iHost backup function

[mahdi.mahmoodi994]

Hello to everybody , i want to use ewelink platform for myself ESP module. but can not find sample code or example to write ESP for connection ewelink. Can anyone guide me?
excuse me if select bad category for this question and bad write english.

[mantaz40]

YES much needed! How did even this got pulled of, such an important household device and yet without any options to backup its data. Nobody will use it for anything serious until its done!

[JMZ]

Which year… ???

I have many scenes run on iHost and to do backup I do print screens of each scene.

This is not how it should look in 2024 !!!

No one should buy iHost before proper backup option will be introduced !!!

[steve4]

Any idea when the urgently required backup feature is going to be available?

[matthewnmoore]

My iHost has crashed many times losing all of my devices and scenes. It now sits in a box until backup is available, I’m not wasting any more time on it

[JMZ]

You will probably quicker develop own “backup” substitute than Sonoff will provide proper backup option which will work well.

I run over 40 scenes now on my iHost and it is impossible to restore them from memory.

This is why I do “backup” by making print screens.

With automated app for this it takes a few minutes.

First take print screen of the number of manual and auto scenes.

Then whole area with manual scenes.

Then whole area or parts if larger of auto scenes.

Then open each scene and do print screen.

At the end copy all print screens to secure location name them using current date.

This is how I do my iHost “backup”

Thanks Sonoff for selling me iHost without proper backup option.

[vdrijver]

This is the reason why i stop with the ihost. One year later en no backup function. Is your sd card corrupt , you can begin rebuilding everything from scratch. The backup function should have been there from the start, not after more than a year of running an ihost.

[JMZ]

You are 100% right.

But I wanted to run all Sonoff devices locally - this was my priority.

I have large Sonoff installation with 40 devices or more. 1 iHost and few ZBbridges Pro and NSPanels Pro.

I managed to achieve 99% what I wanted.

I provided my “backup” recipe above. This is substitute but is better than nothing.

[siemassie]

@vdrijver

The backup function should have been there from the start,

Of course. So Cube in ihost is not useful. But ihost is very good if you use something else as iobroker.

[psavie]

What about an image backup of the SD Card ? I’ve not tried it on my ihost but regularly do it on a Pi which is harder to rebuild from scratch for me.

[john.e.dixon]

Good question - does this work for the iHost? I’d give it a try but the app says clearly
'Do not remove the TF card after the installation as it may cause malfunction or even irreparable damage ’
Can we make a copy of the card?
Would it be usable as a backup?

Tagging @Daniel_Zhan @dr.m.i.bell @SuiKa

[vdrijver]

I disconnected the ihost and put it in the drawer. I will continue with HA, which offers many more options, has backup and I can set a fixed IP address in the device.

[morgan]

@psavie

What about an image backup of the SD Card ? I’ve not tried it on my ihost but regularly do it on a Pi which is harder to rebuild from scratch for me.

@john.e.dixon

Good question - does this work for the iHost? I’d give it a try but the app says clearly
'Do not remove the TF card after the installation as it may cause malfunction or even irreparable damage ’
Can we make a copy of the card?
Would it be usable as a backup?

There was already a discussion about cloning the card…
https://forum.ewelink.cc/t/clone-ihost-sd-card/

@ward

The answer is no.

Each SD card has a unique ID and iHost will record the field once it is formatted on the iHost. So even if you try to use image tools like Etcher to clone, the new card won’t work due to a different ID.

But…

@morgan

How to Change SD Card Serial Number Without Formatting [Tutorial]

CID change on SD card update (evoplus_cid) - Richard's stuff

Changing the CID on an SD card - Working! - Richard's stuff

In short, it is unlikely that it will even be possible…

They did it consciously, everything is closed and limited on purpose. No backup copy of the CUBE configuration, no possibility of cloning the card… It is clearly visible that the goal is to limit and close the ecosystem as much as possible so that the company has total control over the product and the customer should not get involved in these issues.

[siemassie]

@morgan

They did it consciously, everything is closed and limited on purpose.

But ihost is very open with docker … Strange.

[morgan]

@siemassie

But ihost is very open with docker … Strange.

Indirectly because CUBE is based on it, so it would be hard not to. However, it is one thing to run a few additional images and another thing to close the hardware platform that is iHost.

[laurent.06]

Hi Michael, will a backup/restore function be implemented soon on iHOST ?

[matthewnmoore]

@Teki is there any news on a backup function?

[dwolko]

Ihost with Docker is a really good thing, but we need to get full backup of the SD Card for an eventually SD failure.

Is there a Docker app to backup the entire SD Card?
Clone it?
SSH access to Ihost??

[jam3]

This is a very old topic. Almost as old as the Egyptian pyramids. It has been discussed many times on this forum on various occasions. Use the search function now and then and the results can be quite mind-blowing

[dwolko]

Very old but without easy solution