[arm-allstar] Image Backup

[Doug Crompton]

We pulled the live image backup several months ago because it was not
considered a reliable way to backup. It is not a good idea to backup a live
image which is what it did.

The point is since we have rolling updates and everyone with Internet
access can update to the latest release via the menu there is no real
reason to backup an entire SD card. At the time the image backup was
removed the  file-lookup.sh and file-restore.sh scripts were introduced.
These store the files that you would normally change and allow you to
backup to a single tar.gz file that you can copy to another computer or to
a USB stick inserted in the Pi. The file-backup.sh script also allows you
to tailor the directories that you backup. One USB stick could be shared
among multiple servers for backup. The files are tagged by the hostname of
the server and date. Another reason to use meaningful hostnames.

So a scenario in the event of an SD card loss would be to install a new
image to a card but do not do the setup. Instead do a menu 1 update and
then run file-restore.sh and restore the files you have previously saved.
Then after a reboot you would be back to where you were.

Alternatively you can halt your server, pull the SD card, read it and store
the image on another computer, then if you want copy it to another SD card.

The disadvantage although minimal of this method is that any potential
errors on the SD card are replicated to the image copy.

Also remember that backups are good if you can actually use them otherwise
it is false assurance. When you are making an image backup make sure it
actually works if the data is that important to you.


*73 Doug*

*WA3DSP*

*http://www.crompton.com/hamradio <http://www.crompton.com/hamradio>*


On Thu, Apr 19, 2018 at 7:41 PM, "K9EE via arm-allstar" <
arm-allstar at hamvoip.org> wrote:

> Wanting to backup my system.  in what directory do I find image-backup.sh ?
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