I would like to have feedback from users about the qubes backup mechanism did you have any bug ? data lost? by using qubes backup or not ?
My goal is to restore all my vm with my config software etc… in case something go wrong in a future update are you using bash script or qubes salt for such things instead of qubes backup ? I wonder if i should instead try to build my own qubes iso to do that
There are reports of people having issues with the Qubes backup. I use
it rarely, but have not had those problems.
I use salt to configure systems, and data backups from specific qubes -
these are run regularly (daily or hourly), and encrypted backups taken
and stored offsite.
Why you didn’t just use a bash script ? To restore your config ? Salt is more reliable ?
Since 2018/2019(?), I have been using Qubes-Backup (with system config backups in the dom0 user home). It has worked perfectly over several hardware switches and major updates installed from scratch. However, I don’t tinker much with my systems. I try to keep them as “stock” as possible. Software installation is three lines from old logs.
I’m confused what a user should rely on ? The Qubes backup , salt or using a bash script ? and also thanks for your feedback @OvalZero
Qubes backup works great. My friends and I haven’t had any problems with it in version 4.3. All qubes backup and restore quickly. It’s perfect for regular users.
What about dom0? did you include dom0 in the backup ?
Salt is used for restoring your setup, bash scripts for restoring the data inside your qubes and qubes backup can be used for both.
Now it’s more clear thanks
No. You can use Salt for configuring setup and restoring data to those
qubes. You can use Bash for configuring setup and restoring data to
those qubes. You can use Qubes backup for configuring setup and
restoring data. You can mix and match all these tools.
Using bash starts out relatively simply, but starts to become far more
complicated quite quickly. Salt has many built methods that you can
leverage to produce simple state files, which you can combine at will to
replicate part or all of your system, with data restored.
Qubes backup will produce an image of your qube(s) at the time of the
backup, which will allow you to restore the qube as it was at that time.
Wyng will allow you to add incremental backups of the storage
device, so you can restore the qube as it was at that later date.
Qubes backup and Wyng are not backups that allow you to work with the
data. They work at the volume level.
As I regularly say, I dont see that Wyng provides features that most
users expect from a backup/restore tool.
Want to find a file that you deleted some time in the last month or
year? Restore EVERY backup that you took, and look through the volumes
til you find it.
Want to find a specific version of that file you were working on? Again,
restore EVERY Wyng backup and check until you find it.
Note that if you have also added a large quantity of other data in the
meantime you have to restore ALL that data until you find the one
file you are looking for.
No doubt the Qubes Backup, and Wyng serve a specific use case. It’s just
that in my experience it isnt what most users want from their backups.
dd’ing a disk is undoubtedly a good way of preserving data. But it
doesnt serve most people’s expectations of a backup/restore process.
Qubes Backup and Wyng - the same.
You should be aware of these limitations and be happy to work with them:
otherwise, put another backup regime in place that WILL serve your
needs.
I use the backup system to export and reimport all my qubes when switching machine or upgrading Qubes OS with a reinstall, I never had a single issue.
I use wyng for daily backups and important files are synced from qubes on a remote server using peergos which uses end to end encryption, this goes through a filtering https proxy when I don’t want the qube to have internet.
I don’t trust it as a backup to rely on but it is useful for moving large amounts of qubes to a new install. If something goes wrong, i still have the old install. For a single qube, I’d rather just copy the data and recreate the qube.
I had an issue using a backup created on a btrfs install, restoring on a standard lvm/ext4 install (or perhaps it was the reverse). The whole process to remedy it using cli and flags has never left my memory. It didn’t help that i couldn’t find decent documentation for the cli command that i had to use to get around the error. At such times i muse how much easier it would have been to just copy all the data in the qubes to a USB
This is my one and only experience with Qubes backup / restore.
Did a backup of my Qubes on my 4.2.2 system. Did a bare metal install of 4.3 and restored the Qubes successfully.
I think some users would be interested for a guide
After reading your answer i will only rely on a bash script bash script can’t fail on you
It can. But in other ways than (traditionally) expected.
There is no guide to write, it’s just a few software I decided to use, it’s not qubes os related.