture live, I probably won't want it in the future, thus no need to have it still backed up, using

    storage-space.

    What are some dangers of --delete in my situation? What would you recommend?

    Can I have a second rsync to a bigger drive, without delete, One with and one without? Is that just stupid? ;)

    Other stuff to watch out for?

    Dangers of auto-backups?


    I don't remember exactly but I saw a comment about if the server were to restart, the names of the drives might change, and would completely mess up the whole thing (backup drive would copy to the internal one) Don't remember what method they used though.

    (I think it was an automated sudo DD command.) something like that..

    It scared the crap out of me when I read it.

    In my scenario, I do not run this risk... right?


    I will spend the next few days experimenting with backing up and restoring

    What would you recommend to use, usbbackup-plugin, other backup plugin from omv-extras or just rsync directly in omv, maybe a combo, something else?


    In case of disaster scenarios:

    1. OS drive dies: plugin clone / can, should I Rsync the OSdrive also, how would I restore? / Would it be the same to normally install OMV to a new drive exactly like before, all settings and services etc and then point photoprism to existing directories on data-drive?

    2. Data drive fails, plugin clone / Rsynced - how would I restore?


    Also if anyone dabbles with photoprism; I guess everything important to metadata and tags added to photos etc are saved in the "Photoprism Data" folder and "Images", Is the database and photos enough

    to restore everything to the way it was before a failure?


    Is my plan not enough, too much, am I just paranoid?

    What would you do? I would like to avoid any clouds.


    Thank you for reading and please excuse the long post and my ignorance.

    Very thankful you for your input and help!


    Summary of questions:

    1. use USB for the back-up drives. (Is it very bad? except for speed?)

    2. Clonezilla: Would it be the same if I clone the drives connecting them to another system, using whatever software in windows/linux?

    - Also is there a way to automate clones?

    3. Rsync: What are some dangers of --delete in my situation? What would you recommend?

    4. Can I have a second rsync to a bigger drive, without delete, One with and one without? Is that just stupid? ;)

    5. Other stuff to watch out for?

    6. Dangers of auto-backups?

    7. usbbackup-plugin, other backup plugin from omv-extras or just rsync directly in omv, maybe a combo, something else??

    8. OS drive dies: plugin clone / Can, should I Rsync OSdrive also, how would I restore? / Would it be the same to normally install OMV to a new drive exactly like before, all settings and services etc and then point photoprism to existing directories on data-drive?

    9. Data drive fails: plugin clone/Rsynced - how would I restore?

    10. What are the important stuff in photoprism in order to restore with all tags, photos, metadata etc intact.

    11. What would you do?

    <3

    • Offizieller Beitrag

    Regrets that I missed your post for so long.

    Answers in Line:


    1. use USB for the back-up drives. (Is it very bad? except for speed?)

    USB is fine. Since there's no impact to speed of access to the primary data source, a backup job can take as long as needed.


    2. Clonezilla: Would it be the same if I clone the drives connecting them to another system, using whatever software in windows/linux?

    - Also is there a way to automate clones?
    Clonezilla can make bit perfect copies but some knowledge of how it works is -> required.
    A number of automation tasks can be done with scripts, but they require more knowledge than copy+past.


    3. Rsync: What are some dangers of --delete in my situation? What would you recommend?
    This topic is covered -> here. I'd recommend reading through the entire backup section.

    4. Can I have a second rsync to a bigger drive, without delete, One with and one without? Is that just stupid? ;)
    There are many ways to backup. If you want to keep your data, there's nothing wrong with multiple backups. I have two full copies of all my data, on backup servers, that can be brought on line in a matter of minutes to replace my primary server.
    5. Other stuff to watch out for?

    6. Dangers of auto-backups?

    All of the above is covered in the Data Backup Section. This doc is geared toward OMV5 but the concepts and most of the methods are the same for OMV6.


    7. usbbackup-plugin, other backup plugin from omv-extras or just rsync directly in omv, maybe a combo, something else??

    8. OS drive dies: plugin clone / Can, should I Rsync OSdrive also, how would I restore? / Would it be the same to normally install OMV to a new drive exactly like before, all settings and services etc and then point photoprism to existing directories on data-drive?
    This is covered in -> OS backup. If you chose to boot from a USB thumbdrive , as recommended in the beginning of the OMV6 New User Guide, OS backup and restoration becomes dirt simple.


    9. Data drive fails: plugin clone/Rsynced - how would I restore?
    Restore is covered in Data Backup.


    10. What are the important stuff in photoprism in order to restore with all tags, photos, metadata etc intact.

    If photoprism is installed on the boot drive (with tags, photos, metadata), restoring it would be the same as restoring the OS. You would, however, have to clone the boot drive more often to cover changes made to photoprism. It's highly recommend that photoprism's data is stored on a data drive - NOT on the boot drive.


    11. What would you do?
    I clone USB Thumdrives for OS backup, because it's simple and easy. If the flashmemory plugin is installed (also in the user guide) good quality thumbdrives last a long time.

    However, I avoid installing direct add-on's which are stored on the boot drive. When I do install a server app., I direct data storage, metadata, etc., to data drives. Since I'm using ZFS with autosnapshot (along with backing up data to other hosts) any changes to data drives are regularly backed up.
    _______________________________________________________________________

    Note, in the above, that there are references to two documents for OMV5 (maintenance) and OMV6 (New User Guide). That's because the maintenance section, for OMV6, has yet to be created and updated at this point in time.

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