I’m clearly still in the learning stages of my Linux journey. And perhaps I jumped the gun when I put all my private files on my own Nextcloud server that I constructed with a Mini PC. It worked so perfectly until I decided to change up my backup solution 😳
Normally I let my sync work as a sync should. However, rather than downloading backups from my cloud, I backup the primary PC instead. I have done this for years without issue. If the backup fails, I have the cloud to rescue me.
This time I decided to place an automated backup on my cloud and perhaps my primary computer as well.
That didn’t go to plan… At all 😱
The server stopped responding. Afterward it wouldn’t even boot into the Ubuntu Server OS. I am sure I could’ve fixed it with a ton of research and tried to restore everything. But I looked at it as an opportunity to fix things I messed up on the first time around. While it worked perfectly, it had things installed that didn’t need to be and perhaps could’ve opened up doors to nefarious intents of others. So I will rebuild from fresh.
See, I started doing the backup when the backup got hung up on files being actively used. I didn’t research anything like if Linux uses something similar to shadow copies or LVM would have been helpful. I didn’t even think of it. Just tried to backup a large set of files that were actively being used. Not smart.
I am thankful I may have lost a password or two, but no files. Nothing that can’t be recovered. But I’m going to have to rebuild my Nextcloud server.
Though I think I will enable LVM on the next build. I will go back to backing up the primary PC monthly like I’ve been doing for years.
I sometimes forget that, “If it ain’t broke. Don’t fix it.”. 🤷♂️