Using Folder Sensor with /backup

Configuration
1

I am running HA Supervised. I would like to monitor the size of my backup. Was going to use:

homeassistant:
  whitelist_external_dirs:
    - /backup

sensor:
  - platform: folder
    folder: /backup

But I get the following config errors:
not a directory @ data['whitelist_external_dirs'][1]

and

Invalid config for [sensor.folder]: not a directory for dictionary value @ data['folder']. Got '/backup'.

I have also tried '/backup' and '/backup/'. Is this folder just not available to accomplish this?

2

Did you find any solutions? I am also looking.

3

I did not. I just abandoned the idea

4

If you are running Home Assistant in docker, I have a work around.

5

alternative, path needs to be changed of course

sensor:
  - platform: command_line
    scan_interval: 300
    unit_of_measurement: bytes
    name: Backup Size
    command: "du -cs /usr/share/hassio/backup | grep total | sed 's/\<total\>//g'"

possible issue with your approach:

If you’re running on docker check if there’s a volume mapped to /backup or in other words check if the directory exists

6

I changed the path to /backup and I am getting the following:

unknown escape sequence at line 42, column 53:
… /backup | grep total | sed ‘s/<total>//g’"

7

It seems you didnt escape the < and > as above code works fine for me. Also make sure /backup exists in your filesystem.

I think you were using the wrong type of apostrophe, at least it looks like it

8

what is your workaround?

9

I pasted it in exactly as you have it. Not sure what the issue is. I can’t even whitelist /backup so I am stuck anyway

10

This is how I have successfully implemented it. I am using HA docker installed in Raspbian OS. I also use the auto snapshot backup addon with HA. First I have used the crontab -e command in terminal to schedule a command maybe 30 minutes after the time set for initiating auto backup. The command is 30 4 * * * sudo du -h -s /usr/share/hassio/backup |cut -d'M' -f1 | sudo tee /usr/share/hassio/homeassistant/www/node_red/size.text . In my case the above command is scheduled to run at 4.30am every day as I have set the time for auto backup at 4am. Please mind this time difference is very crucial.

This command will write the size of the snapshot created to a file with the name size.text in www folder of HA, after the backup has been initiated. Then you can use a file sensor in HA to read the contents of the file which is the size of the snapshot.

11

Due to the limitations of the folder sensor (not able to access /backup as HA container when running HA OS), I went the MQTT path instead of using a file as temporary information cache. Works the same. Following InfluxDB information (database size) as sensor in Home Assistant - #17 by e-raser where InfluxDB folder size is gathered - same process.

The clue is to get the information at all, for this I used the community SSH & Web Terminal with protection mode off and using this within the init_commands in the addons configuration section:

while [ 1 = 1 ]; do du -shm /backup | cut -f1 | mosquitto_pub -t homeassistant/sensor/system/foldersize/backup -r -u '<mqtt_username>' -P '<mqtt_password>' -l -i 'SSH-addon_init-command_1' && sleep 900; done &

So every 15 minutes (sleep 900) the size is calculated and sent to the MQTT broker.

Then the following MQTT sensor creates the sensor entity:

mqtt:
  sensor:
    - name: Home-Assistant Size Folder /backup
      unique_id: abc-abc-abc-abc
      #entity_id: sensor.home_assistant_size_folder_backup
      unit_of_measurement: MB
      icon: mdi:folder
      state_topic: "homeassistant/sensor/system/foldersize/backup"
      state_class: total
      entity_category: diagnostic
      value_template: "{{ value }}"

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