Automated Backups

[jsyers]

Hello new World,

First post in the new digs. Under Tools>Setup The button for Backup Config; is there a way schedule/trigger it? It creates a nice backup package.

J

[Wade]

Check out Blade's BLBackup.

[CameronHilliard]

This does not work automatically exactly. doesn't blade's plugin simple backup your config folder. If I do not create a new backup, blade's plugin is just backing up old data

[Uncle Michael]

doesn't blade's plugin simple backup your config folder. If I do not create a new backup, blade's plugin is just backing up old data

BLBackup will backup whatever you direct it to as frequently as you specify. I backup my entire HS folder tree every other day.
Not sure what you mean about backing up "old" data. If you backup a file, you backup everything in it, but of course, the data has to exist before the backup occurs.
HS also automatically creates a backup of the event/device database on any system restart.

[CameronHilliard]

Ok. So best practices I may not do. How often are you guys restarting? Do you restart the entire computer or just homeseer

[Wade]

I use Restart plugin to reboot the server weekly.

[HSAccord]

I actually just began using BLBackup after using a cloud based backup solution for a while. The cloud price got too expensive so I looked at alternatives.

Now I use:
1) BLBackup to backup the HS folder tree, plus a few other folders I have with other scripts around.
2) Google's free sync program to store the backups into Drive.

I have a separate gmail account for each HS instance I run, and the included 15gig of storage in Google Drive is way more than enough to cover the data I backup from the Homeseer computers.

[CameronHilliard]

I use Restart plugin to reboot the server weekly.

Wow this is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Thank you! Anything wrong with restarting the server every night? What is a reasonable schedule?

[Guest]

I tend to do my backup weekly with hs3 off.
Is blbackup working good with hs3 on?

will the backup be usable ? Thanks

[Uncle Michael]

Anything wrong with restarting the server every night? What is a reasonable schedule?

The only risk that I can think of is that a great deal happens when the computer reboots and HS restarts. The more often you do it, the greater the chance that some little hiccup will prevent HS from restarting. Overall, though, the likelihood of a problem is pretty remote. It will just come down to what makes you feel most comfortable, I think.

[lveatch]

In addition to suggestions listed here. I also use Jon00's Event Viewer and Documenter as well as his Device Viewer and Documenter to export events and devices to text files. They are stored in the HS html directory so it is backed up when the HS folder is backed up.

While I can't import from the text files, it is a worse case situation where I have the information available to recreate anything lost. This includes accidental errors caused by the thing sitting between the chair and the keyboard.

[Wade]

In addition to suggestions listed here. I also use Jon00's Event Viewer and Documenter as well as his Device Viewer and Documenter to export events and devices to text files. They are stored in the HS html directory so it is backed up when the HS folder is backed up.

While I can't import from the text files, it is a worse case situation where I have the information available to recreate anything lost. This includes accidental errors caused by the thing sitting between the chair and the keyboard.

I do this as well, weekly. Has helped me "undo" a few ill-advised event edits.

[twka90]

I am running HS3 on Windows. Is there a reason to not just copy the entire c:\program files (x86)\HomeSeer HS3\ folder to some sort of "safe place" every night? Like, can I catch some important file in a bad state?

[CameronHilliard]

I am running HS3 on Windows. Is there a reason to not just copy the entire c:\program files (x86)\HomeSeer HS3\ folder to some sort of "safe place" every night? Like, can I catch some important file in a bad state?

i tried this and what I learned the hard way is that homeseer wasn’t triggering a nightly safe of my configurations. What I ended up doing now was a combination of what you suggested but also triggering nightly configuration saves so the folder had the latest and greatest settings

[twka90]

i tried this and what I learned the hard way is that homeseer wasn’t triggering a nightly safe of my configurations. What I ended up doing now was a combination of what you suggested but also triggering nightly configuration saves so the folder had the latest and greatest settings

Doesn't every change get saved to "C:\Program Files (x86)\HomeSeer HS3\Data\HomeSeerData.hsd" pretty much immediately? (I thought it was -- I recovered my HS3 installation from a ransomware infestation last week by having just that file survive from the entire VM, only because HS was running, the DB was open, and the malware couldn't encrypt it)