Simple tool to backup and restore ChromeOS Crostini containers, influenced by the excelent readme on Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/Crostini/wiki/howto/backup
https://www.useloom.com/share/71cdc4055744465f8f467f65cd26db44
- Open a Crosh termainal using ctrl+alt+t
- Start a new session
vsh termina - Copy the backup binary to /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf
The latest release can be found, in the Releases section, select the correct file for your archictecture.
Example Linux AMD64:
(termina) chronos@localhost ~ $ curl -L https://github.com/nicholasjackson/crostini-backup-restore/releases/download/v0.0.3/crostini-backup-restore_0.0.3_Linux_amd64.tar.gz -o /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf/backup.tar.gz
% Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
100 639 0 639 0 0 193 0 --:--:-- 0:00:03 --:--:-- 2158
100 752k 100 752k 0 0 138k 0 0:00:05 0:00:05 --:--:-- 660k
cd /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf
tar -zxf backup.tar.gz A full list of options can be found by running backup with the help flag
(termina) chronos@localhost /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf $ ./backup --help
Usage of ./backup:
-backup-location string
Location to backup container (default "/mnt/stateful/lxd_conf")
-container string
Name of the container to backup (default "penguin")
-snapshot-prefix string
Prefix of the snapshot to take, snapshots will have time appended to them (default "backup-snapshot")
-username string
Crostini username e.g. jacksonnic (default "chronos")To backup a Crostini container use the following command, replace container with your own container name and username with your own username:
(termina) chronos@localhost /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf $ ./backup -container penguin --username jacksonnic
Crostini Backup and Restore tool version: dev
Starting backup, WARNING: This operation can take a long time
Stopping container penguin
Creating snapshot of container:penguin name:backup-snapshot-85563359
Publish container: penguin to penguin-backup
If the container publish is interupted, your container may be left in a bad state,
in this instance you can restore the snapshot using the command: lxc restore penguin backup-snapshot-85563359
Container published with fingerprint: d9468e72eeaa7d74a73eb39654fe278a14535a20b450077df672071c6b87d689
Exporting container to: /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf
Image exported successfully!
Splitting backup into 3GB chunks
Starting container penguin
Mounting backup path /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf into container penguin
Device lxd-conf added to penguin
Moving backup files to /home/jacksonnic in container penguin
The backup files will be output into your Linux Files folder in 3GB chunks. Once the backup has completed you can move these to external storage for safe storage.
To test backup use an empty temporary container, this can be created using the following steps:
(termina) chronos@localhost /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf $ lxc init 980e37d286ad tester
Creating tester
(termina) chronos@localhost /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf $ lxc start testerYou can then run a test backup on this container:
(termina) chronos@localhost /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf $ ./backup -container tester
Crostini Backup and Restore tool version: dev
Starting backup, WARNING: This operation can take a long time
Stopping container tester
Creating snapshot of container:tester name:backup-snapshot-85563359
Publish container: tester to tester-backup
If the container publish is interupted, your container may be left in a bad state,
in this instance you can restore the snapshot using the command: lxc restore tester backup-snapshot-85563359
Container published with fingerprint: d9468e72eeaa7d74a73eb39654fe278a14535a20b450077df672071c6b87d689
Exporting container to: /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf
Image exported successfully!
Splitting backup into 3GB chunks
Starting container tester
Mounting backup path /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf into container tester
Device lxd-conf added to tester
Moving backup files to /home/chronos in container testerThe backup files will be stored in the home folder /home/chronos, you can validate that these are present with the follwing command:
(termina) chronos@localhost /mnt/stateful/lxd_conf $ lxc exec tester -- ls -las /home/chronos
total 318040
0 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 46 Jan 21 15:44 .
0 drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 14 Jan 21 15:44 ..
318040 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 325670095 Jan 21 15:44 tester-backup.tar.gz.aaYou can now delete the temporary container
lxc delete tester --force