Hello everyone!
I have a small OrangePi running some small services on it (some with Docker and some without Docker).
And I’d love to know how do you backup your single-board computers.
Do you just rsync the system to a storage server ? Do you plug in a USB drive and rsync on it ? Do you save only the important data or the whole system ?
For now my SBC is not backed-up and I’d like to get a good backup solution up and running quickly! (I don’t trust SD cards to last long…)
I have access to USB drives and disks and also another big server with 20TB of storage which I can make the backup to if needed!
Thanks for your help !
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one of the benefits of things like docker is creating a very lightweight configuration, and keeping it separate from your data.
ive setup things so i only need to rsync my data and configs. everything else can be rebuilt. i would classify this as ‘disaster recovery’.
some people reeeeally want that old school, bare-metal restore. which i have to admit, i stopped attempting years ago. i dont need the ‘high availability’ of entire system imaging for my personal shit.
rsync is your friend. its ubiquitous.
The fact that it’s a “single board” computer, specifically, is mildly irrelevant, imo; just follow standard backup practices. The only way the type of computer really comes into question is whether or not it has adequate resources to run whatever backup solution that you choose. For my usecase, Borg works great, but choose whatever solution fits your requirements. The “simplest”, and lightest solution is probably rsync, but that may leave a lot to be desired.
SBCs often run on sd cards or emmc modules so there are other possibilities than a standard desktop computer.
[…] so there are other possibilities than a standard desktop computer.
Would you mind elaborating? I’m curious to know what you’re referring to.
Copying the entire drive into a bootable backup using tools like dd is more feasible when you’re whole fs is only 8-16gb.
Larger systems often require more selectivity or more sophisticated methods to reduce output size.
You can also pull the card occasionally and backup via another system easier. Some people like this route.
Fair points! I hadn’t considered these nuances.
Re:
The fact that it’s a “single board” computer, specifically, is mildly irrelevant
Did you forget to complete your reply, or did it perhaps glitch out?
Like I do any other system. rsnapshot nightly to backup server.
It might not be applicable to you but in many cases single board computers are used where there is minimal changes in files in day to day basis. For example when used for displaying stuff. For such cases, it is useful to know that after installing all the required stuff, the SD card can be turned into read only mode. This prolongs its life exponentially. Temporary files can still be generated in the RAM and if needed, you can push them to an external storage/FTP through a cron job or something. I have built a digital display with weather/photos/news where beyond the initial install, everything is pulled from the internet. I’m working towards implementing what I’ve suggested above.
Restic and Proxmox Backup Client for me.
Proxmox backup client goes to my local proxmox backup server, Restic goes to remote S3 storage on Backblaze.
I wrote a bash script a while back that uses sshfs to mount an ssh server to the filesystem, then uses dd to write /dev/mmcblk0 to it as hostname-date.img and finally unmount the ssh server. Cron job runs that daily.
I run that on each of my rpis. (just one rn, but theres been as many as 4 going).
Any time I have an issue, be that my fault or not, I can just pull the sd card and write the last .img to it directly.
There’s some extra stuff in there too: it checks for the dependancy sshfs and installs it if missing (for deploying to a new system without reconfiguring), cleans up backups older than x days, logging, and the ability to write the log file as a test instead of the whole filesystem.
Sorry, but do you have a setup where you don’t need to worry about the atomicity of that operation? It sounds simple and effective, so I’d like to do it, but I’m concerned I may get something halfway through a write.
I suppose the odds are you’d have at worst a bad log file whereas config files and binaries are used read-only the majority of the time.
I’ve run it on every pi I’ve used for several years now, though they are typically pretty quiet systems. Usually something like pihole or a reverse proxy. Not much writing going on. I’ve restored about a dozen of those images and never had an issue.
I also tend to keep 3-6 backups at a time. If the most recent is messed up for some reason, there’s others to try. (though I’ve never actually had to try more than one)
