Image backup vs database

[Keimpe Bleeker]

Hi Weewx users,

Rather new to Raspberry, supernew to Weewx (to replace my Windows WeatherDisplay system, based on Davis Vantage Pro2 [https://oentsjerk.eu];). My Weewx [https:oentsjerk.eu/wwx/] will come to life after version Weewx 4.# is available and I am able to import my historical data from Wunderground. So there is some time to tune.

I'm running a script in a cronjob once a day, to backup the advised Weewx files to my NAS. It's working nice in backup as well for the (manual) restore. I also should like to backup an image of the SDcard once a week. Is it necessary to shut down Weewx before the image backup is running, to be safe the database will not will be affected by the backup process?

     

[p q]

I don't know if it's feasible to backup your SD card with the raspberry pi running. I think to backup the SD card you need to shut it down, remove it from the raspberrypi and do it on another machine.

I backup my SD card every once in a while when I make significant changes, but realistically if I fried it, I'd probably be re-installing. I keep a separate tar backup of the weewx configuration, skins, customizations, etc on Github so I should be able to recreate it after a minor disaster.

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Peter Quinn
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[vince]

On Friday, January 10, 2020 at 11:22:31 AM UTC-8, p q wrote:

I don't know if it's feasible to backup your SD card with the raspberry pi running. I think to backup the SD card you need to shut it down, remove it from the raspberrypi and do it on another machine.

Rather than backing up your SD card, automate the process of 'building' it and document it someplace you won't lose.

[Keimpe Bleeker]

Hi all, Thank you for your advice. I now only backup an image after a major change and create a log for the smaller changes. With a logbook and the daily backup of the files specified by Weewx, things have to go well.

Regards, Keimpe

Op vrijdag 10 januari 2020 19:23:31 UTC+1 schreef Keimpe Bleeker:

[WindnFog]

I have backed up my Pi a number of times with the SD Copier utility with both the Pi running and while it's running weewx.  I always test the backup SD after creating it and it's never failed.  Perhaps backing up an operational system "live" isn't the wisest thing to do, but it worked for me 5-6 times or more.

I do have daily cron jobs backing up any custom scripts, config files, etc. and the database to a NAS, but that's just in case I mess them up with an edit mistake, etc.  The SD Copier is, I'm pretty sure, a bit-per-bit dd backup of the SD card and probably only needs to be done after major upgrades.  My thought process is that if the operational SD  card gets corrupted, you can swap in SD Copier created backup, restore weewx.sdb from "yesterday" and be back in operation on less than 30 minutes.

- Paul VE1DX