I have made a bootable ISO (incl. pxe boot) to backup or wipe your nodes

#1

Hello! Since for me it was unacceptable to backup or wipe my nodes manually i’ve made a bunch of scripts which are made bootable via clonezilla. I have made a lot of startparameters for the scripts and a isolinux menu where you can choose a lot of backup or wipe possibilities. Aimed to make the manual work to backup or wipe nodes as short as possible.

This is the repository and the full readme, here you can find the release ISO-Files I would appreciate it if you report issues, features and more there. Some features aren’t fully tested, mostly I have tested them with virtual nodes. If you have ideas or a better solution for some code snippets feel free to contact me :slight_smile:

Features:
You can backup your nodeseed, this is a tiny file on one of your nodedisks. It is used to identify your node. You can use that file to recreate the same node elsewhere.

If you want to wipe all your disks so you can restore your node again, thats also possible. You can wipe all your disks full automated. Furthermore you can make a memorytest or just go into the shell to make your own stuff.

The aim is to boot it with an USB-Key, a PXE-Server or as ISO for example as Virtual CD/Key over an server Webinterface like iLO from HPE

There are some nice features like, it searches in the ThreeFold GraphQL API for your Nodename. Or you can preconfigure a config.json so you don’t have to enter something and the backup will be full automated. Put that on to a PXE-Server and you can backup over a hundred nodes just with one click.

If you just want to quick backup or wipe some nodes just download the ISO file and use it with an USB-key or you use one of the nice virtual media functions of one of the server-managers out there (iLO, iDRAC, IMM).

PS.: If you don’t like the background of the menu, you can even change that, but it would be nice if you keep the URL to the repo :wink:

Happy backupping and wiping :wink:

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ThreeFold node is not registered [RESOLVED]
#2

Gonna download this tonight and run some backups and wipes

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#3

appreciate that, i recommend menu option “Quick backup the seed, try to get nodeid over TF GraphQL API (VGA 800x600)” there you just have to enter your farmid, then it tries to get the node id over your mac address.

backup targets are only scp and cifs by now. its guite simple to use… i recommend scp if you have a linux somewhere with activated ssh. Or cifs just needs a default windows share.

be aware that the remote target have to be reachable in the network where your nodes are.

Hint: This tool cant delete the nodeseed via backup options. But if you find any bug or has an idea for improvements please tell me :slight_smile:

#4

Oh boy, more stuff I need to learn. We’ll take a bit longer than expected, gotta sort getting one of those locations available for saving

Would it be possible for it to dump the nessecary backup onto the local flash drive then have a menu that I can select “deploy this xyz node” so I could essentially migrate the id with just the one flash drive?

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#5

wow super cool, we will make it part of our manuals & image hub thingie…
thank you so much

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#6

You mean, you want to backup node xyz, then take the same usb-key and plug it in to a different server and then you chose “deploy node xyz”?

My future plans are:

  1. Restore a node (we have “backup a node” so we need that)
  2. I have already planned to make it possible to save the backup on the same usb-key but this makes the process of making a key complicated since you will need 2 partitions. But it could be possible with one partition
  3. Separate iso to backup & wipe the whole node without user interaction needed, just plugin and done.

if 1&2 is done it is possible to make that what you want. in the near time i make it possible to choose from backupfiles over scp/cifs to restore it.

#7

That would be great, then i will change the menu design a bit threefold-like :wink:

Maybe over time it seems the readme is not well described I will improve that also

#8

Wow :pray: you so much! So is awesome.

#9

Thank you for doing this. So I can create a bootable USB from [ThreefoldNodeMaintainTool_v1.1_EN.ISO] using Balena Etcher and then boot the node with that USB ( Do I have to remove the Zero OS USB from the node while I am doing this?) Once the node boots up it should show me the menu to backup my node. Does it copy the seed file to this bootable USB or do I have to use another USB?
Is the process correct or I am missing something?

#10

I haven’t tested the bootable image yet, but from my read of the code in the repo, it looks like backing up the seed file is only supported over network services right now (SCP and CIFS). Getting a CIFS (SMB) share set up should be straight forward on most systems.

You don’t need to remove the Zos boot USB, just specify the backup USB as a temporary bootable device.

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#11

sorry can only answer quick im buys at work xD

the steps are correct, an as scottt mentioned you don’t have to remove the zos USB you have to choose the TNMT (cool short for this tool xD) as boot media.

for now i just have remote backup solutions. less time im sorry. but in the future i want that you can copy to a second usb and to restore a node

thanks for testing it!!

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