Restore a backup, let me get this straight...

Looking at the restore screen, it looks like you only need as much space as the snapshot is currently using. So you could conceivably resize your image down (if you have the space available) enough to restore.

For example, I have allocated all 16GB, but my snapshot is only 3030MB of data right now so if I'm reading the screen correctly, I could resize my larger disk image to make enough room and restore my snapshot without having to delete everything.

EDIT: though I don't know how it names the restored images.

Well i actually only use about 3-4GB of those 16 Gb so maybe it would be smarter to resize My system disk to about, say 8GB.

I thought the backups were "snapshots" i could revert to anytime but they are backups that i mount and copy files back from (?)

When you restore a backup, you get a set of configuration profiles and disk images just as were present when the backup/snapshot was taken, but their names are all of the form "Restore ### - XXX" (### being the restore job number, and XXX the original config/image name). So they won't conflict with any current configurations images, and you can restore to a running Linode (space permitting).

Once restored, they act like any other configurations/images in your profile, so you can rename them, boot into them, re-configure a different profile to mount them so you can copy from them, etc…

You do need enough free space to hold the restored images, but yes, just enough for the actual data (rounded up slightly) shown on the restoration screen. I believe you can only select a Linode for the restoration target if it has enough space. Also, because of this, you'll likely want to eventually grow the restored images a bit if you'll be using them live since they're unlikely to have much free space.

So yes you could resize your current images down (now or later) to make room, or another option is just temporarily add a new Linode in the same DC, and restore to that. Whether you then clone images between the Linodes, boot the temporary Linode into the restored configuration to access over the network, etc.. is up to you. If you choose the boot the Linode, you might do an initial boot into a rescue configuration so you can disable network interfaces/services that might otherwise conflict with your primary Linode and/or perform actions you'd rather not happen on your restored image.

Once you're done with it, delete that extra Linode, and any remaining charge from it will be added back to your account to offset a later charge for your current Linode. Or, if it's easier to adapt the backup image with a few more recent changes, you can move what you need across from your original Linode, and then delete that one, with the new Linode becoming your primary.

-- David

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I have a let me get this straight question about backups as well. I have the backup service. It backs up daily. My system become unresponsive (for some unknown reason) every few days and I have to reboot the thing. This causes corruption of mysql dbs or something funky with wordpress and means I have to go tweak my wordpress pages to fix whatever happened this time when the system hung and was forcibly rebooted.

MY QUESTION.

How the bleeping bleep do you use the backup system?

When I clicked the restore to… under the last daily backup that occurred when the system was in a relatively good state, I get what is alike a matrix of disk images and configurations.

For example, on my linode I had 2 profile configs.

PRIMARY and RESTORE 3992 - PRIMARY

and 4 disk images

2 - UBUNTU 10 images and 2 - SWAP images

Then the system hung. I clicked to restore a daily backup and now I have FOUR configs and EIGHT disk images.

I'm sorry, but I have a CS and Engineering degree and worked on Sparkstations and Solarus back in the 90's so I'm not a complete moron, but this system makes me feel like one.

I read the backup literature and it makes zero clarification as to what to do to restore.

Basically, I want to know:

1) When I have a linode up and running should I never have any additional config profiles/disk images available? This seems to make restores of backups drop a bunch of crap I don't need on my linode.

2) How do I restore just ONE (the active one) config and profile from a backup? Do I restore and then delete? Why does the backup system not do something like time date stamp, how am i supposed to know what 3454 means?

Maybe I missed the useful info on backup. Is there a step by step how to for backup/restore?

So frustrated I can't put it into words.

Ugh

If anyone can help I would be very appreciative.

Joe

@joecline:

When I clicked the restore to… under the last daily backup that occurred when the system was in a relatively good state, I get what is alike a matrix of disk images and configurations.
Yes, the backup system is a complete image of your Linode (profiles and disk images) at an instant in time. It is important to note however, that while the backup image is taken by using a snapshot of your running Linode, that does not necessarily guarantee internal consistency of things like databases, if they were in use at the point of backup.

One thing you can do is arrange to have your node dump your database into a stable backup file in advance of your backup window, just in case the filesystem snapshot isn't reliable.

> Then the system hung. I clicked to restore a daily backup and now I have FOUR configs and EIGHT disk images.
As mentioned in an earlier response, doing a restoration will create new profiles and disk images (with the "Restore …" prefix) representing your profiles and images at the point that the backup was made. So it sounds like you did a restoration once, at which point, for lack of a better phrase you had "two of everything". Of course, once those restored profiles and images were part of your Linode, they now got included in future backups (no differently than if you had just defined a new disk image yourself), so your next restoration resulted in double that.

> I'm sorry, but I have a CS and Engineering degree and worked on Sparkstations and Solarus back in the 90's so I'm not a complete moron, but this system makes me feel like one.
Perhaps you're just overthinking it? At each backup, all of your profiles and disk images currently attached to your Linode are saved. At each restore, everything in the backup is restored by creating new profiles and images. No magic, no special behavior.

> Basically, I want to know:

1) When I have a linode up and running should I never have any additional config profiles/disk images available? This seems to make restores of backups drop a bunch of crap I don't need on my linode.
That's entirely up to you. I have some Linodes which have nothing but a single profile and related disk images defined, strictly what is used in regular operation. I have other Linodes that have a whole bunch of alternative disk images and/or profiles that I used for testing or other purposes.

While you can only be booted into a single profile (and its attached disk images) you can certainly have other profiles/images defined for any given Linode.

In all cases, the Linode backup system is a "full dump" sort of backup, really for disaster recovery, though as what started this thread, if you work at it a little you can use it to recovery files more selectively. Anything defined for your Linode is included in backups and thus restorations. So yes, all profiles/images will be in the backup and still in the restore, but you can always delete them after restoration.

> 2) How do I restore just ONE (the active one) config and profile from a backup? Do I restore and then delete? Why does the backup system not do something like time date stamp, how am i supposed to know what 3454 means?
A restore always restores everything in a backup. So you have to let it restore everything, but then you can pick what you want. The 3454 is the restoration job number (which you can also see in your job queue), just for uniqueness to ensure no existing profiles and/or images are overwritten. It's just more concise than a date stamp. There's certainly no reason you have to leave your profiles/images named that way after the restore.

So, yes, restoring is all or nothing, but of course, delete anything you no longer need after using it from the restoration. Or leave it if you want - your choice.

In your specific scenario, I'd probably do the restoration, then stop your Linode, rename the existing operational profile/images to some backup name (just in case you end up liking it better than the restoration or want to borrow more recent files from it), then rename the restored profiles/images to what you want to use and then boot the restored profile. I might even decide to attach my older disk images as extra devices in the restored profile first, so I could get access to the old filesystem when checking out the restoration. If there were additional profiles/images that I didn't really need from the restoration, I'd just delete them.

BTW, independent of the above I'll also say that restoring from backup because your Linode "hung" is a rather extreme solution.

Hope this helps a little.

– David