Backing up FULL configuration - Best practice?

[chrisfoster]

What is best practice to ensure no setup/parameter data is lost for whatever reason on a 1 node network

Obviously it takes a lot of effort to learn and set-up the CopperLan system and no-one wants to be in the awful position of staring from scratch without full restore capability.

I have seen talk whereby the whole system can be resurrected from any connected node on the network....fine.

But what if like a lot of new users, there is only one node and it dies?

Please describe a procedure for manually backing up and re-storing a one node system.

I would really hope an automatic backup system could be in place for a one node system, with the ability to select multiple locations where the backup could be replicated to.

Cheers

[CopperPhil]

Hi,

If your system is only composed of one computer running CopperLan,there is no special way to perform a backup... Do a complete system backup using standard hard disk backup software.

Information needed to restore the CopperLan settings and connections is located in usual storage (registry, folders like ProgramData or users...). So restoring a full backup also restores the CopperLan setup.

The only critical information is the computer unique ID. This number is generated during a blank installation of CopperLan. So a new number will be generated if you uninstall CopperLan and then re-install it later.

We have plan to change the uninstaller to allow preservation of config data on demand. Editing the MachineID value from the CopperLan Manager (for advanced users only) is also possible in a near future.

[chrisfoster]

Ok, let's say a machine re-build ..... a clean install of Windows8.1

I'll take a stab and say the following should be included in a Music Production configs backup:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CopperLan\CPVM (machine ID)

UserName\AppData\Roaming\CopperLan Manager (Snapshots and CHAIGroups)

UserName\AppData\Roaming\CopperPlug (Settings)

UserName\CopperPlug (definition files)

Have I missed anything?

[CopperPhil]

Ha ok, yes indeed from a fresh install you need to restore all of this. I didn't mention it because it's quite technical and a system backup usually includes registry, users and programdata folders.

The registry content that could be useful to restore is the machine ID and the number of virtual ports. The rest can be re-generated automatically or depends on the system (current ethernet port).

The duplicate repository (ProgramData\CopperLan\DupRepos.dta) would be also interesting. This is used to restore unique software identifiers in case of multiple simultaneous running instance of the same soft. I mean, the first instance of program "mysoft" will always get the same identity. The same if you start a second instance, a third, etc... Identities are restored by the VNM in the order they have been created the first time.

[chrisfoster]

OK..my house burns down, all is lost.

But....I have my CopperLan keyboard in the car.

I build a new PC and plug the keyboard onto the network.

Is the windows8 pc magically repopulated or is their more involved to getting all those settings AND plugin definitions restored.

Or...maybe I'm still screwed to a point

[CopperPhil]

It depends on the CopperLan keyboard. We're currently working on several designs, some of them have "CopperLan Snapshot" capability

A CopperLan software/hardware can (if it is designed to) grab all the settings of any CopperLan application running on the network (including connections, controller assignment, current parameter values, internal settings...). Years ago we made a prototype of CopperLan USB key with a single snapshot store/recall capability (long/short press on the push button). Today, with the current USB key capacity, one can design a CopperLan Time Machine in a USB stick.

If you know some manufacturer intrested by the concept...