Meteobridge Pro did an automatic reset: data lost

[TonvG]

Hi, I'm new here. My name is Ton and I live in The Netherlands.

Using for some years an older ASUS version of the Meteobridge. This one is connected to my Vantage Pro II console and sending it's data to Weatherlink and some online Weather services.

Since I wanted to get more out of my weather station, more sensors and nice graphs, I upgraded to the Meteobridge Pro. I kept my old Meteobridge running and uploading to Weatherlink on my computer, but the online Weather services are now coming from the Pro version. I'm still learning a lot, not familiar with programming in Linux, but I made some minor modifications in the Display and I could make some nice extra graphs. And yesterday I included an USB stick in the front to make an external backup. The system said that the backup went fine, but I couldn't see it in my computer.

Now the problem. After 4 weeks running, this morning the Meteobridge display was gone. I looked into the system: my own made display was gone. And my own made graphs also. And the worst part: all my data, collected from the last 4 weeks were gone.

I could see in the system that is had restarted in the middle of the night. I'm uploading every 10 minutes to several online weather services and there was not even a break in my data. So it was a very short reset. And luckily I have my Weatherlink data collected via the other Meteobridge.

This is what I see now, it looks that the data on the USB is also gone?

Platform: Meteobridge PRO
RAM: 61500 kB totaal, 18132 kB beschikbaar (70% gebruikt)
Opslag USB: Front USB 14.1 GB total, 14.1 GB free (0% gebruikt)
SW-versie: Meteobridge 5.2 (Jan 11 2022, build 14655), FW 1.4

Can someone tell me what went wrong?

[Mattk]

Sounds like there could have been a slight power outage and you have the Version Control set to "get newest on boot" which would account for the latest FW being loaded, ,not normally a big deal but not the best policy to automatically get newest on boot.

If you have been dabbling in the MBPro OS then hard to tell what might have been changed?

I notice you are running the system from the front USB? Try setting this back to Internal USB Storage

[TonvG]

I now switched it to 'used installed version' And for the moment back to Internal USB again.

Further, I had the idea that it might have something to do with the USB installed the previous day. However I did this to be able to do a more safe backup. It seemed that the opposite happened. In the Wiki it was advised to install such USB storage.

The only thing I changed was that I copied a dsp file, modified it to show the windspeed in m/s and added the sunshine in W/m2. That modified file with new name I placed back in the template folder. And I used that modified file for some weeks. Further I added a few graphs.

[Wheetie]

The system said that the backup went fine, but I couldn't see it in my computer.

What's the partition scheme of your USB? Is the USB formatted with a GUID partition scheme (GPT)? I inadvertently did this because it's the default on mac, and Meteobridge was storing the backups to the hidden EFI partition (~200 MB partition). The EFI partition is FAT32, and doesn't show up on the desktop on a computer. It's also normally the first partition, so assigned the sda1, which seems to be the one Meteobridge typically mounts when doing backups. So it's possible your backup data are being stored here.

The log should show the size of the backup media, and it should be close to the size of your USB drive if it's storing to the correct partition on the USB drive.

But if you switched the location of the database media to the external USB drive, Meteobridge might have overwritten or reformatted the drive? I'm not sure what the consequences are if selecting this option.

[TonvG]

What's the partition scheme of your USB?

My question is: what should it be? I'm not so well aware about the possibilities of the different types. And what should it be for the Meteobridge? FAT32? It is a Sandisk Ultra fit 3.1 Flash drive. I assumed it was already formatted, as it contained some Sandisk software. So I just plugged it in to see if it was recognised. And it was.

I never unplugged it, because I wondered, as in Windows or on the Mac it is always better to remove it in the software first, to prevent damage to the flash drive. Only after the problems I removed it. If I now read it out on the Mac or on Win10, it says: should be formatted first. In Win10 the type is set to RAW.

What I further did yesterday evening is factory reset. I had a backup of the configuration, so I could easily get my right settings back. To my surprise I got most of my data back. Everything up to the early morning January 14th, when it crashed. Now only my data of most of 14 and 15 January were gone. But it logs again as it should be.

For the moment I think I leave it like that. I filled in the most important readings in hourly format for the last 1.5 days. That I could recover from my uploaded data tot Weather services.

Now I have my doubt. I bought a Flash drive for safety reasons not to loose data. But it made me loose the data... What do others do?

Or do I have a Meteobridge on which the internal memory is not so reliable?

[Wheetie]

My question is: what should it be?

File System should be FAT32, and pretty sure the partition scheme should be MBR (Master Boot Record). I think that's how they come from the factory, and the intention is to be able to plug in a new drive and have it work.

I just wanted to chime in because I just ran into the problem of not being able to find my backup, and it was because I had used a USB formatted as GPT scheme. GPT will work, but you need to either delete the EFI partition, or manually partition it with something like gparted and only have the single FAT32 partition.

Sounds like we're in similar positions, I am just now trying out some of the more advance capabilities of the MPro and MRPi, including a backup strategy. I did notice that on one occasion, after I had plugged the USB drive, the MPro did a bit of a reset, or maybe froze. It's now been fine for a couple days, so not sure what happened.

After you plugged in your USB, did you change the "Database Media" location to the external USB? I think it should always be stored on the internal card and only use the external drive for backup.

[admin]

You are not using the USB SLC storage inside the MB PRO which will make the whole system errorprone and eliminates to option to do backups on an external USB stick. Please switch back to internal USB and problems will be gone.

[webcam]

Hi there,
everything was suddenly deleted for me and my brother too. I was able to restore everything from an old backup.
Babe didn't do anything to the system and everything was deleted yesterday. All data and all settings.
Strange.
Use Meteobridge PRO without external USB, all original.
It's been running again for about 18 hours.
Greeting
Daniel


Plattform: Meteobridge PRO
RAM: 61500 kB insgesamt, 12840 kB frei (79% belegt)
Speicher ATP: Internal 903 MB total, 838 MB free (7% belegt, 94.0 yrs)
SW-Version: Meteobridge 5.2 (Jan 11 2022, build 14655), FW 1.4
Laufzeit: 18 Stunden, 37 Minuten Puffer: 1 Einträge (0%)
Leistungsdaten: 5.45V 452mA 2.47W (Geräteinnenklima: 48.0°C 9%)

[admin]

Please notice that per minute data is just kept in RAM unless you select to have it stored permanently on system administration tab. Per hour data and above is always stored permanently. Therefore, if you have a powerfail and MB PRO starts again, per minute data might be lost, regarding your settings.

Apart from that I hardly believe in a fatal DB crash on your and your brothers MB PRO. If the new version the MB loads on startup - if not told otherwise - should be responsible for a data loss, then please restart again to verify your assumption that there might be a bug in the new SW version. I don‘t think there is one, but it would be foolish to rule out any bugs on my side.

I hope this helps a bit.

[webcam]

Ok, rebooted the system. The system booted up cleanly and is running again.
We didn't have a power outage. Apparently it was just bad luck.
Greeting
Daniel