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Best way to backup root?
I am wondering what is the best or a good way to backup the root partition to another readynas backup volume, so that in the event of volume loss, I can restore my working root partition after having done all my configuration and installed various things with front view or apt, etc.. Is this even possible to backup and restore the root partition, or perhaps some parts of it?
I got the build-essential installed now that netgear has their repo up, but in the future who knows if it will be up, so having my root partition restorable in some way would be helpful..if its even possible.
At this point my readynas is pretty simple configuration compared to years past, so..its not that bad to just reinstall and reconfigure in the case I were to lose boot volume for some reason. But the one thing that would be difficult or maybe impossible to restore might be build-essential. I suppose there might be a way to mirror the repo? Well anyway if I can just backup my boot volume including root partition, that would be preferable I think.
Not using RAID5 by the way, my boot partition right now is actually on a single non-raid SSD that is not being used for any other data storage...but I plan to switchover to having two RAID1 arrays, one for boot+storage, and another separate RAID1 for pure storage.
7 Replies
I suppose there might be a way to mirror the repo?
apt-mirror will do it. See
This mirror.list will mirror all 6.10.x repos, plus some debian ones.
deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.0 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.1 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.2 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.3 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.4 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.5 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.6 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.7 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.8 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.9 updates apps main deb-amd64 https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.10 updates apps main deb-amd64 http://archive.kernel.org/debian-archive/debian jessie main contrib non-free deb-amd64 http://archive.kernel.org/debian-archive/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free deb-amd64 http://archive.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free deb-amd64 http://archive.debian.org/debian-security jessie/updates main contrib non-free deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.0 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.1 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.2 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.3 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.4 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.5 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.6 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.7 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.8 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.9 updates apps main deb-armel https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.10 updates apps main deb-armel http://archive.kernel.org/debian-archive/debian jessie main contrib non-free deb-armel http://archive.kernel.org/debian-archive/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free deb-armel http://archive.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free deb-armel http://archive.debian.org/debian-security jessie/updates main contrib non-free deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.0 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.1 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.2 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.3 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.4 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.5 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.6 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.7 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.8 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.9 updates apps main deb-armhf https://apt.readynas.com/packages/readynasos 6.10.10 updates apps main deb-armhf http://archive.kernel.org/debian-archive/debian jessie main contrib non-free deb-armhf http://archive.kernel.org/debian-archive/debian jessie-backports main contrib non-free deb-armhf http://archive.debian.org/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free deb-armhf http://archive.debian.org/debian-security jessie/updates main contrib non-freeI am wondering what is the best or a good way to backup the root partition to another readynas backup volume,
You can remount it as /mnt and then copy /mnt to a folder on the data volume. It is important to remount it (and copy the new mount point), since the data volume is mounted to //.
Does this mirror.list include everything necessary to install build-essential? I'm going to re-do my local mirror and want to be sure to get everything before I retire the NAS with my old mirror. And is it really necessary to have all sub-versions of 6.10.x? I figure all I'll need is 6.10.9 and 6.10.10.
On the subject of the OS partition backup, I've done that periodically. But how would I restore i? I'm guessing it would have to be done from support mode so none of the overwritten files are in use.
And0when you make your copy, make sure you copy symbolic links themselves, not the content (cp -P), and then separately copy what's linked that's not in the OS partition (/apps is all I know you need).
Has anyone tested how an rsync backup handles symlinks? I know rsync has options for that, but Netgear gave us no options to specify.
And is it really necessary to have all sub-versions of 6.10.x
No. I grabbed them just in case one of the Netgear repos was incomplete.
Not certain here, but it is possible that 6.2.5, 6.3.5, and 6.5.2 installs access the Netgear repo post-install. If so, then folks getting really old arm platforms might need some other versions archived in order to get to current firmware.
And when you make your copy, make sure you copy symbolic links themselves, not the content (cp -P), and then separately copy what's linked that's not in the OS partition (/apps is all I know you need).
Yes, that makes sense.
But you do need to remount as /mnt and copy that, as mount points are not symbolic links. And /apps is a mount point (not a symbolic link).
FWIW, it does make sense to have another copy of the apps folder as part of the overall OS backup, since the restore might be needed after a full factory default.
Has anyone tested how an rsync backup handles symlinks?
I haven't. My guess is that you are thinking about a NAS->NAS backup that includes the backed up OS?
But how would I restore i? I'm guessing it would have to be done from support mode so none of the overwritten files are in use.
Probably best done from tech support mode (and remounting as /mnt and then restoring to /mnt). If you know what you've modifed, then you should probably be selective on the restore.
Personally I have archived my mods, so I'd just restore those. The only app I need is SMB plus, which is also in the Netgear repo. (FWIW, all the netgear-hosted apps are in also in the repo).
Does this mirror.list include everything necessary to install build-essential?
I didn't test this, but it should.
Build-essential itself is a debian package (not Netgear's). It is in both archive.kernel.org/debian-archive and archive.kernel.org/debian. (the version in both is 11.7).
While it didn't install when the Netgear repo was down, it did get the needed libraries when those repo was up. And the mirror includes the full repo.
On the subject of the OS partition backup, I've done that periodically. But how would I restore i? I'm guessing it would have to be done from support mode so none of the overwritten files are in use.
Thanks for bringing this up and it makes me realize this may not be a good approach for backing up a hypothetically "restorable" root partition. maybe?
you both mentioned a lot of complications I wouldn't know the first thing about how to make sure I hypothetically restored it correctly, which would have to include restoring that /apps mount point and who know what else that Netgear had in there along those lines. And sym links too.
I have detailed notes for how to re-setup my readynas to the state its in now, should I have to do that, which probably takes a few hours, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but yes, it also does rely on the netgear repo still being up in order to do it.
My understand is that libc library is the main thing that build-essential depends, which is what comes from netgear repo. As I recall, there is nothing else in the netgear repo that isn't already up to date in the actual OS that is installed. For some reason they chose not to include libc or up to date version of libc in the actual OS that is installed, so in order to install build-essential, you'd need access to netgear repo. There may be other libs or dependencies that I'm not aware of.
StephenB Enlighten me, if I create an apt-mirror, that is just something located somewhere in my data volume? Approx how big do you think it would be for just one version 6.10.9? Does a Daemon of any kind have to be running of any kind? In the future if I needed to restore build-essential after having manually setup the readynas with all my notes, how could I go about accessing that apt-mirror in order to provide dependencies and install build-essential?
If I create an apt-mirror, that is just something located somewhere in my data volume?
Yes, that is where you'd want to put it.
Approx how big do you think it would be for just one version 6.10.9?
~5.5 GiB for all three variants (amd64 + armel + armhf )
Does a Daemon of any kind have to be running of any kind?
No, it's a just a script that you run on demand. If these were active repos, then running it again would give you any updates. But these not active, so no need to re-run it.
how could I go about accessing that apt-mirror in order to provide dependencies and install build-essential?
You have to configure apt to use the mirror instead of using the repos. (modifying sources.list). Somethiing like
deb file:///data/apt-mirror/mirror ./I have needed to do that yet, but I believe Sandshark has.
which would have to include restoring that /apps mount point
That is a mount point for /data/.apps, so you already have it on the data volume.
But to your point, overall both the backup and restore require some care.
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