NEMS Linux Tips: Backup Your NEMS Configuration Automatically

Introduction

One of the worst things that can happen to your NEMS Linux deployment is having your SD card fail. So keeping a current backup of your NEMS configuration is a smart idea.

Backup Location

Your NEMS Migrator snapshots are always accessible at https://NEMSIP/backup/backup.nems or via Samba at \\nems.local\backup\backup.nems - accessing either will automatically generate and send a backup.nems file, which contains all the NEMS configuration settings, logs, data, etc. to allow an easy recovery by restoring to a new NEMS deployment.

Both locations are protected by your NEMS username and password, as created during nems-init.

The backup.nems file can also be used to migrate your NEMS Linux deployment from one architecture to another. For example, if your infrastructure outgrows a Raspberry Pi 3-based NEMS server, you can deploy on an ODROID XU4 and migrate your entire NEMS setup to the new deployment.

Knowing the location of your backup.nems file makes it easy to add a NEMS backup to your daily backup script for automated inclusion in your regular backup.

Backup Your backup.nems File Automatically

From another Linux server (eg., where your backups run) simply add this to your backup task:

Download Via wget Without Encryption

Warning

This is only recommended for legacy NEMS versions that don’t support SSL

wget -O "/backup/backup.nems" http://nems.local/backup/ --user=YOURUSER --password=YOURPASSWORD

In both of the above examples, replace /backup/backup.nems with where you want nems-migrator to output the download, and YOURUSER and YOURPASSWORD to those you set during nems-init.

Once you have a backup.nems file being backed up to a different system, I recommend you have your backup script run an rdiff-backup of your /backup folder (in this example) to allow for versioning.

Windows-Based Backup

If you are on a Windows network and would like to include your backup.nems file in your nightly backup set, you may access it at \\nems.local\backup\backup.nems using your NEMS username and password as set in nems-init.