Description
This toolset is intended to use for managing remote Linux devices (RaspberryPi in mind, but any remote Linux system will work) from host Linux systems, by basically simplifying 6 tasks, where you need to:
- ..make
ssh
for performing remote tasks (either directly or over a link up server). - ..use simple drag and drop style file transfers (by
sshfs
). - ..backup the target's entire root filesystem (by
rsync
). - ..create fast and efficient differential full backups (by hardlinks or by BTRFS snapshots).
- ..create a separate bootable system disk from any of your backups.
- ..clone a target with a new identity.
This simplification is achieved by:
- Placing separate scripts for each task described above and providing a simple
Makefile
. - Keeping the scripts, configuration files and backups in a folder called
your-project
.
Install
Requirements
- Linux OS
git
(for submodule fetching andmake update
)rsync
sshfs
Setup
Follow these steps for every project:
# on your host (eg. your laptop)
mkdir your-project
cd your-project
git clone --recursive https://github.com/aktos-io/dcs-tools
Configuration
Assuming you are in /path/to/your-project
folder already,
-
Create your configuration file and mandatory folders/flags:
./dcs-tools/setup
-
(Optional): Send your RSA public key to the target in order to prevent asking password on every connection:
./dcs-tools/make-target-settings
Usage
Set connection type
either connect to your target by its direct IP address and port:
make conn-direct
or meet with your target on a link up server (see link-with-server)
make conn-over-proxy
See doc/configuration.md for explanations.
Make ssh
make ssh
Makes ssh connection either directly or via the link up server according to your connection type.
Mount target root
make mount-root
Mounts the root folder to your-project/NODE_ROOT
, which you can use for drag-n-drop style file transfers.
You can later unmount with make umount-root
without using sudo
command.
Sync target's root folder
make sync-root
Sync whole root partition of the target with your-project/sync-root
folder. You can use this command consecutively to keep your sync-root
folder up to date as much as possible. Only differentiating data will be transmitted (if any).
This command will only copy the current state of your target to your host machine. You will need to create your backups manually, with make backup-sync-root
command
Create backups
make backup-sync-root
Create a backup from the sync-root
folder into ./backups
folder either by hardlinks method or by creating a btrfs subvolume, according to your your-project/method-*
flag.
method-*
flags can be set bymake method-btrfs
ormake method-hardlinks
commands.
Advanced actions:
Following tools are for advanced usage, use them with extreme caution.
Produce bootable disk from a backup
./dcs-tools/produce-bootable-disk [--help]
Produces a bootable disk that is capable of booting your target hardware.
Restore files from a backup to physical disk
./dcs-tools/restore-from-backup [--help]
Restores all files from backup folder to the SD card. Useful when you want to update your physical backup disk with your latest sync folder.
Give New ID
Make appropriate changes to give new identity to an installation. Useful for creating a new controller/machine based on current installation.
./dcs-tools/give-new-id [--help]
See Also
Advantages
Backups have following properties:
- portable (you can move your copies around. eg: take first backup locally, remove disk, mound on another computer,
make backup-root
again) - differential (only differences are transmitted)
- dead simple copies of original files (you can simply copy/paste when you need to restore or move your files around) (see BIG WARNING)
- versioned : Take any number of full backups as much as you like. You are responsible for deleting old backups.
- efficient storage usage (if you backup your 10 GB root for 5 times, you end up using 10.2 GB disk space if you have no modified files. But you will see the
snapshots
folder has a size of 50 GB. (Magic? No: Hardlinks or BTRFS subvolumes)
BIG WARNING
Move your backups around carefully
If you are not using btrfs, "dead simple copies" feature has a problem by its design: As backups are just plain folders, this may lead breaking (unintentionally changing) the ownership of the files if you move/copy your files carelessly (eg. if you mv your/snapshot to/another/location
and then interrupt the command in the middle, you will probably end up with moved files having root:root
permissions.) That's why you SHOULD always use rsync
for such movements.
If you are using
--method btrfs
, backups are made as readonly snapshots, so you will not have such problems.
Use correct filesystem
Make sure that you are performing make sync-root
command on a native Linux
filesystem. You will end up having a backup with wrong file ownership and/or
permissions otherwise.