Upload a snapshot as a step in the onboarding

The snapshot feature saved my day a couple of times. It’s great that I can download a snapshot from the UI. But why can’t I upload a snapshot on a clean install when I messed up my system? Or even better upload a snapshot as a step in the onboarding!

That would be great. Uploading is not a problem, but having to go through the onboarding process when there is no need, that is. You have my vote.

Uploading is actually a problem, there does not exist anything that does it today.
You need to complete onboarding, install -> configure -> start -> open an addon that supports it before you can do it.

For reference there is a open FR for this https://github.com/home-assistant/frontend/issues/3910

1 Like

If you have gone through the onboarding process, it is little work anymore. Having the possibility to do it as the first step in the onboarding process would be great.

2 Likes

Agree @francisp - for me it would be ideal on a fresh build, instead of having to go through on boarding, drop a backup image back in restore - at the initial step restore directly from backup.

I guess there actions that I’ve not considered here which I’m sure the cleverer users would flag up (from my experience using a raspberry pi, I need to onboard, enable samba share before I can get an backup to the machine to start thinking about doing a restore) - but the principle would fantastic…

Or even just clear documentation about what to move from the .storage folder when migrating to a new install would be helpful. I’d like a neat way to do it through the front-end (upload a tar file?) but i’d be content with a list of files that should / should not be moved.

I moved the host that my HA container is run from this past weekend and was not happy to discover that moving the .storage/ folder is not enough. I thought that a simple scp -vrp [email protected]:/ha/config user@new:host:ha/config would work, but I was still required to do on boarding when i did a docker container start ha on new.host. :confused:

1 Like

That would be everything

I had done this, but was still prompted to go through the onbaording process. After I created the initial user I was able to shutdown the container, copy everything to the new volume, re-launch the container and - other than a notification about an invalid user ID - was back in business.

The invalid user ID is expected as the UID created during onboarding didn’t match the previously generated UIDs.

1 Like

This would be awesome!

I see chatter here and there about wanting snapshots storage in Nabu Casa. If this were a thing, then you could login during onboarding and select a backup to restore from.

IMO that might be a feature that could bring a few new subscribers.

2 Likes

I would happily pay for this.

I would absolutely need local/client side encryption of the snapshots, though. Similar to the way iCloud and Android do backups; everything is encrypted locally with a key that is derived from the users password plus an additional secret that is only ever used when encrypting/decrypting an object.

On a new HA install, sign into NabuCasa, select ‘restore’, select the backup from 2 days ago, wait for the tar file to be downloaded and enter my dedicated backup PIN and wait for things to extract/restart.

1 Like

That is what I would like to avoid : first doing a full blown install before you can do a restore.

I had to recover from a broken system two or three times and when this happens after sunset and all the light automation does not work everything which speeds up the recovery process is very welcome!

If uploading is such a problem isn’t it possible to make it similar to the static IP configuration which can be done by placing a file in the boot partition or an USB-stick?

In the end however being able to just upload during onboarding would probably be the most user friendly option.

1 Like

This is THE feature that I want the most right now. Two SD cards broke for me during last month and recreating everything from snapshot takes so much time. I’m sitting in front of my PC right now. If I could do that in the on boarding then I would save a lot of time.
I sometimes need to setup a dev environment, so this would be super useful there to.
@ludeeus is there an RFC for the Supervisor to provide such API? I think this is the first step.

We can upload avatars now so hopefully this might have added the backend upload feature that the snapshot upload feature needs.
:crossed_fingers:

3 Likes

Requiring to do a full system installation, install and configure an addon, upload the file via samba and then do the restore is not what I would call an efficient backup system.
I think being able to do it as part of the onboarding process is the ideal thing.

Check the 0.116 beta release notes. It is finally there, even during onboarding :slight_smile:

2 Likes

Oh cool. I installed one HA this morning using a virtual appliance and I didn’t saw it. Is it already on the VM releases?

It is in the beta 0.116, so I don’t think it is already in any released version, you need the beta channel for it, or download the beta separately. I must say, I did not find any problems with 0.116.0b0 yet.

Thanks for the info!