this post was submitted on 16 Apr 2024
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Always have a backup ready, go check now (feddit.uk)
submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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I thought I had a backup. I use the Gdrive add-on and it should have had a backup.

I didn't have a backup.

Turns out when I moved from a Pi to Proxmox I didn't set Gdrive add-on up properly, so it wasn't making backups every 3 days like it always has.

Then I killed Proxmox. No idea what I did to kill it, I just tried to make my NAS VM have 4gb ram all the time instead of Ballooning from 1gb, and it never booted again.

So I had to start fresh. But while I've only been playing with VMs for a couple months my HA instance has been a work of love since Lockdowns and COVID times.

And now I'm starting again.

Now go and check your backup solution.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago

Just checked, although I have an alert for when they fail. I backup to another local server and Google drive. Everything is working well.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yep, Proxmox has a built in backup solution which I use paired with proxmox backup server, I also run backups with restic on each VM/CT of the important stuff like config files.

I test restores every now and then, just by either restoring a full VM/CT, or doing a restic restore and checking over some files.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Yes, you should always have backups because even the official OS image broke most systems on the last 12.2 update.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (1 children)

Just out of curiosity, I presume a full backup (inside HA, not of the VM itself) can be restored to a completely new HA VM and everything returns? Addons? Integrations? HACS?

Edit: and history?

Or... not?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Yes, based on my migration from a Raspberry Pi to a mini x86 pc. A full backup contains a complete snapshot of that moment and all your configuration, history, and all add-ons and their data. I think HACS came across too, though I can easily be misremembering.

The restore looked like it tried to do everything but my large database add on (PostgreSQL) gave it grief so I ended up restoring components separately. The backups did work overall though, and after a few reboots everything worked.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Nice to know, thanks

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

A painful lesson to be sure, but also perhaps an opportunity to spruce up or rethink some of those original automations and integrations. I've been messing with my own rig since the lockdowns and while it's not exactly a mess, per se, I certainly know more now than I did then. Refactoring your code is rarely a spontaneous activity.

Also, I'm checking now and oops, syncing backups off-box broke thanks for prompting me to check!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

A month later and I have to say my automations are so much cleaner!

I started using HA's automation engine just to have a go. I bought some ESP32 sensors and set up ESPresence and thought it was time to reinstall Node Red.

What I've done is just made a presence page for all the complicated logic, then separate pages for rooms and automations.

So my Front room gets quite complicated so it has it's own page but hallways just require motion sensing and maybe illuminance, so there's just a Hallways page.

I've also discovered how to make Binary Sensors in Node Red so I've less need for all the Input Booleans I once used.

I'm a week in to having an espresence node on each of my 4 floors and it's just really useful. Motion sensor stopped tracking motion? Well is someone still on that floor? Yeah? Don't turn the lights off then...

I'm currently moving my HA automations back in to node red and there's some bugs when I forget to turn off the HA counterpart, but that will go as I clear out the automations.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Yes indeed, I am trying to revamp a little. It's slow work (because I'm trying to get a bunch of VMs running not just HA, we have Plex running again!) but so far I haven't even installed Node Red yet, and it's where I did all my automations.

So my Motion Sensor lights are all running in HA now rather than Node Red and seem to be ok. I haven't had a complaint that the bathroom lights have cut out on anyone yet, and that happened occasionally before.

Glad I've prompted you and you've found your backup lacking, that was the plan

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I'm checking, because I've been in difficult situations, too (and have posted a thread in this community about backups). Looks like I have a dozen backups on hand, most recent one is 1:35 a.m. today.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

Thank you, just checked:

Attributes

Backups local: 5
Backups remote: 20
Total backups succeeded: 834
Total backups failed: 3
Last backup: 16 April 2024 at 03:01:00

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Thanks, I just checked and noticed that my last (automatic) cloud backup was two months ago.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

Oh dear, good save that one!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (2 children)

You don't have backups set up in Proxmox?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago

I did have ,but the storage borked, I rewiped it and never got around to setting up backups again.

Now I'm on setup 2 and it's high in my list of things to do

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago

This is the way. Have back ups scheduled within Proxmox that save to an external storage source.