Container databases seem as simple as shutting down a container, running a backup and then starting the container again. Although my my experience is only from hosting a Lemmy/PieFed instance. I did make many backups and restores with no issues to the database. It all worked as I intended it to work.

I would imagine a similar process for non container databases. Stop, backup, restart. Although someone with more experience would be better to answer that.

I personally use rsync since I do most my work by command line these days. It’s taken nearly half a year really understand it but it offers the flexibility I desire.

I have a small network with only a handful of devices. I keep all my incremental backups on encrypted partitions and encrypted detachable SSD’s which I manually decrypt. Rsync is set up to use SSH so there’s some form of encrypted transfers but that’s not actually a priority for me, just an added benefit.

I also use rsync to sync files and directories while maintaining additional system attributes across multiple systems. That is to say, what’s root or user accessible stays root or user accessible after the transfer is complete.

If I desired more protection, I’d probably look into Borg backup. Currently I just use encryption as an annoyance deterrence method. I also stick to the base Rsync command because every other option I tried brought with it complexities which have all failed me. I at least have a high level confidence in my backup/restore process now.

How do you think Ansible can help me? I’ve read about it a few times but it’s hard for me to understand it’s actual usage without spending time playing with it.

I can possibly look into it a bit more in the future. I’ve got a few things I’m working on like learning how to do TLS with Caddy so I can reduce my dependency with Cloudflare.

I haven’t tried arch at all. I used Linux Mint for a year, LMDE for a year and only really started working with command line since last December. I think I chose to try Alpine because I wanted my web facing devices to have the least amount of software installed. Security-wise it made sense to me to have less surface area to exploit.

It took a bit extra effort for me to learn how to use OpenRC as the init system. As well as learning Linux from a bare bones linux perspective.

I actually found using Busy-box Ash interesting to work with and that’s the only shell I currently use. I even wrote a whole script around Rsync in a POSIX friendly way because I liked the idea portable scripting.

If you’re interested, I can send you a link that contains the setup notes for my server. It’s about 85% of my setup process, the rest being some files that are mostly customization that I rsync into place towards the end of the setup process. That can give you an idea of what Alpine on ARM is like.

I can appreciate that about Debian. Common tools and stability can be both convinient and reliable. Learning linux is already overwhelming with choices.

Even though I use Alpine for all my Pi boards and laptop, I keep a live usb partition of Linux Mint Debian Edition as my emergency backup. It just works.

My frustration with Raspberry Pi OS is that the packages available were constantly out of date. Some were 2 to 3 years out of date.

I eventually started using Alpine linux on my Pi boards and have been happy since then. Now I can use the latest Docker and Podman packages without manually adding new repositories.

If I didn’t prefer Alpine’s minimal approach, I would have probably gone with Debian because of it’s history in stability.

I can’t remember a time where I didn’t have issues with syncing apps. They always just seem to stop working and it’s always frustrated me. It feels like to me there’s too much complexity under the hood and it exhausts me when something goes wrong.

As a result I’ve been using rsync commands as a way to sync files and folders. After the initial setup, I haven’t experienced any issues and it’s been consistent and reliable. I even created my own tool which simplifies each rsync command into a file for easier syncing/restoring of my data. I use it to sync between my laptop, android phone using Termux terminal and my two Raspberry Pi’s.

Rsync does have limitations like not being able to do two-way syncing but for my usage I am okay with that. I’m generally backing up data in most cases. Rsync does offer more flexibility since it’s a command line tool so I’m able to create backups of my entire system or sync specific files and folders. I can also set up cron jobs to have syncs performed periodically but I mainly do all my syncing manually because I like to see where all my data is moving.

As long as all my devices have static IP addresses within the network and I don’t mess around with any directory names/locations, everything just works and I’ve had a lot less headaches managing my data and backups. I also have a lot more confidence in my backup/restore process when compared to when I used other syncing programs/apps in the past.

Last month I spent most of my time writing a long and complex rsync script and was looking for something like this. I skimmed threw a few articles already and I’ve already found a bunch of things that I thought about adding but had difficulties finding before while I was writing the script.

The script I wrote is fully functional but I had already planned to revisit and rewrite parts of it because I enjoy knowing my script is solid, simple and reliable. But right now I have a couple other goals I want to finish before returning to my script.

This resource has lots to add on top of what I already learned.

I have a few small services I’ve been hosting on a Raspberry Pi 5 but ever since I saw a list of no JavaScript/CSS/HTML sites, I’ve been interested in hosting some simple pages just for myself. I’ll probably look into something that can create simple pages with markdown because it’s something simple that I’m already comfortable with.

I created my own script/tool using rsync to handle backups and transferring data.

My needs are quite smaller with just a computer and two Raspberry Pi’s but I found rsync to be really useful overall.

My backup strategy is to make a complete backup on the local device (Computer / RPi4 / RPi5) then copy all those backups to a Storage partition on my computer, then make a whole backup from the partition to an externally attached SSD.

The RPi’s both use docker/podman containers so I make sure any persistent data is in mounted directories. I usually stop all containers before performing a backup, especially things with databases.

Everything in the docker containers is either hit or miss when it comes to restoring. The simple docker images restore as it they were untouched and will launch like nothing happened. I have a PieFed instance that must be rebuilt after restoring a backup. Since PieFed’s persistent data is in mount points, everything works perfectly after a fresh build.

I can send a link to my rsync tool if that’s any interest to anyone. I’ve found it super useful for backups and minimizes so much headache for myself when it comes to transferring files between different network connected devices.

I have a computer and 3 devices I wanted to transfer files between but every available solution was either too awkward which made things annoying, or too bulky with more than what I needed.

I ended up writing a long script (around 1000 lines but I’m generous with spacing so I can read my own code easily) using rsync to deal with transferring files and whole directories with a single command. I can even chain together multiple rsync commands back to back so that I can quickly transfer multiple files or directories in one command. Instead of trying to refer to a wall of text full of rsync commands, I can make something like this:

alias rtPHONEmedia="doas rtransfer /home/dell-pc/.sync/phone/.sync-phone_02_playlists /home/dell-pc/.sync/phone/.sync-phone_03_arbeit /home/dell-pc/.sync/phone/.sync-phone_04_albums /home/dell-pc/.sync/phone/.sync-phone_05_soulseek /home/dell-pc/.sync/phone/.sync-phone_06_youtube"

This will copy everything from a specific folders on my phone, and store them neatly organized into my storage partition on my computer SSD. This also includes all the necessary information including SSH username, address and ID keys.

I can then run alias rtARCHIVEfull="doas rtransfer /home/dell-pc/.sync/computer/.sync-computer_01_archive-full" to quickly copy that storage partition on my computer to my external backup SSD.

I use it so often. It’s especially nice because I can work on a file on my computer and quickly update the file to the remote address location, putting it directly where I need it to be immediately.

I started self-hosting as a hobby and while I enjoy it, I was getting frustrated with file transfers between my computer, phone and two raspberry pi’s. Since I was already using rsync, I created a tool for myself to help sort rsync commands into sortable files.

I can now lump together those files into a single command and run several rsync commands in one go.

It’s definitely saved me some sanity by not having to refer to a wall of text full of rsync aliases.

I posted it on codeberg.

It is random code on the internet and it involves file transfers so if anyone uses it, those are the risks unless you care to read the code itself.

I think I’ve worked in automation long enough to feel super uncomfortable with the idea of a tattoo print machine being anywhere near my body.

Even if I had a kill switch in hand, it still makes me uncomfortable. In general machines don’t care about fleshy bits at all. If something happens, for example a sensor ages and becomes defective, the printer has the potential to cause serious harm.

I probably also hold a bit of bias, I prefer the imperfections of human, hand made art over digitized perfection from machines.

I’m the same here. I don’t know enough or care to know enough about systemd. I simply enjoy the minimalism of Alpine.

The downside is that I have to learn a bit more to make it work how I want but as a hobby I enjoy it.

When I first started with linux, Mint with systemd just worked for my laptop. For the people who are less computer literate, that should be good enough. They don’t want to worry about how to make their computer work, they just wanna do basic computer things without hassle.

It’s more in my fingers, but I also have a habit pushing myself too far every time I do something. It’s taken me over a year to stop pushing myself too hard when I ride a bike.

Everything in moderation and I’m pretty bad at moderation.

Working in the trades for a short 6 years has fucked my hand grip strength. In the past couple years since leaving the trades, I’ve noticed how painful it is to work with tools for a long period of time.

I wanted to take up widdling as a creative hobby but after 30 minutes, my hands are aching and stiff for a couple days afterwards.

A lot of the stuff I worked on was metal related and that’s not kind to anyones body. I knew a sheet metal worker who would have retired with really bad carpal tunnel and that should have been a huge red flag early on in my working life. I’m glad I got out before any major long lasting pain set in.

I have a small partition that has a copy of Linux Mint live USB. I also have another partition that holds my backups. When I inevitably break my system, I launch Mint and use an rsync command I keep in a text file to revert back to the backup I made.

Using Mint’s live usb image has multiple benefits. It has Gparted for partition management. It has basic apps like LibreOffice and Mozilla in case I need them. It has proper printer support too. And since it’s a live usb image, every time I launch it, the environment will always be the same. No changes are permanent and will disappear after a reset.

My days of using Mint may be over, but it’s too reliable to ever truly leave my system.

I kept saying “cd up” in my mind so I just made an alias for cdu, became a reflex within the next day

I was installing Alpine Linux on a Raspberry Pi 5 and was using the kitchen TV as a temporary monitor. My parents thought I was sending encrypted messages. I was just updating the repository list to find the quickest mirror.

It’s funny to me how some people see text scrolling by on a screen and immediately think witchcraft.

This reminds me of when I had apprenticeship classes that got interrupted by the covid lockdowns. I was forced to do theory classes online over zoom. Every morning my wifi connection would drop for a few minutes at a time during my classes.

Turns out it was the microwave. Every time someone used the microwave, it would disrupt the wifi/router for the whole house.

Ended up making a sign to let people know I was in class. My classes were only for 8 weeks total. I had about 4 or 5 weeks remaining by the time I figured it out so it wasn’t too long of an inconvenience.