Objective.
This is intended to be a modest manual of Good Practices to try to obtain an optimal use of umbrelOS. A series of tips that allow avoiding and solving problems in the easiest way possible…
Considerations.
1.- Be willing to read more than 3 lines. . and as many as necessary, and take the time required to learn new things. Most of humanity has lost the ability (and will) to read more than 3 lines. They want everything now, and preferably everything done and served. The most they are willing to invest is the monumental effort of making 1 click.
If you are not willing to do this, you will have problems for sure. Because the key to the above is not that you have to read millions of lines and “waste” countless hours on it. The key is to BE WILLING TO DO IT if necessary.
2.- umbrelOS is still not what it promises to be… and, although I’m going to earn the scorn of many, starting with the umbrelOS guys, this is a reality. umbrelOS has all the potential to be an incredible platform but, at least up to this point, it has many errors, especially in each update, in the lack of updated documentation and in the practically non-existent technical support. Having assumed this, one is aware that problems will arise in each update and one must prepare and, if possible, avoid such problems.
3.- Keeping our umbrelOS always up to date. The instability and constant errors in each update have led many umbrelOS users to adopt a terrible practice: not updating for fear that everything will stop working correctly. If we add to that the user who believes that the issue is to install umbrelOS, the apps that I need and forget about everything… Well, we have a magnet for problems.
Updates are necessary because, apart from aesthetic changes, they contain solutions to previous problems, performance improvements, new functions, etc.
umbrelOS is based on Debian and, with each update, you not only update umbrel, but also Debian with its own system updates. The apps that you have installed in umbrel are also updating.
In short, if you do not keep your version of umbrelOS up to date, you put yourself at risk and will get into trouble in the medium term. The worst thing is that you don’t get rid of the problem, but rather, most likely, when it explodes in your face it will be worse and require more time, work and effort to solve it.
4.- Third-party modifications/files. Since umbrelOS is not yet what it promises, any third-party modifications can cause us problems. An example of this are those that interact with the Lightning network and install third-party scripts to, in theory, get a better management of the channels they operate.
Third-party files/modifications such as these scripts are a potential risk of problems in each update since they can conflict with the changes contained in the update and then we will hear things like “but it was working perfectly until I updated to v…”.
5.- Depending on your needs, your hardware… Yes, exactly. It is true that you can install umbrelOS on a raspberry but a raspberry is not a solid solution for this, especially if you stick to the basics and tied to an sd which is another unreliable option. Or worse, you start to get out of date because you have a raspberry with 4GB of ram and you are already running out of power and obsolete. An old HD (Mechanical) that you had left over?
And you may or may not agree but you can’t win against this and “Entropy” will take care of slapping you until you understand it.
Don’t get me wrong. A raspberry is a great option for a project, to play with it and try things. It’s great for that. But if your situation is, for example, setting up and putting into production a node that manages Lightning Network channels and where you deposit funds, then you want (and need) more reliable, stable and solid hardware. And for that you have to invest a little more (although the difference in money is not much). A mini PC (NUC) makes the difference in this and the difference in reliability, stability and solidity is more than noticeable. And from there on.
6.- Entropy. It is important that you understand this concept because “…it is key to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that “the amount of entropy in the universe tends to increase over time”. Or what is the same: given a sufficient period of time, systems will tend towards disorder. That potential for disorder will be greater the closer the system is to equilibrium. The greater the equilibrium, the greater the entropy…”. Perhaps it may seem nonsensical to you and make you wonder what the hell this has to do with umbrel!!.
I will explain it to you in the simplest way: Everything, absolutely everything in the universe tends to degrade if it is not cared for and maintained, and if it continues like this, it will end up completely screwed up. umbrelOS does not escape this and it is even applicable to every aspect of our lives.
7.- Backups… Still don’t get it? This doesn’t only apply to umbrelOS. Everything, absolutely everything that is important in your “digital life” must be backed up. And when I say “Important”, I don’t mean your movie or TV collection, your music collection, etc. “Important” is things that, if we lost them, would get us into trouble. So, for example, before updating umbrelOS, back up everything important. The best: always back up everything important, whether it’s part of umbrelOS or whatever. It’s always better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
8.- If I need help… Yes, if in the end we couldn’t avoid all the problems and some of them appeared, ask for help properly. Give all the details possible, provide the corresponding logs, and don’t just post your problem in a forum post with another user’s problem, “similar” to yours but abandoned for like 1 year or more. This is like shouting for help in the middle of the desert… Who the hell is going to listen to you!!.
Open a new thread and ask for help properly. Remember that “official technical support” is practically non-existent at this time, and the help you receive will most likely be from other users. In short, help us help you because those who help you do so without earning anything, out of a desire to serve and help, and dedicating their personal time to your problem.
9.- If you already have problems, identify the cause. Don’t do what most people do in their desperation to fix their problem and not get an answer from an official technical support: they search the forum and find a post with a problem “similar” to theirs. Then, they start “trying” the “solutions” mentioned there, entering commands left and right through the console, without really knowing what they are doing and making the original problem even worse. The fact that another user’s problem is very similar to yours does not mean that it is the same problem as yours. In the best of cases, the only real and verifiable thing is that they are similar, but without specifically identifying the problem, you will most likely just end up complicating and screwing everything up. Ask for help correctly as I explained in the previous point.
Technical Aspects.
Here we come to the practical part of the matter and it is important to mention that the base and the original point of umbrelOS was to facilitate the easy implementation of a bitcoin node and the interaction with the Lightning network. If not, I invite the guys at umbrel to correct me. Over time, the possibility of adding other apps was added and so on until today. For the same reason, I will focus on this which was part of my needs and I consider important.
I know that you may consider your collection of movies, series, music, etc. important. But you can download that again if you lose it. It is not important. Whereas, if you have funds (money, after all) in your umbrelOS… Well, that is important.
Each user presents different scenarios and providing a personalized solution to each one is a titanic task. However, this can serve as a basis to be adapted to the needs and resources of each one.
My context was the following.
I started with an RPI (8Gb ram, SD, 2Tb HDD) with Bitcoin-core and corresponding add-ons. Problems with each update and continuously corrupted sd. This meant constantly reflashing and re-downloading the blockchain (710Gb at the time I’m writing this). Hours and hours of work, headaches, gratuitous stress, a visceral hatred against the umbrelOS guys that led me to curse them even in the shower… Anyway, complaining didn’t solve anything. So I looked for a solution.
I invested in a mini-pc (NUC). 16Gb ram, with a 120Gb ssd for umbrelOS and non-important apps and a 2Tb ssd to store the blockchain and important add-ons. With the fixes I made (I’ll detail them later), if any problem arose that forced me to start from scratch, I could reinstall umbrelOS again and have everything working in less than 1 hour as if nothing had happened. Without having to download the blockchain or lose the Bitcoin-core configuration and corresponding add-ons. All in less than 1 hour. I almost reached nirvana… I wanted to kiss myself on the mouth but it wasn’t enough… anyway, and so on until today…
Then I realized that I had an RPI, the one I started with, that I didn’t really use. And I said to myself: “…myself, there you have another layer of security available before disasters…”. So I installed a second node on the RPI that connects directly and only to the node mounted on the mini-pc (NUC) and that is saving (replicating) the blockchain in real time. This way, if a real catastrophe comes, I have an up-to-date and growing copy of the blockchain, bitcoin-core and corresponding add-ons. Besides, the rpi is also useful for non-important things like downloading my movies and series through qBitorrent, freeing my main node (mini-pc (NUC)) from this load and keeping it as safe as possible for the important things.
And how to get something like that? Here is the recipe.
We will use my example as a scenario.
It is advisable that you invest in a mini-PC (NUC). Preferably, one that allows you to use 2 SSDs internally (1 small SSD for umbrellaOS and non-important things and another SSD, at least 2 TB, for the important things like the blockchain, bitcoin-core and corresponding add-ons.
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Install umbrelOS and non-important stuff on the small ssd. It’s a good idea to assign a static IP, so you can always locate your node in case your access to “umbrel.local” fails.
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Redirect the important stuff (blockchain, bitcoin-core and corresponding add-ons) to the 2nd ssd; the bigger one.
And that’s it. From here on, if you had a problem that forced you to reinstall everything from scratch, you would just have to do the same: Install umbrelOS and non-important stuff on the small ssd. Assign a static IP so you can always locate your node in case your access to “umbrel.local” fails, and set up the redirection to the important stuff on the 2nd ssd, the bigger one because you already have the important stuff stored there and it won’t be affected by the rest. All this in less than 1 hour and working immediately as if nothing had happened.
IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that some of these settings may be wiped/deleted with each umbrelOS update applied.
For the moment, this is the case. But it is just a matter of following the steps one by one again and you will have everything working in 1 hour or less.
But now you have an RPI available. Why not add an extra layer of security and backup just in case? Easy…
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Install umbrelOS on your rpi.
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Change the name of your node on the rpi because it will be within the same network as the other and there will be conflicts. As an example, we can assign it the name “umbrel-2”
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It is convenient that you assign a static IP, so you will always be able to locate your node in case your access to “umbrel-2.local” fails. Remember that we have changed the name to avoid conflicts.
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Install the important apps that you want to backup/replicate and, if you want, non-important things.
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Connect your “umbrel-2.local” node to your main node "umbrel.local.
And that’s it. You now have a backup of the important things in real time and updating.
Remember that this is a “work in progress” and tested up to v1.3 of umbrelOS… Some points may change at any time or new ones may be added if they meet the objective of being more practical and functional than those previously stated.
IMPORTANT: Keep in mind that some of these settings may be wiped/deleted with each umbrelOS update applied.
For the moment, this is the case. But it is just a matter of following the steps one by one again and you will have everything working in 1 hour or less.
