# Node Red on PI. Improving reliability and recoverability

**URL:** https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-red-on-pi-improving-reliability-and-recoverability/2020
**Category:** General
**Created:** [3 August 2018 00:33 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-red-on-pi-improving-reliability-and-recoverability/2020 "2018-08-03T00:33:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 2
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Erbachm](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/erbachm/32/977_2.png) [@Erbachm](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Erbachm)
#### Post date: [3 August 2018 00:33 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-red-on-pi-improving-reliability-and-recoverability/2020/1 "2018-08-03T00:33:04Z")

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I'm at the point where I am looking for ways to improve the reliability and reduce time to recover Node Red on my Pi. Here's what I'm thinking of as a starting point.

**Move the userDir and nodesDir directories onto USB**  
The idea here is to isolate dynamic files onto separate media. If I then take an image of the SD Card I can restore at any time or, worst case, rebuild from scratch without having to reinstall nodes or rebuild flows.

**Make my SD Card read only**  
This is purely to avoid potential issues associated with wear due to SD writes

Just wondering what others have done to help increase reliability / simplify recovery.

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### Author: ![krambriw](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/krambriw/32/5429_2.png) [@krambriw](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/krambriw)
#### Post date: [3 August 2018 05:12 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/node-red-on-pi-improving-reliability-and-recoverability/2020/2 "2018-08-03T05:12:24Z")

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For each "critical" Pi in my home automation system, I have a habit of always saving my latest flow to a new folder on a networked drive after I change anything. I copy all files in the directory .node-red but not the subfolders

Then, in each Pi, I have a micro sd-card reader and a sd-card in each. When I have made a "major" change, I manually run the "SD Card Copier", this gives me a full backup in minutes. This sd-card is a fully working recovery option.

To do in addition would be to figure out if I should run this tool automatically on a regular basis. But for now, I do it manually "on demand"

For "things" I know involves a lot of writing to file, I put this on an external USB memory stick. Like video, images etc. I can accept if the USB stcik breaks down at some time, I can then replace it with a new one since no critical data is saved there