Brewblox

# Configuration backups

It is often useful to create backups of your settings. You may wish to migrate Brewblox to a different host, or simply be prepared for possible SD card failures.

For these scenarios, it is possible to create and load backups of your Brewblox settings and databases.

# How to

Backups are both made and loaded using the brewblox-ctl commandline tool.

To create a backup, use the backup save command.

brewblox-ctl backup save

This will create a new zip archive in the backup/ directory inside your Brewblox directory. The file name includes the current date and time.

To load settings from a backup, use the backup load [ARCHIVE] command, and run brewblox-ctl update to migrate any outdated settings.

brewblox-ctl backup load /home/pi/brewblox/backup/brewblox_backup_20200303_1433.zip
brewblox-ctl update

# Content

The backup archive includes the following:

  • .env
  • docker-compose.yml
  • Datastore databases
    • Dashboards
    • Widgets
    • Block names
    • Builder layouts
  • Exported Spark blocks

NOT included in the backup archive:

  • History data
  • Docker images

# Transferring backup files

The easiest way to move files between your computer and the Pi is to use FileZilla (opens new window).

The host field should be sftp://IP_ADDRESS. Username / password are the same as when logging in over SSH.

FileZilla

# Limitations

Backups make a copy of your settings, not a snapshot of your entire system. Backups cannot be used to revert to an earlier Brewblox release.

After loading an old backup, it is advisable to run brewblox-ctl update to migrate your configuration to the latest version.

# Automatically creating backups

You can use cron (opens new window) to automatically run scripts daily/weekly/hourly.

For example, to create weekly backups:

crontab -u $USER -e

Choose Nano as editor, and append the following line to the file:

@weekly (cd $HOME/brewblox; $HOME/.local/bin/brewblox-ctl backup save)

Press ctrl+X to save and exit.

If you now run crontab -l, you should see the file, including the line you just added.

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