Hi,
I have Opensuse installed on a 500Gb SSD. I want to backup my complete installation to a cloud solution, e.g. Google Drive.
Why? In case my SSD dies, computer stolen, etc, I don’t want to have to reinstall programs and settings.
I already backup my files the dumb way to Google Drive by manual upload.
Suppose I write a disk image (using clonzilla for example) of my SSD to my external drive. Then I upload this image to Google Drive.
1)Can I use this image with a brand new computer of different hardware to recover my original installation?
2)Can I use this image with a brand new computer of exactly the same hardware to recover my original installation?
3)Is there any way to backup a total installation of Opensuse that allows for possibility that the original physical computer is no longer available/destroyed/hit by a meteorite?
1 - yes with caveat since the image thinks one set of hardware is present new hardware will need to be discovered via mkinitrd. Also booting could be a problem depending on MBR or EFI boot methods
2 - Yes less problem then 1 but possible same problem with boot settings since EFI depends on settings in UEFI flash memory
3 - covered in 1 and 2
In any case it will not be push a button and it works some adjustments will have to be made. With UEFI EFI booting you will need to at least reinstall grub. MBR boot should be pretty easy if you image whole disk
Title of this thread is highly misleading as this question has nothing to do with cloud. “How to prepare for disaster recovery of openSUSE installation” would be more appropriate. Where recovery image is stored is irrelevant for the questions you ask.
Well, commercial backup software boasts bare metal recovery (under various marketing names) and all modern backup software also supports cloud as backend storage. Just what exact configurations are supported is another question. So push button solution is certainly possible - just someone needs to (have enough incentive) to implement it. Whether comparable open source alternatives exist I do not know (long long ago I played with mondo/mindi, but even then it failed miserably in my case).
Was not offensive just a bit misleading on what you really want
Since different machine most likely have different implementations of UEFI I don’t see how you can have a simple procedure to restore for generic backup software if using EFI boot. MBR boot should be little or no problem if dealing with full disk backups.
IMO just keep a list of important programs you really need, back up home and perhaps /etc (for reference) reinstall the OS and restore home in case of disaster and take 30 minuets to reinstall software from list.
Keep a local backup, or keep two and keep on off-site. I have a local NAS and a USB-3.0 disk caddy, with the UAS driver local incremental backups take no time.
Do you have any data caps in place? Test your upload/download speed to see how long it will take.
AutoYaST your system is another option?
If you change a system config file, just back that up.
If I rebuild a system here (I use a /data directory rather than home) from start to finish is less than a hour and script out the user data rebuild and system files I want to configure. I don’t use big drives on my systems so it forces me (which for me is good) to use external media rather than having to worry about major backup routines.
Keep your really important stuff on say a USB device (and encrypt the FS?) and use that for a data backup and store off-site…
I decided to go with making an image of the drive using dd. Whether or not I’ll be able to use this image file in the future is a game for another day
I backup up my work/data with google drive, usb and 2nd hard drive.
As gogalthorp said the easiest solution is just to back up the data and have a list of software somewhere, then do a new install.
There’s probably a way to automate reinstalling this list (AutoYast maybe), but I think it would take me longer to figure that out then to reinstall my system many times over lol.
I would humbly (VERY humbly ) suggest that Opensuse could do with an idiot proof backup solution along the lines of a backup file that lists the installed software, libraries etc.
Then if your hard drive dies, you can put a new one in and do a new install. Yast then ‘recovers’ your software, libaries etc, by reinstalling them from the list in the backup file.
(Obviously the user has to backup their /home separately.)
So using the image file in the future… you should be able to if you take regular snapshots via dd… like one every week, then at the end of the month keep that monthly one so you can rollback at any time…?
The issue will be when the 42.3 repos disappear and you haven’t upgraded to leap 15 and some goes funky…
I would backup your user data and then run autoyast to capture the details.
Then you need to test, pop a new drive in your system and see how it all works, just taking an image isn’t really enough… This will help you formulate your disaster recovery plan… (Mine is just re-install, run my scripts and be done ;))
Oh. one thing you image won’t capture is where the bootloader is installed, disk partitioning etc so you need to look at some lower management tools in this scenario is a complete drive replacement.
