openmediavault-timeshift 7.0

1st Official Post
    • Official Post

    I have put a testing version of a timeshift plugin for OMV 7.x in the following location:

    https://omv-extras.org/testing/openmediavault-timeshift_7.0_all.deb


    Please don't install on an important system yet.


    The Settings tab writes the timeshift config file.


    The Snapshots tab:

    • lists all snapshots on the backup device listed on the Settings tab
    • allows creating a snapshot, deleting a snapshot, and reverting to a snapshot from the backup device listed on the Settings tab.


    The Alt Snapshots tab:

    • lists all snapshots on all devices that timeshift --list-devices "knows" about
    • allows creating a snapshot, deleting a snapshot, and reverting to a snapshot from any device that timeshift --list-devices knows about
      • the list will have "create" entries that you can select to create a snapshot on that device.

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    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github - changelogs


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    Thanks 5 Like 2

    I'm testing the plugin. just a couple of observations:



    1. the "weekly" tag and "description" are showing the W in the wrong place (see attachment)
    2. the description of the two tabs (snapshot and alt snapshot), could this be re-labelled as "scheduled snapshots" and "on demand snapshot" to keep it closer to the GTK app? I see in the current version you can create the snapshot in both tabs but I can see that the "alt snapshot" is a one off where you can also select a different drive (great idea!!)


    Possibly the "snapshot" tab (or scheduled snapshots if you like") may be used only to check the current snapshots and to revert ==> hence remove the + button


    the "alt snapshot" is for on demand snapshots only...?



    so far it works well, I'll try the revert back after I backup my system with clonezilla :)


    it looks good!! great addition to OMV


    FT

    THANKS!. That was FAST. It appears that timeshift is working well. It creates and reverts snapshot. Could you write procedure for a situation when an entire OMV is installed from scratch after system disk failure and/or replacement with new. I know this is a rare occasion but....


    Question: Will it remove outdated snapshots?. What I mean is, let say, I setup to have 2 (two) weekly backups; will timeshift delete first/earliest snapshot in order to keep just 2 (two) when creating third week snapshot?.

    Arch Linux, Linux Mint 22, FreeBSD KDE Plasma6

    OMV7 NAS 10GB Fiber, Fractal Design Define R5 Case, Kodi "Omega", pfSense Plus firewall/router

    Edited once, last by andrzejls: Added question ().

    • Official Post
    Quote from ftriscari

    the "weekly" tag and "description" are showing the W in the wrong place (see attachment)
    the description of the two tabs (snapshot and alt snapshot), could this be re-labelled as "scheduled snapshots" and "on demand snapshot" to keep it closer to the GTK app? I see in the current version you can create the snapshot in both tabs but I can see that the "alt snapshot" is a one off where you can also select a different drive (great idea!!)


    Possibly the "snapshot" tab (or scheduled snapshots if you like") may be used only to check the current snapshots and to revert ==> hence remove the + button


    the "alt snapshot" is for on demand snapshots only...?

    Good ideas. I updated the package in the same url listed above.

    Quote from andrzejls

    Could you write procedure for a situation when an entire OMV is installed from scratch after system disk failure and/or replacement with new.

    I'll see what I can come up with.

    omv 7.7.10-1 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.11 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0.2 | kvm 7.1.8 | compose 7.6.10 | cterm 7.8.7 | cputemp 7.0.2 | mergerfs 7.0.5 | scripts 7.3.1


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github - changelogs


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    • Official Post
    Quote from ftriscari

    How do I update to the new .deb package?

    Re-download and re-install? Should I delete the old one first?

    I would delete the last download. Download new with wget and dpkg -i the new package. Or just:


    wget -O openmediavault-timeshift_7.0_all.deb https://omv-extras.org/testing/openmediavault-timeshift_7.0_all.deb

    sudo dpkg -i openmediavault-timeshift_7.0_all.deb


    make sure to ctrl-shift-R in the browser to get the changes.

    omv 7.7.10-1 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.11 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0.2 | kvm 7.1.8 | compose 7.6.10 | cterm 7.8.7 | cputemp 7.0.2 | mergerfs 7.0.5 | scripts 7.3.1


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github - changelogs


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    • Official Post

    The plugin is in the repo now.

    omv 7.7.10-1 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.11 proxmox kernel

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    Thanks 1
    • Official Post
    Quote from andrzejls

    Will it remove outdated snapshots?. What I mean is, let say, I setup to have 2 (two) weekly backups; will timeshift delete first/earliest snapshot in order to keep just 2 (two) when creating third week snapshot?.

    Yes, that is how timeshift works.


    Quote from andrzejls

    Could you write procedure for a situation when an entire OMV is installed from scratch after system disk failure and/or replacement with new.

    Unfortunately, you can't use the plugin for this because even if you pass the --yes and --scripted flags, timeshift still prompts when doing a restore where it is a new install.

    omv 7.7.10-1 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.11 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0.2 | kvm 7.1.8 | compose 7.6.10 | cterm 7.8.7 | cputemp 7.0.2 | mergerfs 7.0.5 | scripts 7.3.1


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github - changelogs


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    I think that one possible solution is to have a clonezilla image of your system (maybe run one every 2 or 3 months) and then the regular timeshift snapshots.

    For bare metal recovery you can first use clonezilla to restore the image and then use the latest timeshift snapshot to bring it to the most recent configuration

    Quote from Wolf2000

    Please look here

    Crontab.guru - The cron schedule expression generator

    or

    CronMaker

    Thanks, but those websites are not written like the timeshift plugin. The websites use star values (*) and the plugin does not. I get "30 1 * * 0" but there's no way to enter that into the plugin.


    It would be so much easier if the plugin was written in terms a regular user can understand, like days of the week, AM/PM, weekly, etc including a worded readout to confirm the entered values were the desired ones. I'm still lost and have no idea what to do. I don't understand why some simple tasks in OMV are so impossible to figure out for a regular user and not a systems engineer.


    If I want it to run every Sunday at 1am or every 3 days at 1am, what numbers do I need to enter for each scenario? Please, please, please can someone tell me the values to input?

    Quote from Superorb

    Thanks, but those websites are not written like the timeshift plugin. The websites use star values (*) and the plugin does not. I get "30 1 * * 0" but there's no way to enter that into the plugin.


    It would be so much easier if the plugin was written in terms a regular user can understand, like days of the week, AM/PM, weekly, etc including a worded readout to confirm the entered values were the desired ones. I'm still lost and have no idea what to do. I don't understand why some simple tasks in OMV are so impossible to figure out for a regular user and not a systems engineer.


    If I want it to run every Sunday at 1am or every 3 days at 1am, what numbers do I need to enter for each scenario? Please, please, please can someone tell me the values to input?

    You may want to look up what Timeshift is and how it works: https://teejeetech.com/timeshift/


    It's a snapshot tool, not a backup tool. What you are asking for is not how the program is designed, so don't blame the plug-in. Imho the plug-in is great and does exactly what it's supposed to do. Also be aware that people develop OMV and the plug-ins in their free time.


    Timeshift is supposed to take snapshots in regular intervals, usually hourly. You can define how many hourly, weekly, daily, monthly snapshots you want to keep. That's how it's supposed to work. Very simple. There is no point in taking a snapshot once a week at a defined time. If you only want to keep weekly snapshots you can set that up. I don't see the point though... The snapshots are incremental so hourly snapshots don't take up much more space than weekly snapshots.

    I suspect that this is one of those situation where the wrong tool is being used. Timeshift is for system backup. So why do you need to schedule it at a precise time?

    If you're trying to backup data look a Rsnapshot (another plugin) which let's you backup data when you need it.

    • Official Post
    Quote from Superorb

    If I want it to run every Sunday at 1am or every 3 days at 1am, what numbers do I need to enter for each scenario? Please, please, please can someone tell me the values to input?

    You can't because timeshift wasn't designed to run like cron. If you want it to run weekly, set hourly to zero and the weekly to more than zero. Why are you trying to run it so selectively?


    Other plugins like borg, rsync, scheduled jobs, etc do use the cron style scheduling. I can't tell you why timeshift (not the plugin) was not designed this way.

    omv 7.7.10-1 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.11 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0.2 | kvm 7.1.8 | compose 7.6.10 | cterm 7.8.7 | cputemp 7.0.2 | mergerfs 7.0.5 | scripts 7.3.1


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github - changelogs


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    • Official Post
    Quote from Superorb

    So what's the point of doing hourly backups if the system rarely changes?

    There are probably many reasons. The first two I can think are:

    • faster backups since less has changed which means less chance of inconsistent backup
    • some people like to keep their statistics and/or logs with minimal loss

    omv 7.7.10-1 sandworm | 64 bit | 6.11 proxmox kernel

    plugins :: omvextrasorg 7.0.2 | kvm 7.1.8 | compose 7.6.10 | cterm 7.8.7 | cputemp 7.0.2 | mergerfs 7.0.5 | scripts 7.3.1


    omv-extras.org plugins source code and issue tracker - github - changelogs


    Please try ctrl-shift-R and read this before posting a question.

    Please put your OMV system details in your signature.
    Please don't PM for support... Too many PMs!

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