Absolute new beginner

Well maybe in stable environnement, but when you’re a noob, dealing with backup in Linux is everything but user friendly. And when you need to restore … here comes the thrill .

I’ve no idea what I need to backup.

  • I mean system + openhab + everyting else I picked up on github

I don’t know how to do it:

  • Amanda, come on, I’m sure you can print labels for 5’25 floppy with it …
  • dd script to USB seems to work except when it crashes (and killed my system once), and now for some reason my PI is USB dependant : no USB plugged -> no boot

And more important, what ever the method always failed when trying to restore

Aymeric

Sorry to hear your having issues with making and restoring backups. Have you tried a backup like I posted above? I used this when moving my OH from RPI2 to RPI3 and it works great.

One thing I forgot to mention is you may need to change permissions of the backup file when transferring the zip file to your PC. I use FileZilla for this and to change the permissions use this ```
sudo chmod a+rw backups

and to change permissions back this
sudo chmod a-rw backups

So. I think z-Wave is the best and stable option, but how I see, the devices that are using this protocol are more expansive and fewer?

Later edit: I like Xiaomi as a brand, but I did not find what protocol they use.

As was said earlier, you can mix devices. I have a mixture of Zwave devices, and Sonoff switches, and a Broadlink controller for IR devices. I too am running on a Rasperry Pi 3, with the original Razberry board, and all works very well.

Xiaomi use Zigbee.
There’s a binding in openhab if you have the gateway (not tested by me, look on the forum)

If it works, it is the easiest I suppose.


More advanced :
There’s also a zigbee binding if you replace the gateway by an usb dongle (not tested also, not sure it works with xiaomi stuff)

Personnally, I installed on my PI a small daemon named zigbee2mqtt and a dongle.I use with xiaomi thermometer and without the gateway, working perfectly.

Amanda will backup a full server while it is up and running. You just need to mount an external file system (USB SSD/HDD or network shared folder) for Amanda to put the backups. Amanda comes with openHABian or you can install it separately. Linux, Windows, and Mac are all supported I believe.

I found Amanda to be easy to set up and use. The hard part is figuring out how to mount the external file system which is operating system dependent and can be challenging for non-Linux users on a headless RPi.

More expensive yes. Fewer no. I think there are more zwave devices than any other similar technology with zigbee being a close second. Though zigbee doesn’t yet have a good support in OH directly as zwave.

It works with some xiamoi stuff but not all. Be sure to check the zigbee readme for the list of devices known to work. Not listed devices may work but have not been shown to work. Unfortunately Zigbee is a little more open of a standard than Zwave meaning just because it says Zigbee doesn’t mean it is compatible with all other Zigbee devices/hub/coordinators.

I’m not sure … switching both account (root and backup) is not quite intuitive.The whole system of slots or whatever named it is like, changing tape on a server.
And as always what is backed up when installing via openhabian-config ? Everything ?
Amanda IS powerful for sure, but too linux ‘admin’ for me …

Take a look at raspiBackup as an alternative:

https://www.linux-tips-and-tricks.de/en/quickstart-rbk

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Yes, everything.

I found on Amazon, Linear HUSBZB-1. Z-Wave and Zigbee network. Anyone using this? Any review?

A quick google took me to this page, seems it’s not a very good choice for ZigBee. Also check this post.

I understand. Any recommandation for a ZigBee dongle? I’ve saw the binding list, but I want something that have good review from someone that is already using it. Also for z-wave. 10x.

#Z-Wave - Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5 ($45) / Everspring ($27)
#ZigBee - Telegesis ETRX357USB-LRS ($46)

My options for now? Are they ok?

I use a Z-Stick myself, it’s working fine. Can’t say anything about the others :slight_smile:

What I personally really like about the Z-stick is the battery that it has inside, so you can just take it out of the pc/nas/raspi, walk to whatever device you have built-in anywhere in your house and include it right there by pressing the button on the Z-stick.
Installation on Windows took some effort (driver related), but other than that quite happy with the Z-stick from Aeotec.

I thing for Z-Wave we have a winner: Aeotec Z-Stick Gen5. Zigbee still nothing yet.

Others have been very successful in using this for zigbee:

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Let me see if I understand. With that MQTT bridge you don’t need a dongle for Zigbee?

Correct

How can I kiss you? :blush: :))