Just as an update... I have been running BackupPC 4.x on my RPI4 with 8GB memory and an external USB 1TB Samsung SSD.
It's been ROCK STABLE for the past 7 months -- no crashes in more than 200 days and I only rebooted once due to a kernel upgrade. So in summary, it's a simple, fast, stable, small footprint, and affordable backup system. (Full disclosure, I use it as a secondary backup to my Linux BackupPC server) G.W. Haywood via BackupPC-users wrote at about 15:40:44 +0000 on Tuesday, January 5, 2021: > Hi there, > > On Tue, 5 Jan 2021, backu...@kosowsky.org wrote: > > > Robert E. Wooden wrote at about 10:02:58 -0600 on Monday, January 4, 2021: > > > > On 1/4/2021 9:55 AM, Les Mikesell wrote: > > > > On Mon, Jan 4, 2021 at 9:32 AM G.W. Haywood via BackupPC-users wrote: > > > >> I've tried using a 4B and gave up with it - unreliable. ... > > > > Maybe you just have a bad one or it is overheating in its case ... > > Nope. We have several. They all do it. It isn't an overheating > problem. Some of them aren't even in cases - they're mounted on flat > panels (which are in turn mounted vertically for maximum convection > cooling) and the rooms in which they run are very cool. Nagios says > the temperatures are fine at the crash but they do throttle themselves > at high temperatures anyway. There's also a chip register which can > be inspected to see if CPU temperature limits have been exceeded. > > > > > ... I've left a 4B powered up for months without crashing. > > My wife uses one for desktop stuff and it's more or less fine for that > use. It can be left running idle for many weeks; the best uptime ever > according to Nagios was about 110 days. It crashed (around lunchtime) > on New Year's Day after 68 days when (we think) she was thrashing a > database. But if for example she connects a powered USB device like a > second HDD it's almost bound to crash immediately. So after a few bad > experiences there are things we just don't do now, and that's how we > can manage to get more than a couple of days uptime. > > > > > Mine doesn't have a load like backuppc ... > > I'm pretty sure that load is one of the issues. Running as a database > server here, the disc is thrashing constantly, 24/365. The backup server > is obviously only a heavy load during backups, and then only some backups. > > > Robert E. Wooden wrote at about 10:02:58 -0600 on Monday, January 4, 2021: > > > I'm going to add here that I have seen a few posts (elsewhere) that some > > > 4B w/8Gb RAM had crash issues and a 4B 4Gb running the same program runs > > > ... Wondering what model 4B the OP is using? (2Gb, 4Gb, or 8Gb?) > > They're all 4GB. They were purchased well before the 8GB was released. > > > Well I was considering buying a 4B 8GB mounted in my router "cabinet" > > Keep an eye on the cooling. > > > to do the following 3 things: > > 1. Backuppc server (secondary ... > > If it's a secondary I'd be a little anxious for you but just about OK > with that. I wouldn't now consider a 4B for any backup of my own, as > it would be too easy to let things slide and create your own accident. > > > 2. Using NUT, monitor the UPS powering the switches/routers/VOIP > > devices in my router cabinet > > As I said I run Nagios/Icinga on 4Bs, I also run Smokeping which does > quite a bit of network activity too. But if it crashes, no big deal. > > > 3. Potentially also serve as an occasional mythtv frontend for a > > basement TV used during exercise > > Well my preferred forms of exercise precludes anything like that, but > I'm sure it would be OK. We watch all our movies on a Pi 2! On the > whole pretty reliable although we only run it in the evenings, but it > doesn't like mplayer. Omxplayer seems not to be in development any > more (this is hearsay from her indoors:) but that's what we use. > > > Would be good to understand if the issues with crashing 4B are due to: > > 1. One-off faulty device > > Absolutely not. We've tried really hard to get the things going with > multiple different discs, USB/SATA interfaces, power supplies, cables > and the 4B devices themselves. The only common theme is the 4B. The > same discs, interfaces, PSUs and cables are fine on (again, several) > Pi3B+ devices. The 4Bs don't run reliably with just a Webcam. > > > 2. General hardware design issue > > Yes. It could be more than one thing. Could be that there's more > wrong with the USB design than the already well-documented problems. > Could be that the power stability is an issue - being an erstwhile > electronics designer I've never liked the idea of hanging the PSU on > the end of two metres of skinny flex for example, but I've never gone > into that and tried running with a shorter cable. If I wanted to do > it myself I'd probably do it all myself, but I don't have the time. > > > 3. General OS/software issue > > We can't rule out supplier- or hardware- specific drivers. > > > 4. "Overload" of some type > > Don't think so, but the opportunity for power line noise bothers me, > I've seen both CPUs and RAM devices fall over for that reason. > > > 5. Weird other interaction among HW/OS/apps etc > > Assuming the interaction isn't because of something specific to the Pi > (my comment under your 3 above) I don't think so. I've had problems > with very different setups - file servers, database servers, backup > servers, performance monitoring, security cameras (both USB and IP) > and desktop. All were the same basic OS, but different application > software. All continuous, if not necessarily all heavy, system usage. > > The uptime on the 3B+ that I'm using to type this message is 285 days: > > piplus:~$ >>> uptime > 14:50:08 up 285 days, 1 min, 2 users, load average: 0.12, 0.11, 0.06 > > The Alix device for my main firewall (which is behind another firewall, > and although it's sort of Linux it's much stripped-down for a firewall): > > fw44g: # uptime > 13:45:57 up 323 days, 23:43, load average: 0.03, 0.02, 0.04 > > I've never got anywhere even close to that on a 4B. On Alix boards I've > had getting on for 1000 days uptime. Never seen one crash. > > -- > > 73, > Ged. > > > _______________________________________________ > BackupPC-users mailing list > BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net > List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users > Wiki: https://github.com/backuppc/backuppc/wiki > Project: https://backuppc.github.io/backuppc/ _______________________________________________ BackupPC-users mailing list BackupPC-users@lists.sourceforge.net List: https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/backuppc-users Wiki: https://github.com/backuppc/backuppc/wiki Project: https://backuppc.github.io/backuppc/
