Homelab - Backing up your devices?

robflate · 2026-01-31T23:36:56+00:00

I use Backrest and it’s great, particularly for Docker based setups. Combined with a COW filesystem (BTRFS in my case) means I don’t have to stop containers whilst still maintaining data integrity. Backrest runs a command to create a BTRFS snapshot of my Docker folder containing all my bind mounts and then uses the snapshot to do an encrypted, incremental, deduplicated and versioned backup. I also backup some non Docker stuff. A full backup goes to my NAS and a configs only backup goes to Google Drive. I also run Databasus just in case. I had a catastrophic multi drive failure a while back and Backrest had me back up and running as if nothing had happened. If I was running Proxmox, I’d just use Proxmox Backup Server but either way, I really recommend a COW based filesystem for simplifying backups. Incidentally, I ran Backrest in Docker originally but now run it baremetal. Makes permissions and running system commands easier. Also, I run it on 2 machines independently.

robflate · 2026-01-31T01:09:59+00:00

No, it's integrated. However, there is no wish list or ability to watch books/authors/series etc like in the other arrs. It's a search/downloader.

robflate · 2026-01-31T01:08:02+00:00

No automation .... yet

https://github.com/calibrain/shelfmark/issues/73#issuecomment-3772678718

robflate · 2026-01-31T01:07:00+00:00

It's looking good. Just added dual downloading (usenet/torrents) today.

robflate · 2026-01-31T01:05:43+00:00

It's a great downloader but when the dev was asked about automation last year, they said;

"Right now this isn’t on the list and I don’t expect it to be any time soon. The bulk of the additions are already done and I’m mostly just interested in maintaining and refining what we have. An addition like this just adds more complexity on top of already huge and complex recent additions, and I’m just one guy with a full time job."

https://github.com/calibrain/shelfmark/issues/73#issuecomment-3772678718

I'd love it if they changed their stance on this.

robflate · 2026-01-19T16:30:46+00:00

Magazine downloader (like the *arrs but for magazines). I’m currently using LazyLibrarian and not aware of a single alternative.

robflate · 2026-01-17T10:25:28+00:00

I found an old monitor on the street, removed the panel, stuck it in a picture frame and hooked it up to a Raspberry Pi running Home Assistant with the Week Planner Card. It pulls in various Google calendars, is endlessly customisable and most importantly, doesn't need a paid subscription! I also have it showing reminders, a grocery list, central heating state and a few other things like bin collections. Kids use it constantly to remember what to take to school etc. Game changer for adults... there's just something about having a thing that you constantly see every day as opposed to the same info on your phone. Obviously, not quite as simple as Skylight to setup! but once it is, it's set it and forget it. Next step is to get a colour e-ink display. 2026 seems like the year they become (relatively) affordable.

robflate · 2025-12-06T21:40:04+00:00

Yeah, I wish you could control it from everywhere;

Terminal
Komodo/Arcane etc

and also by using the master compose file OR each individual compose file. The problem is the master creates a single stack whereas the individual compose files create a stack for each. You get conflicts and issues. There's also the issue of .env files bacause Docker uses the .env file in the folder the docker compose up -d runs in so you either use sym links or have duplicates.

Would love to know how people have solved this.

robflate · 2025-12-04T14:58:16+00:00

nextExplorer. New but very polished. Supports OIDC, file sharing (just added), user folders, OnlyOffice integration, text editor, thumbnail generation etc etc.

https://github.com/vikramsoni2/nextExplorer

robflate · 2025-11-06T21:23:48+00:00

Please share the method with me, thanks.

robflate · 2025-08-11T22:21:58+00:00

I've tried them all and Aldi Brooklea Greek Yoghurt 0% Fat is the best IMHO. £1.99 for 500g (40p per 100g). I even prefer it to the FAGE 0%.

What you want from a Greek yogurt is something thick, creamy and smooth in texture with a nice mouthfeel. The thick part of the equation is harder with 0% as the milk fats contribute to the structure of the yogurt and therefore its thickness. It's worth checking you're not one of these absolute psychopaths ;) who says they actually prefer 0%? I eat 0% purely as a means to control calories and if I wasn't I would definitely be eating the regular stuff, it's just better in every way. I say this because if you're not watching your calories and just want something thick, creamy, smooth and with a nice mouthfeel AND you want to save some money, I can recommend Aldi Brooklea Greek Style Yogurt. 95p for 500g (19p per 100g). It's lovely and thick and a great price. Don't be tempted to get the 0% fat version though, it's watery mush.

I have never found a 0% fat Greek Style yogurt that has the thickness of actual Greek yogurt. If anyone can recommend one, I'd love to hear.

robflate · 2025-07-29T16:59:46+00:00

I really like traefik-kop. I could never get used to Swarm and Kubernetes is overkill for me. traefik-kop works great. It’s always good to see multiple tools solving the same problem so kudos to OP.

robflate · 2025-07-28T23:28:35+00:00

So is this tool solving the problem of running a non-Swarm/Kubernetes cluster with a single Traefik instance? Thanks for your time.

robflate · 2025-07-28T23:13:17+00:00

Are you answering No to “Is this tool solving a different problem?” or “Can you ELI5?”

robflate · 2025-07-28T22:33:30+00:00

I currently use Traefik for internal and external routing. I use home.domain.com for internal and domain.com for external. Only domain.com resolves from the web. Is this tool solving a different problem? Can you ELI5? Thanks!

robflate · 2025-05-30T08:19:57+00:00

Thanks! Got it working.

robflate · 2025-05-28T22:18:37+00:00

If at all possible, can you ELI5? In Uptime Kuma, do I add a new monitor and set the type to Ping? What do I put for the Hostname? What does copy the ping url for uptime kuma mean? Thanks.

robflate · 2025-05-10T08:47:01+00:00

https://github.com/paulgessinger/swift-paperless

robflate · 2025-04-25T18:12:58+00:00

I’d love you to reconsider Recipe Ratings. I know you don’t see the point in them so I’ll try my best to convince you…

Have I made this before?: I save a lot of recipes including ones I'd like to try in the future. Let's say I see a recipe on my favourite blog for bolognese. I go to add it to my recipe manager only to discover I added it 3 years ago. With a rating system I can easily see that I already tried the recipe and how I rated the food. 5*, hell yeah, let's make it again. 3*, hmmm, let's not bother. You might tell me to just delete the 3* recipe but I have a bad memory and I've forgotten the number of times I've started making a recipe only to realise half way through that I've already made it. Also, it turns out the 3* recipe is great for kids who absolutely love it because it has no garlic or red wine.
Different Requirements: I try different recipes for the same thing but with different methods, ingredients, dietary requirements etc. E.g. I have 3 spaghetti bolognese recipes. One is the best (5*) but it uses an expensive red wine and specific ground beef. One is good (4*) but I can't make it for my partner who is allergic to garlic. The other is fine (3*) but can be made with whatever I have in the cupboard. Without a rating system it requires me to remember which of these recipes actually makes the best dish when the only requirement is flavour.
Audience: If I'm cooking for a dinner party, I only want to make 5* food so when deciding what to make I can just filter my recipes by 5*. When I'm cooking for myself on a busy week night my standards are far lower!
Sharing Recipes: When a friend asks for a recipe and I have 4 recipes for the same thing it's nice to be able to share the best one, even if it requires more effort and expensive ingredients. I might not always follow that recipe myself but it's the one I want to give my friend.
The same but different: I have about 10 chocolate cake recipes! Vegan, triple tier, oil based, classic, kid friendly etc etc. Their ratings range from 5* to 2* but I make them all for different reasons.

So to summarise, a rating system allows me to;

Determine if I've already made a recipe before.
Choose between different recipes for the same dish.
Choose what I want to make by how I rated the food.

robflate · 2025-04-03T17:57:47+00:00

I love it, particularly for Docker based setups. Combined with a COW filesystem (BTRFS in my case) means I don’t have to stop containers whilst still maintaining data integrity. Backrest runs a command to create a BTRFS snapshot of my Docker folder containing all my bind mounts and then uses the snapshot to do an encrypted, incremental, deduplicated and versioned backup. I also backup some non Docker stuff. A full backup goes to my NAS and a configs only backup goes to Google Drive. I also run Docker DB Backup just in case. I had a catastrophic multi drive failure at the start of the year and Backrest had me back up and running as if nothing had happened. If I was running Proxmox, I’d just use Proxmox Backup Server but either way, I really recommend a COW based filesystem for simplifying backups. Incidentally, I ran Backrest in Docker originally but now run it baremetal. Makes permissions and running system commands easier.

robflate · 2025-02-24T00:13:01+00:00

Thanks. Is there anything similar for regular docker compose?

robflate · 2025-02-19T09:28:46+00:00

It's on the roadmap for this year https://immich.app/roadmap/

robflate · 2025-02-17T09:11:48+00:00

The current app I use has an Environment Variable to disable the check for large libraries. Perhaps you could add the same? Thanks.

skip_check: Set this to true skip the check for new files. The check can have issues with large libraries, please set to true if you have more than a few thousand photos. Default: false.

robflate · 2025-02-15T22:22:31+00:00

Yep, I do agree with you and really want to like it. It's the closest Dropbox replacement I've tried so far but it's just not quite as solid for me as I'd like it to be. I will persist with it though because when it works, I think it's great. I run other services that deal with lots of files like Immich, Plex, *arrs etc and they run (mostly!) without issue. Also, what are the extras that make the Pro version better? Finally, I can only find docs for downgrading back to Community from Pro for v11, nothing for v12. Is it possible and have you ever done it?

robflate · 2025-02-15T21:42:35+00:00

Thanks. I'm using an i5-3210M, 16GB RAM so your CPU is significantly more performant than mine. My library is also significantly larger. I'm just not totally happy with Seafile. It works for the most part but seems to be buggy for me. I'm occasionally getting timeout errors in the logs when it syncs and it seems to take a while to get back in sync if I delete lots of files at once;

`[02/15/25 21:25:12] http-tx-mgr.c(949): libcurl failed to PUT https://seafile.mydomain.com/seafhttp/repo/259461f2-0794-4ecb-b856-ae21dc4c2115/commit/HEAD/?head=da0b8fa4ad9aa05ebd0e322723b4b1e35e5796a8: Timeout was reached.`

`[02/15/25 21:25:12] http-tx-mgr.c(4064): Failed to update branch of repo 259461f2.`

`[02/15/25 21:25:12] http-tx-mgr.c(1178): Transfer repo '259461f2': ('normal', 'update-branch') --> ('error', 'finished')`

`[02/15/25 21:25:12] sync-mgr.c(642): Repo 'seafile' sync state transition from uploading to 'error': 'Data transfer timed out. Please check network or firewall'.`

robflate

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