Manually backing up config

[JoSSte]

I recenltly broke my OPNsense installation.

So now I have booted the system with a linux usb key and `dd`'ed the main partition to an extrernal disk.

[cookiemonster]

Do you have a question?

[meyergru]

At least I have one for the OP: What are you going to do with that dd image? I would doubt that restoring only the main partition would give you a bootable machine.

The canonical way is to create a backup of config.xml via UI and in case your machine is broken, reinstall from scratch and import the config.

In case you "only" botch something in the configuration and the UI is still accessible, there is now "System: Snapshots" if you happen to install on ZFS (which you should) and have created a known working snapshot. Also, you can rollback to your last settings via "System: Configuration: History".

[cookiemonster]

That said however I have a use for a whole disk backup, maybe the OP has something similar in mind. Whole disk is better in my case though.
I am running OPN for over a year now as a Proxmox VM. Out of necessity it was a small mini-pc type of appliance with very limited storage conntroller and type. Also the PSU is outboard laptop-brick type and no molex or similar onboard. For this reason I can't really use a mirrored zfs setup. The Proxmox OS is on a single SATA SSD. The disk doing that function has died on me once, no warning. Basic consumer SSD. Have no spare data centre SATAs only a new U.2 nvme that it can't use.
So now although I can and do take VM snapshots to another disk on the same machine, and we can use Boot Environments, there is that OS risk still there. The VM definitions also get backed up separately.
I am planning on figuring out a schedule to boot to clonezilla and clone the whole disk as a "something better than nothing".
p.s. I finally figured out how to make an OPN based uefi pxe server that can have clients boot to clonezilla lite server but obviously that is no good for this, i.e. when it is the dhcp server the one that is out of service.