Easy Backup Amp; Restore
Kahlil Algya
I have tried default Azure backup and restore but noticed that it doesn't seem to do much. It is easy to create and schedule backups but it is not clear to me how these backups can be used to bring a VM back to its original state.
The use cases for the default backup / restore seem to be very different from what I expected. I expected something somewhat similar to VirtualBox: take a snapshot and then restore takes the VM back to the snapshot.
Snapshot works by capturing image state of a virtual machine. In Azure, you can snapshot your VHD and restore that snapshot whenever you'd like. Get started with snapshot here -us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/snapshot-copy-managed-disk
Disk snapshot works best in case your virtual machine uses one disk (for the OS). Or if that virtual machine has more than one disk, disk snapshot is still useful, but takes time and may result disk management overhead. In that case, you could go with image generalization to capturing the whole virtual machine's state at once using tool like sysprep ( -us/azure/virtual-machines/windows/capture-image-resource)
I use both Joplin portable and desktop on C drive, looking for a way to backup and could be able to restore without interent or without depending on any future releases, like an encaputlated eternal backup!
I do a "Simple Backup" on a 24 hour schedule and keep it for months and months on a USB 2TB dedicated SSD. I've restored these dozens of times (I tend to delete first, regret later) with zero problems. Perhaps the difference between a single JEX file and multiple/individual JEX files could be explained in more detail for the novice when it comes to keeping internal links (single-good, individual-bad) but that's about it. Never tried any other format than JEX so maybe that's the issue.
Periodically I export each parent notebook category as JEX file for backup. Not had any issues at all restoring them locally (File >Import >JEX). When allowed online to sync they sync to other devices no problem
I would recommend configuring the Backup plugin to back up your entire notes into a single file because this way it will retain any links between notes. If you ever need to only restore one individual note you can create a new instance of Joplin Portable, restore the full backup to it then export the required note individually. From there restore that individual note into your normal Joplin instance
If there isn't anything in your backup folder, and it is the backup folder specified in the backup options, then no backup is getting done. Lots of reasons possible. You turned the computer off. Or, your desktop is actually OneDrive/desktop, and you are in the wrong place because windows fooled you. Or perhaps you set a 24-hour backup interval and didn't wait 24 hours. Who knows.
You'd be better off making a backup folder for many of your backups. Notice I do it right off the root of my data drive, and many programs backup to it in separate folders. Every night that folder is copied to an external drive and also to a cloud backup. A backup to the same drive as you have your data on, is convenient but does not protect you from a drive failure.
Unlike Zimmer, I backup individual notebooks on the theory that the less I restore the less chance there is of a problem, and I do not crosslink any notes so I don't have the problem. I might be entirely wrong though and I've got so many notebooks, it makes a lot of backups. But I only backup what's changed, so the backups of my backups are smaller.
Turn off automatic saving of macros - often when working on a macro, I add or change a step and find out that the step is incorrect or unnecessary. Unfortunately all the changes get saved as I am working on the macro, potentially saving a ruined version of an existing macro. It would be nice if one could work on a macro, then MANUALLY do a Save or Save As, thus protecting an existing macro. (I know one can duplicate a macro and work on the duplicate, but then you have to clean up/delete the unneeded macros when one is finished...)
It would be great if you could have two (or more) macros open for inspection at the same time - this way you could compare steps and copy steps from one to the other. I know you can open a macro, copy the parts you want to transfer, then open the new/other macro and paste the part, but this is much more cumbersome than just having windows for the various macros open at the same time.
An easy and efficient method for backing up/restoring either all one's macros and/or just selected macros. There are numerous methods out there for doing these things, but they all seem like kludges (no offense meant...). It would be great if there was a built-in, and simple method for doing this. (For example, if one could just drag macros or folders to the desktop and have the macros be copied there. And the reverse for putting them back into KM. Or something else, but equally simple.)
BTW, my biggest need is #3 -- restore a single Macro.
I know we can use Revert Macros, but AFAIK that doesn't work with changes made the same day, like 15 min ago. Another issue with Revert Macros is that it may restore problem macros that will be running while I try to get a file backup of the one Macro I do want restored.
The current design in which ALL Macros are in ONE file does not lend itself to any type of backup/restore scheme using traditional/conventional tools. Even though my KM maco sync file is in my Dropbox folder, and I can easily download a prior version, it is extremely hard to find and extract a specific macro from the sync file.
So, if I am editing, and have not previously on the same day quit, and I make a blunder (like I did the other day), how do I restore the Macro to the version just before I make the blunder? Note that I have also moved to editing other macros, so the "Undo" feature is not available.
It's just XML. The files are slightly different from export files, but not much. I'm probably nto going to write a tool to extract a macro from a kmsync (or Keyboard Maestro Macros.plist) file (both are the same format) into an Exported Macros file, but it would not be overly difficult. Mostly it would be just a matter of deleting all the other macros and macro groups and slightly massaging the format.
It would be great if KM could work like Script Debugger, and other macOS apps that use the system versioning feature. Every time I do a SAVE in SD, it creates a new version, and I can easily restore to any of those versions, or copy a version, using a Time Machine like UI.
I hope you will reconsider. It may not be "overly difficult" for you, since you already have a bunch of code that gets and saves the Macro XML. But at least for me, it is a huge task since I don't have any XML tools, and very little experience with it.
Try changing the Soft Wrap Text setting in BBEdit's "Editor Defaults" to "Page guide", and I think you'll find that this file, as well as others which behave similarly, will take much less time to open.
Unraid is a great tool, making very complex system administration functions seem like playtime. This is wonderful, and every release keeps adding great new features. One thing that I think is sorely missing is an official backup & restore tools and guide. I know there are many forum posts and guides and plugins, and even a flash backup tool built in. None of this makes it easy or clear on how to properly backup ALL the configuration and data in a simple and safe way. Obviously, the shares are critical, and backup of this data should be handled by standard backup tools. What I am talking about is a way to export/import/migrate:
I think it would be useful and provide peace of mind if there was an official tool (or at least an official updated guide on how) to backup and reproduce an unraid system upon failure or desire to migrate hardware. Unraid is a digital hoarders paradise. But how to we make a copy of paradise!
This proves my point. Why can't we have a simple built in solution that covers "everything" without exception? How do we backup and restore VM settings and why does this need to be a separate process?
I do not see any reason why at least the .xml files for VM definitions should not also be included in that zip file as they would be very small. Not sure if there is anything else VM configuration related that should be included? Obviously the vdisk files and iso images would not be part of such a backup.
If its too complex to build into the roadmap for whatever reason, can you fully document the backup and restore process for all Unraid functions and data in an official capacity so we can have peace of mind for disaster recovery?
Hi there
Totally understand your request and why you would want a fully documented backup solution. There are plenty of different tools out there to utilize for backups. There have been a number of different guides written from different individuals on how to do this. We even wrote a blog post recently detailing one ( -server-to-server-backups-with-rsync-and-wireguard).