How to backup OS to a network location

User Support
1

Hello,

I am looking for a good manual on the backup process of Qubes . I am new to qubes and i am trying to backup the system to a network location.

I am not sure how to do it and not sure if it is possible. After reading that dom0 have no network connectivity by design , can i use share from VM to use as backup ? should i backup everything locally and then copy it to a share ?

I would also like to get a dipper explanation on the backup process ? Should i backup each VM separately ?

Thanks,

2

Please check the process.

of note

Likewise, it is possible to enter any command as a backup target by specifying the command as the destination in the VM. This can be used to send your backup directly to, e.g., a remote server using SSH.

3

I tend to use an AppVM that is configured to mount the backup filesystem automatically when it starts up. Then you can specify the backup location through qvm-backup or the Qube Manager.

This can be achieved for the network storage system of your choice as well as physical media.
Basically anything that can somehow be mounted into the Linux filesystem can be implemented this way.

A simple overview of what you could do:

  1. Learn how to mount the remote filesystem of your choice (FTP, WebDAV, Samba, GlusterFS, CephFS, S3, Tahoe-LAFS, IPFS, …) into your local directory through the command line.
  2. Learn how to do this without user interaction and put the command(s) into /rw/config/rc.local.
  3. Start your AppVM – i tend to call it sys-backup – before you start the backup.
  4. Do not forget to configure proper encryption for your backup (should be obvious, but is listed here to prevent the biggest possible mistake happening by flippancy).
  5. Further automate this process. Doing things like (qvm-start sys-backup && qvm-backup [...] && qvm-shutdown sys-backup) or even configure a cronjob if that suits your particular use case.
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