Doing a full Nucleus Backup

Roon Software Discussion Nucleus
1

I run Roon database backups to two different locations on a routine basis and keep 20 versions in one place and 40 versions in another. I’ve only used the restore feature once, which was when I moved from my old server to a new Nucleus+ about two years ago. The restore worked fine. But I’ve always been concerned about the future, since I see a lot of posts about Roon backups being unreliable and potentially becoming corrupted and/or copying corrupted data. So I am looking for advice on how I could do a separate backup of the entire contents of the Nucleus internal drive. I am talking about the database files, not the audio content, of course. I have a 4TB SSD installed in the Nucleus for audio content and I am already backing that up to my NAS via Carbon Copy Cloner.

What I am considering is the following:

  • go to the Nucleus+ system status page and stop the Roon server
  • connect to the internal drive of the Nucleus+ in Finder on my Mac
  • run Carbon Copy Cloner from my Mac to copy the entire contents of the Nucleus’ Data directory (excluding the Storage folder) to my Synology NAS.
  • restart Roon

Thoughts? Is anyone doing something like this, and is there way to test/confirm that this will work without taking the risk of wiping your Nucleus and trying to copy the files back.

2

I’ve had to restore my Roon ROCK twice last year year due to sudden power outage. This caused my Roon database to be corrupt and below is some links to the issues I had.

Issue #1
Issue #2

I do the same a you, keep 4-5 backups and backup of Roon database every night to my Dropbox.
This might not be the best solutions as you mention, if backup day 1 has something corrupt and then it’s overwritten day 6, but restoring from my backups have been successful every time for me.

Best way to do a 1:1 backup, would be to clone the NVMe SSD inside the Nucleus to another NVMe with same size. I had 100% success using this when I upgraded from 512GB to 1TB NVMe SSD for my PC earlier this year. I’ve linked the cloning station I used below. Using this cloning station does not need any PC software and cloning is done from the button located on the cabinet.

Cloning Station

The NVMe in the Nuclues only contains your database, playlists and etc. Music is as you said is stored on the SSD or NAS. Only downside by cloning the NVMe, is that you need to take a part the Nucleus every time and maybe not the solution you want. But, for a “full” healthy backup, it’s might worth to do it sometimes during a year :grinning: