Hi!
So I successfully restored a system backup as indicated here:
https://docs.start9.com/0.3.5.x/user-manual/backups/backup-restore
Now my system has all the apps I had installed, but all of them show “needs config” state.
The most valuable information I have is my Alby Hub. It has an open channel. It’s almost empty but I’d like to keep it open.
Should I take any precaution or just go configuring app by app and expect everything (specially AlbyHub) to get back to it’s previous state?
Thanks!
You can indeed save the configuration of each service, either the default values or to whatever you saved them as before.
It’s very unlikely that Alby Hub has any channels in it. On StartOS it’s just an interface to LND. Perhaps you mean you have a channel in LND?
Lightning channel backups are STATIC, not dynamic. There’s no means to keep the channel open when restoring from backup because there’s no way to transfer the payments you’ve made and receive since the last backup into that backup. A restoration closes channels.
If the configurations have been saved by the backup, then I don’t understand why all the apps are showing “needs config” instead of loading the saves states…
I’m still copying the blockchain from other node to avoid doing the IBD again. After that I’m expecting all of the apps to “automagically” load the saved configurations when I push the “config” button. We’ll see about that. As I mentioned, I’m copying the blockchain and after that I’ll go one by one, starting with BTC core, which all the rest depend on.
About Alby Hub and LND, I see what you mean. The channel was probably opened using LND, because it’s a necesary dependencia of Alby Hub. But I used Alby Hub to open it.
I did a full backup just before reinstalling, because the disk was giving some problems but was still usable. I was expecting to be able to restore everything as it was at the moment of backup. We’ll see if that’s the case once I configure everything. But if that’s not the case, I would consider it a flaw at least in Alby Hub’s user experiecne. I took the precaution to remove all available sats from my side of the channel, but wouldn’t like to “lose” my channel because of this.
I’ll get back when I’m finished putting everythin up again.
Thanks for your answer!
Many of the services default to “needs config” because we force people to go in and look at what they’re supposed to be doing, work out what they’re supposed to know about, and then have them make decisions based on all this before they run a service. If you have restored from backups, the same “needs config” state is there by default, we have nothing that detects that the newly appeared service was restored rather than installed, but the values have been restored and you don’t need to do anything other that save (or reset to default if you prefer).
My point about Alby Hub was just to inform you that Alby Hub does not have any funds, on-chain or in channels. You can delete it, restore it from backup, reinstall it and it will have no effect on anything at all.
If you mean that you consider the inability for any Lightning Network implementation to restore live dynamic channels from static backups a flaw in Alby Hub… not only is Alby Hub not involved in any of that, but the laws of time and space prevent the static channel backup from doing this. You are right though, that in your very specific case where you have a backup from 1ms before you lost your node, you would technically have an opportunity to keep the channel. This is technically what we do when we transfer the channel DB from one server to another.
Just to update… finished copying the blockchain and everything is now working just as it was before… almost.
My AlbyHub is configured and everything is in place, even the movements on my wallet and some sats… but the channel is not there.
Not sure if having restores the wallet I used to open it I might be able to restore it. And to be honest, I’m starting to lose hope.
But I’ll guess I’ll go ask Alby’s crew about that.
Thanks for your help!
It makes complete sense that he channel is not there – because you restored a Static Channel Backup. Please see my previous messages.