Polisy SSD Backup FYI

[CPrince]

I haven't seen much on Polisy hardware in this Forum.  So I figured I would add this.  I like to back things up.  So what if you get to digging into your Polisy and mess it up?  You would have to go through all the hoopla of opening a ticket, getting the image, uncompromising it, writing it, etc.  Actually it's not that hard.  So I set out to back up the SSD.  I used a mSATA adapter from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VP2WH73/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 to physically mount my current mSATA drive.  I attached my current Polisy mSATA drive to it and inserted it into my computer USB slot.  First problem, it doesn't show up in File Manager.  If I look in Disk Management it is there.  I can't not assign a drive letter to it.  Disk Management will not let me.  All my imaging tools will not work as there is no drive letter.  So I do some searching and stumble across "USB Image Tool", I used version 1.8.1.  You can get it here: https://filehippo.com/download_usb-image-tool/1.81/  On the options tab there is an option to show USB drives, check it.  Now the Polisy mSATA shows up!  You can now back it up to an image (.img)  file.  Writing is just as easy.  I used a 32 gig Dogfish $14 mSATA from Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JHKFDL9/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 to write the file.  I put the new drive in the Polisy and all is fine.  Granted you would have to reload anything installed after you created the image.

I wonder if this will work on an Isy Micro SD card?

[vbPhil]

I'm going to follow in your footsteps. So, all the embedded software resides on that SSD?

I was wondering if UDI publishes the specs on the Polisy hardware? I couldn't find anything that detailed the various modules like the SSD. Be nice to have a manual of sorts for the electronics inside the "shiny box".

[CPrince]

@vbphilYes the OS and everything is on the SSD.  To me the "shiny Box" is just like a mini computer.  Look at all the ports and stuff in there for SATA drives etc.  I just don't want to get into it that deep.  I need it to do what it is supposed to do.  I have the pro unit.  I would like to know if and where the Bluetooth board is.  I have found the WiFI board and not a clue what to do with it or why I would want to do something with it.  Someone who is really techie might want these options.

[ase]

As we have discussed for literally days at a time. Both Polisy and Eisy are X86-64 PCs, just like you have sitting on your desk. They are simply smaller format. Polisy OEM was pcengines(https://pcengines.ch) all of the accessories like wifi and Bluetooth cards are available at that site, even wall mounts. Eisy OEM is MELE(https://www.mele.cn/).

The OS for both is FreeBSD. In terms of why you were not able to use the backup directly is most likely because your windows based computer probably didn't have the needed options to mount an ext3/4 filesystems. For the best experience when working with systems like Polisy it is best to be working from a Linux or BSD system(windows sucks anyway).

In terms of backup you can easily transfer any files with sftp and for full backups simply use dd to make an image. 

If in the future you want to use either as something other than a home automation controller, you can reflash the bios (I don't know if Eisy is a custom bios) and install OS and software you want.

Edited December 8, 2022 by ase

[Bumbershoot]

20 minutes ago, ase said:

The OS for both is FreeBSD. In terms of why you were not able to use the backup directly is most likely because your windows based computer probably didn't have the needed options to mount an ext3/4 filesystems.

Polisy is running ZFS, a 128 bit filesystem.

[admin@polisy ~]$ dmesg | grep ZFS
ZFS filesystem version: 5

Windows isn't going to know anything about a ZFS file system, natively.

[CPrince]

@ase, @BumbershootI figured if I were a Linux person I could probably mount the drive on a Linux box and do some more advance imaging.  I am a PC guy so I had to do my way.  I have limited Linux knowledge.  Thanks for the good info.  I will check out the provided links.

I can't find anything on Eisy anywhere.  I Googled it a while back.

Thanks for the good info!

[Bumbershoot]

27 minutes ago, CPrince said:

I can't find anything on Eisy anywhere.  I Googled it a while back.

It's simply another nice little box running FreeBSD.  The value is in what UDI builds on top of the OS. 

FreeBSD is a rock solid UNIX variant OS, and there are basically no license restrictions to it's use, may be why UDI chose to use it, other than *did I mention* it's rock solid.

Way back when, in my professional life, I ran a few FreeBSD machines in mission critical applications, and I might reboot them once a year, whether they needed it or not.  It was always a panic to find the root password for those machines every year...

Here's a rabbit hole: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Software_Distribution

[TriLife]

On 12/6/2022 at 9:18 AM, CPrince said:

I used a mSATA adapter from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VP2WH73/ref=ppx_od_dt_b_asin_title_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 to physically mount my current mSATA drive. 

I ordered the same adapter a week ago to do precisely what you describe earlier -flashing my Polisy SSD with a newer OS, because mine was so old. Well, this particular adapter didn't do it. Said so, but never booted. I wonder, if you were having your issues due to the adapter. Amazon refunded me and I ordered one with a cable. 2 weeks to get here.

Fortunately my neighbor was the founder of Datarecovery.com here in Colombia and they eat this adapters as snacks. So he gve me another one with a cable attached. Worked like a charm. @Michel Kohanim had recommended that I use rufus-3.21 to do the flashing. I wonder, if it will do the imaging as well.

But I learned the hard way that your suggestion of imaging the Polisy SSD is precisely what I should have done in the first place.

 

cheers

[CPrince]

@TriLife,  That is weird.  I ordered that adapter to write the Polisy OS on the SSD per UD.  I tried to do a factory reset and bricked the Polisy. I got instructions for UD on how to write the SSD.  I used Rufus, like you, to write it.  No problems.  

I wrote the procedure above to read and write a .img file so that I could backup a working system.  Beside the .img file is 32 gig as it is uncompressed.

[xgfreon]

Rufus works to read and backup the image file as well as writing. I also purchased the above linked usb device from amazon and had no issues. 

Edited December 31, 2022 by xgfreon
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[johnnyt]

good idea.

would this adapter work? It would be a bit cheaper (in Cdn $) and get to me faster. It reads like it would also be compatible with more SSDs...

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B075FR3ZD4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1X7UA978W3K5N&th=1

The one in previous post says:  "only supports mSATA SSD (3cm*5cm), and does not support SATA Mini PCIE/PATA mini PCIE/RAID MINI PCIE SSD."

while this one says "Support full size mSATA ssd 51mm(L) x 30mm(W) x 3.8mm(H). Supports 3.3 Volt Mini PCI-e SSD mSATA Module"

Is this one compatible with more SSDs than the one above, or is this comparing an apple to an orange and it won't even work with Polisy SSD?

[TriLife]

18 minutes ago, johnnyt said:

good idea.

would this adapter work? It would be a bit cheaper (in Cdn $) and get to me faster. It reads like it would also be compatible with more SSDs...

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B075FR3ZD4/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A1X7UA978W3K5N&th=1

The one in previous post says:  "only supports mSATA SSD (3cm*5cm), and does not support SATA Mini PCIE/PATA mini PCIE/RAID MINI PCIE SSD."

while this one says "Support full size mSATA ssd 51mm(L) x 30mm(W) x 3.8mm(H). Supports 3.3 Volt Mini PCI-e SSD mSATA Module"

Is this one compatible with more SSDs than the one above, or is this comparing an apple to an orange and it won't even work with Polisy SSD?

I first bought the ELUTENG unit (which looks identical to the one you suggest on the Canadian site). While it did seem to successfully complete the flash, the Polisy never booted with it. I then reflashed it with the second unit and that worked just fine.

It may have been a fluke defective unit, because @CPrince had no issues with it...

[johnnyt]

ok, this one reads more like the original that has proven to work, is cheaper than the other one I found and will get to me reasonably soon

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01MCV52TH/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3TUR5JBYCEPNE&psc=1

 

 

[firstone]

On 12/6/2022 at 9:18 AM, CPrince said:

I haven't seen much on Polisy hardware in this Forum.  So I figured I would add this.  I like to back things up.  So what if you get to digging into your Polisy and mess it up?  You would have to go through all the hoopla of opening a ticket, getting the image, uncompromising it, writing it, etc. 

If you ask UDI for an official image, that gives you full system. Taking the drive out for backup seems like an overkill. You'd want to backup IoX and maybe PG3 databases. Everything else is kind of static.  IoX has its own backup. You can probably backup PG3 databases via rsync.

[CPrince]

@xgfreon

On 12/31/2022 at 10:16 AM, xgfreon said:

Rufus works to read and backup the image file as well as writing. I also purchased the above linked usb device from amazon and had no issues. 

So how do you put Rufus in read mode?  I looked again today.  Thanks

[CPrince]

@firstone

15 hours ago, firstone said:

If you ask UDI for an official image, that gives you full system. Taking the drive out for backup seems like an overkill. You'd want to backup IoX and maybe PG3 databases. Everything else is kind of static.  IoX has its own backup. You can probably backup PG3 databases via rsync

I did get my image from UDI, that is what started all this.  UDI is great and very helpful.  My purpose of this was to create a bare metal recovery.  Yes, overkill.  However I can be back up and running in 30 minutes or less.  As far as PG2 and PG3 databases; I thought they were in the cloud.  This could be a week point for my madness.   What is rsync?

[firstone]

Polyglot profiles are stored on ISY/IoX. But actual polyglot DBs aren't. PG2 is in MongoDB and PG3 is in sqlite. I, personally, don't think it's a huge deal if I had to reinstall node servers from scratch. But if you're thinking of full backup, you should include it. 

rsync is basically network copy. You would normally have another machine or NAS drive running rsync server and then you configure a script to copy any files you want over rsync to that device. That's an automated way. 

You can also tar+gzip whatever files you like and scp by hand if you prefer.

Should create sqlite backup first rather than copying raw data files though. Something like this:

 

sqlite3 my_database.sq3 ".backup 'backup_file.sq3'"

Edited January 10, 2023 by firstone

[gzahar]

3 hours ago, CPrince said:

@xgfreon

So how do you put Rufus in read mode?  I looked again today.  Thanks

In the device properties section, select Show advanced drive properties.  A disk symbol will appear right of the device selection box.

[xgfreon]

you just click on the save disk icon next to where a filename to load an image would be. then just type something like polisy1.10.23.img

save as type on bottom to all files if you want to make it an .img

[xgfreon]

19 hours ago, firstone said:

If you ask UDI for an official image, that gives you full system. Taking the drive out for backup seems like an overkill. You'd want to backup IoX and maybe PG3 databases. Everything else is kind of static.  IoX has its own backup. You can probably backup PG3 databases via rsync.

It's not overkill if tinkering around in SSH causes your drive to no longer boot......

[CPrince]

@xgfreon

12 hours ago, xgfreon said:

you just click on the save disk icon next to where a filename to load an image would be. then just type something like polisy1.10.23.img

That was easy.  Not exactly intuitive, but easy.  I didn't click around enough. Thanks.