hello
i vibecoded a opnsense plugin because there was a feature i found missing and i really needed it fast.
can someone maybe test/check if the plugin is actually working and bug free?
Thanks in advance
github repo:
https://github.com/VulcanoSoftware/opnsense-backup-plugin
If you did not make the effort to code it why should anyone make the effort to review it?
Well idk, the reason i didn't make the effort to code it is because i don't know how to code
An almost poetic distillation of the times. What you guys captured in just three posts is stunning.
I don't code either.
So the best I can do is to review your readme, which describes your architecture.
Quoteto avoid unnecessary write cycles on the system SSD.
A backup is like what, 250k? That does not bother any SSD, not even if I do a hourly backup.
QuoteAutomatic Daily Backups: Configure a specific time for daily backups.
Why should I want that? My config stays the same, sometimes for months. Instead of doing a daily backup, I just do a backup after I change something in the webGUI. Simply by downloading the XML. Doing a backup on any interval, IMHO, does not make sense. But okay, since it is so small and programming anything else is too complicated, you could do it like the Google Drive backup; daily and keep the last 30 or whatever.
QuoteBackup Management: List, download, restore, and delete backups from the UI.
Restore? Why? There is proven and working way to restore, why should I risk using your script for that task?
TLDR: It all boils down to: What are you trying to achieve?
After you but some thoughts into that question, you can do some research (or ask in the forum) and relize that the problem you are trying to solve, is already solved. Without the risk of AI slop.
This is btw true for almost all "here is my claude code hobby project" posts that flood /r/selfhosted and /r/homelab.
Thanks for taking the time to review my code.
You are right, a 250k file doesn't bother any SSD, so that's not the most important part.
You are right about the fact that the config stays the same for a long period of time, and that it isn't very important to have daily backups. but you never know, i have been a windows user for a long time and found out that backups are very important, but in the case of windows the software itself also isn't that stable. opnsense is indeed probably rock solid and can't break if you don't touch it. but it's just a habbit. if you keep a pc running windows on 24/7 without doing somethings, it can still break itself. the built-in solution you propose to backup my opnsense configuration is a working approach but it's manual work. i like automation and want everything from the router to be kind of centralised on the router. if i manually download it on my client pc. it can still get lost if i save it at a random place and never look back to it.
the readme.md summarizes very good what i want to achieve, but the most important thing i wanted to make sure is that the code was actually working. i litterally installed opnsense yesterday so i don't know a lot about it, so i am not very familiar with testing it on a platform which i have never used.
But there is a periodic backup mechanism with various destination options in OPNsense, already. Standard, out of the box.
Quote from: Vectralis on July 07, 2026, 12:14:28 PMIf I manually download it on my client pc it can still get lost if i save it at a random place and never look back to it.
Ehm...
Is it that hard to have something like :
- C:\Users\$user\My Documents\OPNsense\ - Windows
- /home/$user/Documents/OPNsense/ - Linux/*BSD
And keep everything in there ?!
Just organise your stuff and you should be fine ;)
Quote from: Patrick M. Hausen on July 07, 2026, 12:22:26 PMBut there is a periodic backup mechanism with various destination options in OPNsense, already. Standard, out of the box.
Really? that would be the thing i was searching for. can you maybe tell me where i can find it on the opnsense webpanel?
if that's already built in, then i don't need my plugin and then the plugin is completely useless.
i was probably just too blind to see it because i was in a hurry lol
System > Configuration > Backups:
(https://forum.opnsense.org/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=56417;image)
In System > Firmware > Plugins you will find additional backup destinations:
- git
- Google drive
- Nextcloud
- SFTP
HTH,
Patrick
and if i for example want to backup to the sshd in the machine using that feature, and opnsense is installed on the ssd. does it still need to be zfs then? or is ufs also alright?
"backup to the sshd"? Or is that a typo and you mean "backup to the ssd"? A backup on the same machine is not a backup. If the SSD fails - no backup.
So, yes, you can backup via SSH/SFTP to another machine. Which is one of the recommended ways.
I don't understand the question about the FS. There is really no reason to use anything but ZFS in 2026. Apart from very small embedded systems and/or VMs when the underlying VM storage is ZFS, already.
it's not a typo. in the machine i have an ssd and an sshd. i want to use the ssd for booting and stuff like that. and the sshd just like some folder or something with the backups.
sshd - secure shell daemon. That's what you mean? That's a service to remotely log in to a system from the command line.
There was once a time where hybrid drives were quite usual, a mix of HDD and SSD, called SSHD. They failed miserably because they were slow (when not hitting their SSD cache) and prone to breaking quickly in laptops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_drive
Quote from: Monviech (Cedrik) on July 08, 2026, 02:53:43 PMThere was once a time where hybrid drives were quite usual, a mix of HDD and SSD, called SSHD. They failed miserably because they were slow (when not hitting their SSD cache) and prone to breaking quickly in laptops.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hybrid_drive
Actually they were a nice compromise at the time for some low end laptops that I upgraded with one and so far never failed me despite being Seagate products :P
that's exactly what i mean. sshd (hardware). i planned to use an hdd just for backups, but i didn't have a spare hdd laying around. that's why i ended up using an sshd for backups. i simply found that in my drawer lol.
Quote from: Vectralis on July 08, 2026, 05:34:28 PMthat's exactly what i mean. sshd (hardware). i planned to use an hdd just for backups, but i didn't have a spare hdd laying around. that's why i ended up using an sshd for backups. i simply found that in my drawer lol.
Is it possible to do it with the sshd?
Quote from: Vectralis on July 10, 2026, 12:44:31 AMIs it possible to do it with the sshd?
I think you can use it, but it will need some manual steps to be added to the system and backup the config.xml from time to time, perhaps via a cronjob :)