Backup for OS OVM6

Zitat von Netfreak

I take for granted that OS can get to be as high as 8gb even if it goes up to 16 gb then that's the ONLY part of the boot disk I want to backup...
DD option is not doing that and have no clue why not

Did you read what as been said:

YOUR ROOT PARTITION IS 231.9G

DD will always make a clone of PARTITION or DISK (if DD FULL)

Zitat von Netfreak

We are trying to figure out why the DD option is not doing what it is meant to do

DD is doing what it's meant to do: make a copy of the PARTITION or DISK.

What you want is to create a image from the OS system DATA (which will probably be less than 8Gb) on the PARTITION.

DD won't be able to do that.

You will need to look for fsarchiver. This will only "clone" the DATA that lives on a PARTITION.

But be sure to learn HOW TO RESTORE IT.

It's not a simple "copy back to the partition" way of restoring.

Zitat von Netfreak

We have gone thru that already earlier on in this thread... We are trying to figure out why the DD option is not doing what it is meant to do, as I understand, to back up ONLY the OS sys and not the entire boot disk (as I understand). BUT I will to settle to my conclusion to get a smaller size boot disk which will make backup time relatively shorter. Thanks

In my case I think "dd" is backing up only the "File System" which is 27.4G and "dd full disk" is Backing up all three "EFI System" "Linux Filesystem" and "Linux Swap" here is screen shot of my boot drive fdisk -l :

Zitat von NsinghP

In my case I think "dd" is backing up only the "File System" which is 27.4G and "dd full disk" is Backing up all three "EFI System" "Linux Filesystem" and "Linux Swap" here is screen shot of my boot drive fdisk -l :

Understandable in your case.... but if you had 128gb or 500gb then it will back up that entire 128gb or 500gb.
You have a 32gb flash drive if i recollect well - a smaller capacity boot os disk
The options "DD" or "DD full disk" do not think/backup only the OS file system in both cases but the entire capacity of the boot disk.
With that in mind, I will to settle to my conclusion to get a smaller size boot disk which will make backup time relatively shorter.
Thanks everybody for your input in making this clear.
Cheers

Zitat von ryecoaaron

You totally misunderstood the docs. OMV needs a minimum of 8GB disk. If you use a 500GB disk, OMV will create a partition to use all of it. It will NOT create a 8GB partition. So, on your install, you used a bigger disk and you got a bigger partition. This is why the backup is taking a long time. dd will backup all of the partition whether there are files on it or not. If you don't want this, resize the partition with gparted live (can be installed in kernel plugin) or use rsync/fsarchiver (only backs up files)

Clear to me now.
Thanks

Zitat von KM0201

Probably be a good idea to learn to at least learn how to SSH your server so if someone asks you to run commands, etc.. you can give the output. I won't bother going into Putty (as frankly I don't use it...)

But it's easy to add OMV. The SSH service is usually enabled by default (Click Services/SSH)

If it's enabled, and assuming you're using amd64.. Go to Plugins, refresh the list and do a search for Wetty and install.

After it installs, go to Services/Wetty and enable wetty. Once it's enabled, you'll see a default port on the page where you enabled wetty (I think default is 2222). Whatever that port is, add it to your OMV IP and go there in a browser (or click the Open UI button).

ie: 192.168.1.122:2222

and you'll get a terminal like window to login. Log in with your root account.

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Wetty is one of the main plugins to be installed during OMV installation and was also done before I could have even get so far.
I have picked up the Putty option immediately within a few minutes when/after the question was asked and have answered the question/request accordingly within a few minutes. Whether it's Putty or Wetty is a matter of persononal choice, I'd say - there are sometimes many ways to do things/tasks, experience with them will lead you to take the one you feel comfortable with.
Thanks for your info and input.
Cheers!
Thanks for your attention and advise.

Zitat von ryecoaaron

Once again...

dd will backup the OS partition (this is what you are referring to os sys space) using dd.

ddfull will backup the entire OS disk using dd.

If your OS partition is 8GB on a 512 GB hard drive, dd should backup 8GB and ddfull should backup 512GB.

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One final question (Edit, sorry two) on "dd" method: What do the last couple of lines as the backup process finishes mean? Specifically:

1) "Keep Days 7"? (Am I incorrect to assume that all the files of this backup will be automatically deleted after 7 days?)

2) "Purging old files..." ? (Am I incorrect in assuming that if a newer backup is done before 7 days then the old files will be purged other wise they will be purged after 7 days anyways?)

EDIT2: I think I figured it out: It means old backup files (older than 7 days will be deleted) and current backup files will be kept until next backup happens and if the next backup happens before 7 days then the folder will have files both from current and previous backups, but if backup happens after 7 days then old files will be deleted. (Please correct If I am wrong in my understanding)

Zitat von NsinghP

One final question (Edit, sorry two) on "dd" method: What do the last couple of lines as the backup process finishes mean? Specifically:

1) "Keep Days 7"? (Am I incorrect to assume that all the files of this backup will be automatically deleted after 7 days?)

2) "Purging old files..." ? (Am I incorrect in assuming that if a newer backup is done before 7 days then the old files will be purged other wise they will be purged after 7 days anyways?)

EDIT2: I think I figured it out: It means old backup files (older than 7 days will be deleted) and current backup files will be kept until next backup happens and if the next backup happens before 7 days then the folder will have files both from current and previous backups, but if backup happens after 7 days then old files will be deleted. (Please correct If I am wrong in my understanding)

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On a side note... The backups are saved in the "omvbackup" folder by default. If you rename this folder and keep old backups based on your dates then you always have something to fall back on. Another option is to copy the entire folder and save it on your local disk. The backup is an image file and when in need, we have to make a system disk from it with eg. BalenaEtcher.

Zitat von Netfreak

On a side note... The backups are saved in the "omvbackup" folder by default. If you rename this folder and keep old backups based on your dates then you always have something to fall back on. Another option is to copy the entire folder and save it on your local disk. The backup is an image file and when in need, we have to make a system disk from it with eg. BalenaEtcher.

Another important thing to keep in mind, is that the backups we make are on the server and if something should happen to our current system boot/os disk, then the backup(s) which are nested on the server are useless because we can't access them without a working boot/os disk. - we need to keep at all times backups offline and offsite. Without backup(s) in a dead boot/os disk scenario, we'd be like dead meat.
PS: I am looking at this as a ZFS user. I don't know otherwise.

Zitat von Netfreak

Another important thing to keep in mind, is that the backups we make are on the server and if something should happen to our current system boot/os disk, then the backup(s) which are nested on the server are useless because we can't access them without a working boot/os disk. - we need to keep at all times backups offline and offsite. Without backup(s) in a dead boot/os disk scenario, we'd be like dead meat.
PS: I am looking at this as a ZFS user. I don't know otherwise.

That is true, it is always good to have a backup on portable drive or on hdd of another device/server. In my case I am not only cloning my boot pen drive but also backing up "dd full disk" by creating and then accessing, using my Windows PC, a Samba share on my OMV Server for the "OSBackup" folder and then copying the folder, over my home network, to a drive on my Windows PC. This way if both my boot disk and it's clone were to go missing in action, I can still restore my server OS.

Zitat von ryecoaaron

It is just a simple find command that deletes files with the right prefix older than the number of days you enter in the field in the plugin. If you are only going to run a backup every 30 days, then change the number to something higher if you want to make sure to keep older ones. No need to rename the folder to keep older backups.

and what exactly does the "Root" option with the warning "For advanced users only - Do not use unless exact root device is known." do?

I know it is for advanced users but just curious if there is a simple explanation for not messing with?

Zitat von NsinghP

and what exactly does the "Root" option with the warning "For advanced users only - Do not use unless exact root device is known." do?

I know it is for advanced users but just curious if there is a simple explanation for not messing with?

When that "Root device" field is left empty then the backup plugin will backup the OMV OS disk (/dev/sda) by default. If you change that to, for eg., /dev/sdb, then you are overruling the default mode and backing up the data disk /dev/sdb.

Zitat von Soma

Did you read what as been said:

YOUR ROOT PARTITION IS 231.9G

DD will always make a clone of PARTITION or DISK (if DD FULL)

DD is doing what it's meant to do: make a copy of the PARTITION or DISK.

What you want is to create a image from the OS system DATA (which will probably be less than 8Gb) on the PARTITION.

DD won't be able to do that.

You will need to look for fsarchiver. This will only "clone" the DATA that lives on a PARTITION.

But be sure to learn HOW TO RESTORE IT.

It's not a simple "copy back to the partition" way of restoring.

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I gave "fsarchiver" a shot and it backed up my OMV OS boot files within 10 minutes. My current test drive is a 120gb and this is indeed a huge backup time duration difference. Now I have to carefully study and try to execute a restore of it

Sharing some tests/updates for whatever it's worth...
I managed to put my hands on 2 SSDs (16gb and 60gb). I installed OMV on the 16gb ssd to get ZFS up and running and installed the necessary plugins: Wetty, Kernel, flash memory. ZFS and backup.
I did a backup of all options except rsync. (see image) for the time it took to backup from a 16gb OS boot disk

Flashing the 16gb SSD backup to the 60gb SSD:

DD: I used BalenaEtcher to flash the DD backup which didn't work (tried twice) By the commencement I get an alert Balena message "Missing partition table" (see image) yet continued the process - bad idea!
With the DD full option I didn't get that message and it was flashed successfully.
I tried to boot OMV with the flashed 60gb ssd and then I get the following message - whatever that means (see image)?
Since flashing is not working yet for me, next step is to try cloning
test still to be done is fsarchiver.
Learning slowly but surely...