I spent 60 minutes running qubes-backup on my system, and when it finished the file was not there.
I tried again using a small AppVM, and it finished successfully. I have made multiple <30GB backups before, but this one said over 100GB.
What should I do now? How do I know it won’t disappear if I run it again?
So with a unique small AppVM, everything is fine but not with a >100G backup? The backup finished without errors with the >100G backup ?You have enough space on your destination?
I had a similar problem (large backup file, but with error at the end) and I choose to break my backup in several chunks to start. You can try to backup the third of your VM, etc. Or backup most of the VM except the big one depending on your setup. (This is only a quick workaround to get backup files).
Are you saving it in dom0 or in another qube? (Or external device?). It could be that you’re saving it in dom0 (the default option) and it has only 20GB of space. What this doesn’t explain is the fact that it finished successfully. So maybe this is not it.
Yes, it has worked with 25-30GB backups before too.
Correct. It finished with zero errors and reached 100%. I closed the window but the file was nowhere to be found.
I’m saving it to an external device in an AppVM. I have made backups plenty of times before, so I’m familiar with the process.
Are there any logs I can view?
I’m thinking about this issue too.
I made a backup using the terminal that wound up being 30GB in size, qvm-backup didn’t produce any useful output however.
I haven’t tried a large one like the OP is about. I’m not sure if it’s reproducible, or how to start figuring out what could have caused it.
The only difference between my other backups and the one that magically disappeared is the large size difference.
I did a ~400G backup yesterday and it worked fine. So I don’t think it’s because of the size or the Qubes backup utility itself. You should do a new backup like you tried before and take note of the backup name in the directory you selected while the backup is running. When the backup is done, check the directory and see if it’s still there.
What also might be interesting is which version of QubesOS you’re using…e.g. Q4.2rc5 or Q4.1.2.
FWIW I made a large backup (>200GB) on Q4.1.2 just today and it worked fine.
Latest stable release.
So Qubes 4.1.2 then.
Well, don’t know what to tell ya, since personally I’ve never had issues with the regular backup functionality…the only problem I’ve encountered was with backup restore using paranoid mode.
You can try to repeat the process and this time keep an eye on journalctl (in dom0) perhaps?
If possible, please try the backup again, but this time choose (or create) a regular app qube for the backup target, and make the destination just /home/user/. (In other words, don’t attach an external device to the app qube or anything like that, but remember to increase the app qube’s private storage as needed.)
The purpose of this is to separate the act of creating the backup from the act of copying of the data to the external device. If the backup works this time, then you’ll know that the problem is with the copying of the data to the external device, not with the backup itself (or vice versa if the problem persists).