usb backup plugin - only Shared Folder, or Complete Drive ?

OMV6 on Pi4

OS running on SD card, Data ( Shared Folders ) on a USB SSD drive.

Just got a second USB SSD setup and copied everything from ssd1 to ssd2 using rsync.

The backup ( ssd2 ) will be placed in storage and updated once a week.

This process requires Mounting the drive, executing the rsync script, then unmounting the drive before removing it from the Pi.

Then I saw mention of the usb backup plugin, which from all the example I have seen, will automatically Mount, backup ( using rsync ) and unmount when completed.

BUT ... for what I have seen, it appears it can only backup individually named Shared folders ?

What if I have 20 shared folders on the ssd1 drive ?

Do I need to add a usb backup plugin entry for each of the shared folders ?

Can the usb backup plugin be used to backup / rsync the complete ssd1 to ssd2 ?

Quote from votdev

• Shared folders are the key feature in OMV. Everything is based on them.
• You can create shared folders in shared folders.
• You can use symlinks plugin to create a hierarchy if you already have your shared folders layout.

In your case, create a root shared folder and sxmlink your existing ones into it. Then you can create the usb backup job using the root shared folder.

Sorry, but I don't understand how this solves my query.

If I add a scheduled task, with code :

rsync -av /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAShd1/ /srv/dev-disk-by-uuid-7eb1fd7b-9d85-49f1-bf02-000000000000/

and Run, then the complete drive is rsync'd.

Just looking to see if the same can be done with the usb backup so the drive does not need to be manually mounted / unmounted each time.

Quote from votdev

• Shared folders are the key feature in OMV. Everything is based on them.
• You can create shared folders in shared folders.
• You can use symlinks plugin to create a hierarchy if you already have your shared folders layout.

In your case, create a root shared folder and symlink your existing ones into it. Then you can create the usb backup job using the root shared folder.

OK. Starting to understand your advice here, but not ( yet ) working 100% as expected.

all in OMV6 :

Created a shared folder :

Name : NAS_symlinks

Device : NAShd1

Relative Path : NAS_symlinks/

Absolute Path : /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAShd1/NAS_symlinks

Created symlink :

Source : /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAShd1/

Destination : /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAShd1/NAS_symlinks/symlinks

USB Backup :

Shared Folder : NAS_symlinks

External Storage Device : /dev/disk/by-uuid/7eb1fd7b-9d85-49f1-bf02-062a5f87b960

when I run the USB Backup, it only copies the symlinks file to the target drive.

If I also add a symlink to another shared folder ( in to the NAS_symlinks shared folder ),

folder : dev-disk-by-label-NAShd1/www/
and added the -L option to the USB Backup settings,

then the USB Backup copies the contents of the 'www' folder, but places them in the NAS_symlinks folder on the target drive.

I need the contents of source/www/ to copy to target/www/ ( not to target/NAS_symlinks/www/ )

I 'think' that I may have the location of my source/NAS_symlinks folder in the wrong place, but have no idea how, or where, to move it.

Quote from votdev

I think you need to tell the rsync to follow symlinks.

Try adding the following options to the Extra Options field.

Code

-L, --copy-links            transform symlink into referent file/dir    
-K, --keep-dirlinks         treat symlinked dir on receiver as dir

still not copying the files to the correct location :

Created a shared folder :

Name : NAS_symlinks

Device : NAShd1

Relative Path : NAS_symlinks/

Absolute Path : /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAShd1/NAS_symlinks

Created symlink :

Source : /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAShd1/www

Destination : /srv/dev-disk-by-label-NAShd1/NAS_symlinks/sym_www

USB Backup :

Shared Folder : NAS_symlinks [on NAShd1, NAS_symlinks/]

External Storage Device : Generic [/dev/sdb, 476.93 GiB]

Extra Options : -L -K

run the USB Backup, and all files / folders from source_drive/www were copied to target_drive/NAS_symlinks/sym_www/

The goal is to get the target to target_drive/www