A useful set for backup or restore a Raspberry (locally or remotely).
# boot file system (rpi /boot/) for partition 1
sudo rsync -axv --numeric-ids --rsync-path='sudo rsync' pi@RPI_IP:/boot/ /local/path/boot/
# root file system (rpi /) for partition 2
sudo rsync -axv --numeric-ids --rsync-path='sudo rsync' pi@RPI_IP:/ /local/path/root_fs/
In some case, like backup of databases files, it's should be better to make a snapshot of filesystem before remote copy. The default Raspbian root filesystem ext4 don't allow snapshot but btrfs can do that.
A set of tools to use with the Raspberry Pi for manage backup and restore.
# on Debian like Linux distribution
sudo apt-get install -y dosfstools e2fsprogs pv
sudo ./rpi-tools/setup-rpi-tools.sh
This script auto-build an image file for Raspberry Pi SD card. Build standard 2 partitions cards: fat16/ext4 or fat16/btrfs
Usage of btrfs for linux root filesytem need custom kernel. See: https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/linux/kernel/building.md for instructions on custom kernel building and see also "Custom kernel" below.
remote builder :
sudo rpi-img-maker /local/path/boot/ /local/path/root_fs/ myrpi-20160823.img
locally to an usb key :
sudo rpi-img-maker /boot/ / /path/to/usb-key/myrpi-20160823.img
locally to a remote host with ssh :
# create a mount point and link it to remote target
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/ssh/
sudo sshfs -o allow_other,default_permissions pi@192.168.1.10:/home/pi/ /mnt/ssh/
# build image to remote file system, name scheme is hostname-yyyymmdd.img
sudo rpi-img-maker /boot / /mnt/ssh/`hostname`-`date +"%Y%m%d"`.img
# unmount remote file system
sudo umount /mnt/ssh/
help :
sudo rpi-img-maker -h
This script write an image file (RAW with or without gzip compress) to a SD card. Since using directly dd can be dangerous this script add some checks like target device is mount ?, target is a block device ?, size matching, y/n confirm...
without gzip :
sudo rpi-img-writer myrpi-20160823.img /dev/usb-card-device
with gzip (for image with *.gz name writer use on fly gunzip):
sudo rpi-img-writer myrpi-20160823.img.gz /dev/usb-card-device
help :
sudo rpi-img-writer -h
When a custom kernel is in use on a Pi, some packages should be hold to avoid kernel overwrite.
# stop packages update
sudo apt-mark hold raspberrypi-bootloader
sudo apt-mark hold raspberrypi-kernel
# check
sudo dpkg --get-selections | grep raspberrypi