Making Sage more appliance like by moving configs to a seperate drive

[personalt]

I finally have my PC/sage server working exactly like I want it. I had a lot of problems getting my HD-PVR running stable and after a few re-installs it is rock solid. Not really sure how I got it stable but it is very stable now. Tthe big help seemed to be going to a SSD drive for the OS believe it or not.

I have imaged/snapshoted the PC at this point in time. My plan is to try and treat this PC like an appliance and revert back to this snapshot on a as needed basis. If anything goes bad I will roll back to that version. Honestly, if I can figure out a way to auto load the snapshot on restart(like you can do with a VMware install) I would do that.

If I make my OS drive 'appliance' like I realize some Sage files like the wiz.bin should be offloaded to another drive. This way if I roll back I dont lose the latest and greatest list of recorded shows. I am trying to get some ideas on what else I should move(and if I can easily move individual config files to another drive).

I was thinking about the sage properties files and the client properties files. Since these files can be changed by making changes to the extenders it would seem to me like these files should not be considered 'static' files for my 'appliance' install and moved to another drive.

Taking it a step further, if you can install plug-in's via the extenders you need make sure the jars dont get reverted back if I go back to the snapshot.

Has anyone done anything like this?

[GKusnick]

I'm not sure this is a viable strategy, for a couple of reasons.

First, it seems a bit odd to say that now that your system is running stably, you want to perturb it by moving important files away from their default locations. The more such changes you make, the farther you're getting into uncharted territory, and the more likely you are to run into subtle problems that no one has ever seen before. This doesn't really seem compatible with the goal of keeping things running smoothly.

Also, the idea of a static snapshot that you can reliably revert to doesn't entirely hold water. Your system is connected to a larger world of extender firmware, EPG servers, downloadable plugins and STV updates, web scrapers, and so on. Changes to any of those connected components -- some of which are not under your control -- can in principle render your snapshot obsolete or unusable.

As a purely practical matter, I think you're going to have a tough time sorting out exactly which files need to be excluded from the snapshot or backed up and restored separately. I just got done telling someone on another thread not to try to back up files selectively, but to always back up and restore the entire Sage installation directory as a unit. (Your example of plugins and JAR files is part of the reason I give that advice.) That pretty much undermines any notion of separating things cleanly into stable infrastructure v. mutable config files.

[bastafidli]

I have done some of this on my Linux install using symlinks. Most files can be moved (key, etc.) but some of them can't (e.g. Win.biz) since Sage deletes them and then recreates them. The only way around it is to treat the Sage installation directory as "data" directory and then symlink all the static files (programs, etc.) from somewhere else.

[personalt]

You certainly make some valid points.

I agree, it would not be an easy task to identify what files in the sage folder are supposed to change and what files are not. If I miss some file that should be allowed to get updated and they get reverted back I would end up with an incompatable combination of files.

Does sage make changes to files outside of the sage folder? You mention that you dont recommend someone restoring individual files inside the sage folder.

That makes sense, but can the sage folder be backed up and restored independently of the rest the computer? I guess what I am asking is does Sage make changes during run-time outside of c:\program files\SageTV?

I am looking at using a program called deep freeze to get a handle on keeping the rest of the PC getting screwed up. http://www.faronics.com/en/Products/...Corporate.aspx
DeepFreeze can allow the user to specify folders which don't get rolled back on a reset so I can allow the sage folder to make changes to itself while keeping the rest of the OS drive on lockdown. I can then supplement this with folder based backups of the sage folder on a schedule.

[gplasky]

At anytime that you backup the entire SageTV directory you can restore that directory and overwrite the existing SageTV folder. (Make sure to stop the SageTV service and/or quit the Sage application) It will restore Sage to the exact condition it was in when you made the backup. You will initially lose recordings made from the backup to present but they will show back up because some of the metadata in now stored in the recording itself. It should show up with the next Sage scan which by default happens every 2 hours. Same with any media added after the backup. And I believe the same situation with plugins. If you add a plugin after the backup and then restore the backup, the plugin that was added after will no longer show as installed. But you will have a fully functional SageTV installation as of the backup date.

Gerry

[personalt]

I didnt know that about the meta data. That is sweet. I was really concerned about not backing up the wiz.bin daily. I assume the way this works is that it adds recorded shows/dvds on scan and that anything that was watched and deleted since last wiz.bin backup shows a 'cant file recording' error which is okay if I already watched and deleted the show.

[david1234]

Why not just install Sage on a drive other than the OS drive? There's nothing special about the "Program Files" directory that's sitting on your C drive.

You might want to back up the sage parts of the registry occasionally, but that's not too big a deal.