Backup options

Setup, Configuration and Use Beginners
1

Hi
I am OpenHab fan for 2 years using a Pi3.
This was the 2nd time when my SD card got broken due to electicity blackout. I had no SSD nor NAS so I used only the Backup Tool so I can restore the config easily. However I purchased an SSD what I would like to use with Amanda. I am also waiting for a UPS hat from AliExpress.

So what is your recommendation to safe the system form such electricity issues? I see two options:
A) Move the system to the SSD and use a simple USB stick for storage of AManda
B) Keep the system on the SD card, mount the SSD and use as storage of Amanda

Thanks

2

C) A board with a build in UPS, eMMC and (also backed by a battery) SATA connector.

3

That may be a compromise. But I would not recommend having a backup attached or stored on the same system. What if your system power off just while making the backup? Then you loose both your system and your backups.
When making backups, you´re better off copying the backup to an external system. Unfortunatly if you havnt got a second system running 24/7, you need to do this manually. Thats why a NAS is very obvious for storing backups.

From your two options, A or B, I think A would be the best. And then do manually copying of the backup file (archive) whenever you can.

4

Thanks Kim.
What happens with my SSD if I get the same electricity blackout? Does it also damage like the SD cards? It wold be more painfull than loosing an SD card of course.

5

You can risc the same with both SD and SSD´s. However I have not seen nor heard of anyone loosing data on a SSD from a power blackout. But many has had bad experiences with SD cards.
I guess it all depends on, what exactly the system is doing when the power blackout hits. Reason for the SSD surviving could be due to it beeing alot faster. But there are no guantee on this.

6

I google it and find some articles which says SSDs has some limited safetty for this.

Another question come up in my mind: my router has an USB port for share drives. Can I use it for Amanda?

7

If you can mount it as a shared network drive, you should be able to access it from Amanda. But it probably require a deeper linux knowlegde on your openhab system, unfortunalty.
I recall Amanda docs mention how to use shared network drives.(I dont use Amanda myself).

8

Let’s make a try :slight_smile:

9

Given you have the RPi and UPS ordered, there’s no convincing reason to change HW, wasting your invest.
Keep the system on SD and use a simple stick or the SSD for the backup, but enable ZRAM to mitigate wearout.
Sure you can also move to SSD but then you a) need to know how to do that AND b) need to have another SSD ready on standby in case yours breaks (as you should have a spare RPi ready at hand).

10

Personally, I pull the SD card and make full backups whenever I’m about to make significant changes to OH. When I’m just editing items/rules/sitemaps, I copy the config folder to Google Drive. If my SD card fails, I just have to combine the last backup with my Google Drive files to get back up and running.

I’d be more concerned about daily backups if I were changing things in OH regularly, but I can go for weeks without touching it so there’s no real need.

1 Like
11

Finnally got the UPS hat and moved the system the SSD connected to the RPi direct. I know it is a double safety but works firne :slight_smile: Last weeks we had several power issues due to heavy storms and the system survived it. Thnaks for all contributors!