How to back up and roll back Live Updates?

[w6kd]

Umberto;

  Can you outline for us, please, what files/directories we need to save before a Live Update so that when you push a broken update we have the possibility of rolling it back to something that worked? 

  This last one, 4292 I think, was the second time in a month that a Live Update has broken GSX for me...I think if you're going to do this short-cycle update thing with minimal testing, there needs to be a way for us to recover to a previous working state.

Thanks

Bob Scott

[AFS]

There is no "rollback".
If you want to be sure that you can go back to the previous version after a faulty update, you have to back up the entire "Addon Manager" folder - that's about 9 GB.
Copy, rename, done.
You can then copy back - overwrite the update.

I have done this myself several times, I ALWAYS have a backup copy of a working version.

[w6kd]

There is no "rollback".
If you want to be sure that you can go back to the previous version after a faulty update, you have to back up the entire "Addon Manager" folder - that's about 9 GB.
Copy, rename, done.
You can then copy back - overwrite the update.

I have done this myself several times, I ALWAYS have a backup copy of a working version.

I know there currently is no rollback...but I am suggesting that there *should* be. 

My Addon Manager folder is more like 15GB, because that's where all the FSDT sceneries reside as well as GSX.  But...there are also files in the users\...\roaming\Virtuali\* folder, as well as in C:\ProgramData\Virtuali\*, and possibly elsewhere.

Though backing up the Addon Manager folder may work in most cases, it also may not be complete.

Regards

Bob Scott

[virtuali]

  This last one, 4292 I think, was the second time in a month that a Live Update has broken GSX for me...I think if you're going to do this short-cycle update thing with minimal testing, there needs to be a way for us to recover to a previous working state.

The current rollback works fine and it's  not "broken". If it's not work on your system, you should file a proper report, so we can check why it's not working on your system.

The other update you are referring to, had a problem, which I couldn't fix because I was away for some days, and MY internet connection break up AND my mobile data allowance ( emergency backup ) WAS also broken at the same time because of the end of the month+year so, it was really a exceptional coincidence.

So no, the Live Update works, and if you think it might not, make a backup of the Addon Manager folder before doing a Live Update.

[w6kd]

The current rollback works fine and it's  not "broken". If it's not work on your system, you should file a proper report, so we can check why it's not working on your system.

The other update you are referring to, had a problem, which I couldn't fix because I was away for some days, and MY internet connection break up AND my mobile data allowance ( emergency backup ) WAS also broken at the same time because of the end of the month+year so, it was really a exceptional coincidence.

So no, the Live Update works, and if you think it might not, make a backup of the Addon Manager folder before doing a Live Update.

"The current rollback works fine"...could you elaborate, please?  I'm not aware of any way to roll back a Live Update once it's installed.  If you mean that the current live update is not broken, well, actually it is...but you've already seen in that in the other thread where I and others did report it (the pushback using quickedit issue).

I know what happened with the other update over the holidays, and I'm not throwing rocks at you about that--I understand the circumstances.  That said, I think we should have a way of getting back to a previous config when an update breaks things.  If saving the Addon Manager folder is sufficient to back up all of GSX prior to running an update, that works for me.  It would be nice to have to option to automatically back up the current setup when an update runs, especially for those less tech savvy amongst us.

Regards

Bob Scott

[virtuali]

"The current rollback works fine"...could you elaborate, please?  I'm not aware of any way to roll back a Live Update once it's installed.  If you mean that the current live update is not broken, well, actually it is...but you've already seen in that in the other thread where I and others did report it (the pushback using quickedit issue).

Yes, I meant to write the "Current Live Update is not broken", and of course it's not.

"broken", means something that is preventing to use GSX, which is clearly not the case with the pushback ignoring brakes after exiting from the QuickEdit. It's clearly a bug, but it's NOT preventing to use GSX, since there are clear workarounds, like creating a standard ( non Quick ) custom Pushback first, reusing an already saved QuickPushback, etc.

If saving the Addon Manager folder is sufficient to back up all of GSX prior to running an update, that works for me.  It would be nice to have to option to automatically back up the current setup when an update runs, especially for those less tech savvy amongst us.

There will always be users complaining about backing up dozen of GB ( 9.0 GB is likely if you have only a couple of FSDT sceneries, it will way more if you have more of them ) will take too much space, and it will take time too, just for the ability to rollback.

Yes, we *might* add a "proper" rollback function, one that would trace exactly which files have changed and backup only those, with a restore option.

Yes, of course, everything is always possible but, our time is limited and, would you be willing to forfeit or delay something more important like:

- new service and features like cleaning vehicles, lavatory vehicles, fire trucks, ambulance, vehicles for passengers with limited mobility, taxibots, reverse pushback, etc.

- Jetways supporting AI

- a new Fuel Hydrant animation to support more airplanes like 737, MD80

- working to ensure compatibility with UPCOMING flight simulator(s) ?

Frankly speaking, what new features would excite users more ( resulting in more sales, which are required for us to survive ), the ones I made a list of, which are all planned and coming, or the ability to rollback "just in case" ?

HINT: You might try installing the Addon Manager ( all FSDT software ) on a Cloud shared drive, like Dropbox, One Drive, Google Drive, etc. I never really tried it, so I have no idea if there are other issues but, they usually have the ability to rollback files to a previous date.

[w6kd]

Well, I'd ask you to put yourself in our shoes...you spend 30-45 minutes setting up a flight, going through all the preflight preps etc, call for push and then, where it worked beautifully just the day before, GSX now goes wonky on you and leaves your acft in a state where you have to shut it all down and embark on a day-long troubleshooting campaign. 

Don't underestimate the value of reliability in a product.

For backups, do the files installed in the Virtuali subfolders under ProgramData\... and user\...\Roaming\... also need to be backed up?  Any others?

Regards

Bob Scott

[virtuali]

Well, I'd ask you to put yourself in our shoes...you spend 30-45 minutes setting up a flight, going through all the preflight preps etc, call for push and then, where it worked beautifully just the day before, GSX now goes wonky on you and leaves your acft in a state where you have to shut it all down and embark on a day-long troubleshooting campaign.  

That would be a "broken" update, but it's NOT the case of the really minor issue that happens here because it only happened after a Quick Edit and only the first time, because after it's saved, it won't happen again.

This means, you could simply Aborted the pushback from GSX and, choose "Reposition" if you wanted to it again, and it would repeat the same QuickEdit you just saved, without the bug , and this didn't require a restart the sim or shut down anything or caused any issue with the GSX own flow, since Pushback is the last thing you do. So no, this doesn't apply to your example of losing anything of your flight preparation.

Don't underestimate the value of reliability in a product.

Of course, but again, this wasn't a case of a lack or reliability that had any effect on the overall simulation. I'll try to make an example:

My new Tesla Model 3, which is not a 30$ flight sim add-on made by a small company, but it's a 60.000$ car made by a company than today is worth more than Ford+GM together, has several bugs in the Smart Summon feature ( 6000$ option ), like always saying it cannot be used on public roads, even when I'm clearly well outside of them, and of course this is a known bug. It's supposed to log in Spotify, but it doesn't work, even if I paid for premium connectivity. It's supposed to support YouTube, but the I cannot see my preferred videos, since I cannot login with my account, because the browser is not supported by YouTube so it always connects anonymously, and so on.

So yes, bugs happens everywhere...

For backups, do the files installed in the Virtuali subfolders under ProgramData\... and user\...\Roaming\... also need to be backed up?  Any others?

Everything under %APPDATA%\Virtuali are YOUR own settings, so the Live Update will never touch them.

%PROGRAMDATA%\Virtuali contains only the GSX airport cache, which is cleared automatically with every Live Update in any case, so it's not something you want to "save".