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Automatic backups on USB drive

I was using Samba Backup add-on for a long time to automate backups and put the backup files on a different device. Once the device failed I was looking for the solution to put backups on USB stick. It turned out that HA doesn't support mouting USB devices by default. So here is the final solution I have found and which works:

  1. Mounting USB

    You can manually mount USB if you have enabled HA SSH access (not via the add-on! you can read more here).

    The alternative is to use the solution presented in the gist here. Nice thing about it is that it will automatically mount any USB you stick into the port and it will make it available for docker containers.

    • Format USB stick (FAT/EXT4) and label the drive "CONFIG"
    • Create udev folder
    • Download the gist file and put it inside created folder
    • Insert USB to the port on your HA device
    • Go to Configuration > Addons, Backup, Supervisor > System > Host, click on the dots button and chose Import from USB
    • Remove the USB stick
    • If you want to use the same USB stick you need to rename it (drives with "CONFIG" label won't be mouted). Ofcourse you can remove the udev folder now.

    Note: Now if you plugin your USB the drive will be mouted in /mnt/data/supervisor/media/XXX. Where XXX is the drive label name.

  2. Exposing share - use "Samba Share" add-on

  3. Automatic backups - use "Samba Backup" add-on

    This add-on has to be installed manually. More info here.

    E.g. I have formatted USB stick and I labelled the drive "BACKUPS". So add-on configuration looks as follows image

Devices

ConnectionBrandModelPhotoNotes
WiFi
SonoffS20imageSmart plug; ESPHome firmware
SonoffTouchimageSmart wall switch; ESPHome firmware
Shelly1imageSmart switch; ESPHome firmware
Tp-LinkHS110imageSmart plug with energy monitoring
BroadlinkRM mini 3imageIR remote controller (not configured yet)
SonoffGK-200MP2-BimageIP camera; Pan-tilt controlled via Home Assistant
D-LinkDCS-932LimageIP camera
RF433
RFXCOMRfxTrxEimageUSB RF transceiver
OWLOWL Intuition GatewayimageEnergy monitoring via CT (current transformer) sensor
NexaLML-710imageDoorbell
NexaLWST-605imageWall switch
ZigBee
PhosconConBee IIimageUSB ZigBee transceiver
AqaraRTCGQ11LMimageHuman motion sensor
AqaraWSDCGQ11LMimageTemperature and humidity sensor
AqaraQBKG04LMimageSmart wall switch (2 gang) connected to mains (no neutral version)
AqaraQBKG02LMimageSmart wall switch (2 gang) battery powered
AqaraMCCGQ11LMimageDoor sensor

Devices used in the past

ConnectionNameNotes
WifiTp-Link HS100Used in the past mainly with Domoticz and I switched to Sonoff S20 in the same time when I've migrated to HA
RF433Telldus TellstickNetBoth mainly for connecting with Nexa devices. It was working but just partially - RfxTrxE works much better with Nexa and other RF devices.
RF433CoTech motion sensorBattery lasts for 2-3 months. Not convenient to use as different ID sent when motion is detected and different when there is no move any more
RF433Nexa (random devices)Smart sockets, motion detectors, wall switches, remote controls, etc. Replaced all with ZigBee devices. The main drawbak of RF is that you never know if the signal reached the device or not.

Configuration

ESPHome

Tips for beginners:

ESP32-Wroom-32D

image image image

Alexa

My other HA related repos

battery-state-card | github-flexi-card