3/15/2023 0 Comments Copy assistantThe moral of the story? Without proper backup strategies, we would have had a much harder time tracking down this problem. I happened to be doing a standard audit when I discovered the discrepancy. Fortunately, there was no emergency that precipitated the investigation. From this, we linked this to the date of an upgrade some weeks back. This story has a happy ending, which brings me to my point: Because the client was doing everything else right, we could go through the backups and identify the precise moment when something changed. This meant the client was not backing up the data it thought. The problem was that the file sizes shrunk significantly due to the software change. There were files after every backup run, they were larger than a certain amount, and the magic file checks reported the correct file type. The backups continued to hum along, and the automated checks passed. In my client's case, a software upgrade created a new requirement from the backup program. More articles about open source automation.eBook: A practical guide to home automation using open source tools.Download now: The automated enterprise eBook.I do it when I remember, which is usually once every few months or so. I admit I am guilty of not testing my backups frequently. Most people put this off or disregard it entirely. The one thing they neglected was testing the backups. Sounds great, doesn't it? They were doing everything right. The team was using the proper methodology for backups, kept multiple files going back a certain period of time, ensured there were more than two copies of each backup, and was especially careful that backups were not being stored locally on the machine being backed up. Remember when I mentioned that simply having a single copy of your files doesn't give you any indication that a problem has occurred? My client was doing all of the right things when it came to backups. You just need to worry about storing the files somewhere.īefore I get into how to deal with snapshots in Home Assistant, I want to share a brief story from a recent client. Home Assistant knows how to create snapshots and does it for you. For example, backup software for a computer (such as CloneZilla) makes an exact replica (in some cases) of the hard drive to ensure no files are missed. Normally, backup software is designed specifically to get all the files that are hidden or otherwise protected. In this context, a backup is very similar to a copy because you don't use any type of backup software, at least not in the traditional sense. First, Home Assistant uses the term "snapshot" to refer to what we traditionally think of backups. Backups and snapshots: In Home Assistant, it is a bit tricky to differentiate between a copy and a backup.If you do not have files going back over time, you won't have a good idea of whether the system creating the backups has a problem. When it comes to backup, the saying "one is none" is absolutely true. If you have just a single copy of a file, it's often the same as having nothing at all. ![]() In addition, the source may have a problem-meaning the copy will also have a problem. If it's taken incorrectly, the newly created file can be corrupt, leading to a false sense of security. However, a copy is merely a representation of a point in time. ![]() Many people may view this as backing up the source, and to some extent, that is true. ![]() It is when you highlight something on your computer and hit Ctrl+ C and paste it somewhere else with Ctrl+ V. Copies: A copy is just what it sounds.You'll have to decide just how important your Home Assistant data really is. I have seen many ways that backups can go sideways, so the following descriptions may be overkill for home use. I work with client data day in and day out. Bear in mind that this comes from the lens of an IT professional. Here is a brief overview of the difference between a copy and a backup. I'll start by clearing up some ambiguity: A copy of something is not the same as a backup. In this seventh article, I will talk about snapshots, backups, and backup strategies. Now that you have a basic home automation setup, it is a good time to take a baseline of your system. The first four articles in the series discussed what Home Assistant is, why you may want local control, some of the communication protocols for smart home components, and how to install Home Assistant in a virtual machine (VM) using libvirt. In the last two articles in this series on home automation with Home Assistant (HA), I walked through setting up a few integrations with a Zigbee Bridge and some custom ESP8266 devices that I use for automation.
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