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In general using the installer is the fastest method to install raspiBackup. The installer also can be used to install raspiBackup with it's default configuration via the commandline. If you want to install raspiBackup manually execute the following steps:

 

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Following pages describe different usage scenarios and configurations. They should help to find the right usage configuration out of the various configuration options of raspiBackup. Later on these usage scenarios can be customized further. An overview of all option is available here. The different ways to restore a backup are described here.

All configurations which don't use a dd backup save an external rootfilesystem together with the SD boot partition. If the USB bootmode is used and no SD card is used any more the whole rootpartition is also saved.

 

Usage scenarios described:

1a. A Windows user wants to backup his Raspberry and restore it with windisk32imager on Windows.

1b. A Windows user has a 32GB SD card but uses only 12GB and 12GB should be saved only.

1c. A Windows user wants to use pishrink to create a minimal backup image.

2. Raspberry should be saved very fast. Backuppartition is a nfs mounted EXT4 partition which is provided by a Synology.

3. Raspberry should be saved on a Samba mounted filesystem, which is provided by a Windows box.

4. A snapshot should be saved because there are some major changes planned and it should be possible to revert quickly.

5. A USB boot system backup should include an additional partition.

6. Raspberry should be saved on a local USB stick or a local USB disk.

 

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Any recognition of raspiBackup development- and maintenance effort and any support is greatly appreciated. There exist following donation alternatives:

1) Become a github sponsor for raspiBackup

2) Paypal: The eMail framp att linux-tips-and-tricks dott de  is known by PayPal and everybody who owns a Paypal account can donate to this eMail.

3) Neither one: Just contact me with at the eMail above and we will find a solution. For example I already received multiple times donations in a good old postal letter :-)

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raspiBackup is developed primarily on a Linux desktop. But finally raspiBackup is tested on a real Raspberry. There exist various raspibian images on disk which are restrored with raspiBackup on a SD card and/or USB stick and then the new or changed functionality of raspiBackup ist tested manually.

At some point in time a new version of raspiBackup has to be published. Initially I tested a lot of different variants by hand which takes a long time and reduces the number of my SD cards.  Therefore I set up a Raspberry simulation environment on Linux. Now every new raspiBackup version is regression tested in the simulation environment. That's much faster and I don't have to buy new SD cards all the time any more.

On the following picture you can see a 3B Raspberry I use for tests together with various SD cards of different size and USB sticks.

 

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There exist three types of messages:

1) Informational  - Messagenumber ends with I

2) Warning - Messagenumber ends with W

3) Error - Messagenumber ends with E

Most errormessages of raspiBackup give detailed information about the root cause. Sometimes it's required to get additional information in order to get rid of them. raspiBackup has about 200 errormessages and it's so boring to explain all of them here. If you miss a message first use your search engine and serach for the message number. if you still don't find an answer add the message text in a comment at the end of the page and the message with more detailed explanations will be addded on this page. That way the most common raspiBackup messages will show up on this page.

Messages in the number range from 0-999 are written by raspiBackup. Messages from 1000-1999 are written by sample plugins. All other number ranges are custom plugin messages.

In addition raspiBackup terminates with an error code which oints to the root cause.  A list of error codes is available at the end of this page.

If the information for a message does'nt help just use your seach engine to search for the message number (RBK....).

 

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Every new version of raspiBackup is regression tested before it's published. There are a lot of options and hard- and softwareenvironments possible which cannot be regression tested - unfortunately. Following page describes how the regressiontest is executed and which tests are executed.

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raspiBackup has some helper scrips which are available on github for download.

1) raspiBackupWrapper.sh : Helps to do additional stuff before and after invocation of raspiBackup. The backuppartition is mounted already before starting raspiBackup and unmounted if it wasn't mounted when starting. Some basic bash scripting knowlege is required to customize the script for individual needs.

2) raspiBackupNfsWrapper.sh: Check if a NFS server is online and start raspiBackup. Don't start raspiBackup if the server is offline. This script can be used out of the box. Some constants regarding the nfs server have to be customized.

3) raspiBackupRestore2Image.sh: This script allows to convert a tar or rsync backup which was created in normal backup mode into a dd image. pishrink is used to make sure the image is as small as possible. kmbach suggested to create this script. No customization of the script required.

4) raspiImageMail.sh: THis script was created by raspiBackup user kmbach. He wanted to get an eMail at the end of raspiBackupRestore2Image.sh. eMail configuration is extracted from raspiBackup configuration file.

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raspiBackup creates a backup which contains all required information to restore a backup manually. User Micha wanted to restore a backup manually and kindly documented the steps in detail in a comment in German. I transleted his comments into English:

 

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Purpose of this page is to explain step by step how to use raspiBackup to create a backup imediately and how configure raspiBackup in 5 minutes to create a backup of your Raspberry on a regular base. This page describes for different platforms (Linux, Mac or Windows) how to restore the backup. After testing the backup and restore the next step should be to check which services have to be stopped before the backup starts. Finally cron (starting with Installer 0.4.8 systemd timer) should be configured to start raspiBackup on a regular base. Later on when you have some spare time read this page carefully to check which additional features of raspiBackup are useful for you and update the raspiBackup configuration accordingly. In any case it's strongly recommended to read the FAQ. The raspiBackup installer can be used to uninstall raspiBackup completely if for some reasons raspiBackup does not meet your requirements.

Note:  In 5 minutes raspiBackup will be installed and configured if you have basic Linux knowledge. Otherwise you will need more time even the installer helps to create a basic raspiBackup configuration - unfortunately.

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Following enviroment variations exist for raspiBackup in next release 0.6.2 which supports Raspi3. For all new features available in this beta see this page. Resource constraints limited the number of variations tested. Please add a comment when you successfully tested a variation which is not marked as tested. If you don't know for sure whether your scenario was already covered in the table don't hesitate to ask. We'll figure this out.

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Frequent asked questions about raspiBackup. Every new user of raspiBackup should read all questions and answers.

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So many people from the community helped to improve raspiBackup with their comments, improvement requests and beta- and fix test support and execution. It's time to mention them now.  I unfortunately don't remember everybody - sorry about this.

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It's possible to add custom code which is executed before and after the backup process via two script extensions. They are useful if modification of the backup script is required to extent the script capabilities and will be lost and thus have to be merged again and again every time when raspiBackup will be updated.

Three sample plugins are available and can be used as templates for new plugins. The first three report the CPU temperature, memory utilization and backup partition usage pre and post a backup run. The last one is called at the end of the backup and can be used to execute different actions depending on the success or failure of raspiBackup.

If you create your own plugin please share it with the community and announce it's availability in a comment. If there is any function missing for the plugin please write a comment and I'll check whether it's possible to provide the missing function.

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