BACKUPMON BACKUPMON v1.5.10 -Mar 1, 2024- Backup/Restore your Router: JFFS + NVRAM + External USB Drive! (**Thread closed due to age**)

[Ripshod]

I use Filezilla. It's in my basic toolkit.

 

[Weblee2407]

Isn't WinSCP simply an FTP client, just like FileZilla? SFTP uses SSH.

WinSCP will use the ssh scp mechanisms on the Linux side of the connection and is secured.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

WinSCP will use the ssh scp mechanisms on the Linux side of the connection and is secured.

Exactly @visortgw ... I've never had to install SFTP/FTP to get WinSCP to work. Handles everything right over SSH.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

I'll install that today and give it a try if I need to restore again. Is there a Linux version?

I don't believe so... think it's Windoze only. It also makes for a really nice graphical Norton Commander-esque file browser for your router.

 

[bibikalka]

For now I am backing up to another SSD partition - I guess another USB drive would make it more redundant.

But ! I am concerned how hot the USB connector gets - I'll probably buy a short USB extender just to dissipate heat.

I just found an 8GB MLC flash drive in my collection - that's a true treasure, LOL! They have not made those since forever!

 

[Viktor Jaep]

For now I am backing up to another SSD partition - I guess another USB drive would make it more redundant.

But ! I am concerned how hot the USB connector gets - I'll probably buy a short USB extender just to dissipate heat.

I just found an 8GB MLC flash drive in my collection - that's a true treasure, LOL! They have not made those since forever!

Would highly recommend a cheap SSD in an enclosure if you're worried about heat. Plus SSDs are much more capable of handling a high load of read/writes, unlike flash drives. Let me know if you need recommendations. @Tech9 also has some really good suggestions on these.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

I'll install that today and give it a try if I need to restore again. Is there a Linux version?

Look what I found, @Ripshod!

To run WinSCP under Linux (Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)), follow these steps:

1.) Run sudo apt-get install wine (run this one time only, to get 'wine' in your system, if you don’t have it)

2.) Download the latest WinSCP portable package: https://winscp.net/eng/download.php

3.)Make a folder and put the content of the ZIP file in this folder

4.)Open a terminal, type: wine WinSCP.exe

5.) Done! WinSCP will run like in a Windows environment!

 

[Ripshod]

Look what I found, @Ripshod!

To run WinSCP under Linux (Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin)), follow these steps:

1.) Run sudo apt-get install wine (run this one time only, to get 'wine' in your system, if you don’t have it)

2.) Download the latest WinSCP portable package: https://winscp.net/eng/download.php

3.)Make a folder and put the content of the ZIP file in this folder

4.)Open a terminal, type: wine WinSCP.exe

5.) Done! WinSCP will run like in a Windows environment!

I've tried SCP in an SSH terminal and to be honest I like it, a lot.

 

[Weblee2407]

Well Viktor I had a slow day at work today (not really - I had trouble focusing!) so I gave the restore a try. Didn't keep me busy long...works like a charm! This marks a new age in the life of HOME IT GUY!

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Well Viktor I had a slow day at work today (not really - I had trouble focusing!) so I gave the restore a try. Didn't keep me busy long...works like a charm! This marks a new age in the life of HOME IT GUY!

Glad it worked as advertised!! Yeah, I can certainly sleep a lot better myself knowing that I can quickly get my router back to a working state if something gets seriously borked up! LOL

Enjoy your holidays!

 

[ScottW]

My USB drive failed today (Samsung Fit Plus, 32gb). Won't mount or even be detected on any of my machines. It's dead, Jim.

Switching to an SSD drive is on my todo list, but I haven't gotten there yet.

I inserted a new USB drive (same model as old one) and followed the backmon instructions: Used AMTM to format and label it the same as the old one, then create the swap file and reboot. Ran "-setup" and everything looked good. (I did not need to restore the cfg files, as jffs was unaffected -- just the USB content was lost.)

When I did the "-restore": It restored jffs successfully, then started restoring the USB drive content, but after just 2-3 seconds there was an error and a reboot. The reboot closed my ssh session, so I didn't get the exact error message -- but it was something like "unable to remove existing...." and mentioned the swap file by name.

I went to the backup on my windows machine, and manually removed the "myswap.swp" file from the latest backup. Then I did the "-restore" again, and everything worked correctly -- everything seems to be running great! Saved a LOT of time and effort, even with the initial problem restoring. (Thank you!)

Should the swap file be excluded from the backup? Since a new one is created before performing the restore, it doesn't really need to be in the backup, does it?

 

[visortgw]

My USB drive failed today (Samsung Fit Plus, 32gb). Won't mount or even be detected on any of my machines. It's dead, Jim.

Switching to an SSD drive is on my todo list, but I haven't gotten there yet.

I inserted a new USB drive (same model as old one) and followed the backmon instructions: Used AMTM to format and label it the same as the old one, then create the swap file and reboot. Ran "-setup" and everything looked good. (I did not need to restore the cfg files, as jffs was unaffected -- just the USB content was lost.)

When I did the "-restore": It restored jffs successfully, then started restoring the USB drive content, but after just 2-3 seconds there was an error and a reboot. The reboot closed my ssh session, so I didn't get the exact error message -- but it was something like "unable to remove existing...." and mentioned the swap file by name.

I went to the backup on my windows machine, and manually removed the "myswap.swp" file from the latest backup. Then I did the "-restore" again, and everything worked correctly -- everything seems to be running great! Saved a LOT of time and effort, even with the initial problem restoring. (Thank you!)

Should the swap file be excluded from the backup? Since a new one is created before performing the restore, it doesn't really need to be in the backup, does it?

IMO, it should be excluded because it is huge, and it provides no usable data.

 

[ScottW]

IMO, it should be excluded because it is huge, and it provides no usable data.

Agreed, I should have phrased my question differently. Should the swap file be Automatically excluded by BackupMon? Or is each user expected to manually exclude it?

I see the provision exists for an exclusion file, and I'm fine with manually managing that... But I was just surprised the swap file wasn't excluded by default.

EDIT: I see the instructions (which I obviously did not fully read, lol) cover this, and even provide a default list of exclusions. I'll add that to my config now. Thanks Viktor for the tool, and for all the others here that have helped with it!

 

[visortgw]

Agreed, I should have phrased my question differently. Should the swap file be Automatically excluded by BackupMon? Or is each user expected to manually exclude it?

I see the provision exists for an exclusion file, and I'm fine with manually managing that... But I was just surprised the swap file wasn't excluded by default.

EDIT: I see the instructions (which I obviously did not fully read, lol) cover this, and even provide a default list of exclusions. I'll add that to my config now. Thanks Viktor for the tool, and for all the others here that have helped with it!

@Viktor Jaep always allows flexibility for users to configure as they see fit.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

My USB drive failed today (Samsung Fit Plus, 32gb). Won't mount or even be detected on any of my machines. It's dead, Jim.

Switching to an SSD drive is on my todo list, but I haven't gotten there yet.

I inserted a new USB drive (same model as old one) and followed the backmon instructions: Used AMTM to format and label it the same as the old one, then create the swap file and reboot. Ran "-setup" and everything looked good. (I did not need to restore the cfg files, as jffs was unaffected -- just the USB content was lost.)

When I did the "-restore": It restored jffs successfully, then started restoring the USB drive content, but after just 2-3 seconds there was an error and a reboot. The reboot closed my ssh session, so I didn't get the exact error message -- but it was something like "unable to remove existing...." and mentioned the swap file by name.

I went to the backup on my windows machine, and manually removed the "myswap.swp" file from the latest backup. Then I did the "-restore" again, and everything worked correctly -- everything seems to be running great! Saved a LOT of time and effort, even with the initial problem restoring. (Thank you!)

Should the swap file be excluded from the backup? Since a new one is created before performing the restore, it doesn't really need to be in the backup, does it?

Yeah, thank you very much @ScottW for reporting what would happen if you restore a swap file onto an existing swap file... that's great info. And like was mentioned above, excluding it would be your best bet not only because of size and time, but also because it's really not necessary as you typically recreate it anyways on a new format/install. But I'm sure someone will want it for some reason to restore to a completely blank drive, which is also a possibility. Great thinking removing it from your backup file, and completing a successful restore afterwards! I'll probably add your experience to my lengthy notes!

 

[bibikalka]

Would highly recommend a cheap SSD in an enclosure if you're worried about heat. Plus SSDs are much more capable of handling a high load of read/writes, unlike flash drives. Let me know if you need recommendations. @Tech9 also has some really good suggestions on these.

Yes, that's true! A cheap SATA-USB adapter is less than $3, but I ran out of spare SSDs around the house. I see some used Samsung SATA 128GB SSD drives for $10 on eBay - I hate to hoard more of those, but desperate times ...

 

[visortgw]

Patriot SSD I believe that this was the @Tech9 recco for cheap SSD.

 

[Ripshod]

@Viktor Jaep could my issue have been related to what @ScottW reported? I made a typo in my exclusions list (myswap.swap instaed of myswap.swp) and the swapfile was backed up. I've made corrections (to my earlier post too) and maybe, one day, I can test this theory.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

@Viktor Jaep could my issue have been related to what @ScottW reported? I made a typo in my exclusions list (myswap.swap instaed of myswap.swp) and the swapfile was backed up. I've made corrections (to my earlier post too) and maybe, one day, I can test this theory.

Hum. I just don't see it... even on a reboot, that swapfile would have been in use, and not sure how it would have been able to get restored on top of itself? Your issue stemmed more around the script not identifying a valid USB drive... I was reading earlier this morning that the exclusion file could get applied on a TAR restore as well. Or I could explicitly try to exclude the standard swap file/path on a restore - it's just that people's swap files may be called something different, or may be in different locations. Maybe what I can do is exclude a *.swp on a restore? That might save some grief for people down the road?

 

[ScottW]

Or I could explicitly try to exclude the standard swap file/path on a restore - it's just that people's swap files may be called something different, or may be in different locations.

If you decide to add an "automatically exclude swap files from backup" feature of some kind, you can find the fully qualified path(s) with `cat /proc/swaps`.