RemoteBackup
From Wsms
This page outlines a possible class project that would use rsync, bacula and Amazon S3 to provide a near-continuous backup solution for internet-connected computers.
Contents |
Outline
Each workstation uses custom clinet written in perl to backup changed files to my server. The server stores all revisions of the file in a MySQL database that the users access via a web interface.
There are innumerable of backup and archiving programs availabe as commercial and open-scource offerings (vida infra). The reasons we choose to eshew these existing programs is that we haven't yet found one that does exactly what we desire and we want to code our own to gain hands-on experience dealing with the issues involved in Windows programming and networked backup/recovery.
See: SDVault
The way things are (muy mucho malo!)
Sally goes to CompUSA and brings home a box with a shinny new computer. She plugs everything in and starts doing her work. A few months, or maybe a year or two later, the computer stops working and she can't access any of her work.
Sally may spend a lot of time and money trying to get her computer working and her data back. The outcome of this scenario depends partly on what broke on her computer and partly on who she asks for assistance. There are a lot more undesirable outcomes then there are desirable ones.
There are a lot of variations on this same theme. Maybe Sally has been contentious about periodically copying her important files to an external medium like writable CDs. Maybe the house has burned down or the computer and backup disks were all stolen.
Existing projects
freshmeat.net list a lot of backup/archive projects. See: http://freshmeat.net/browse/19/
Versioning or source-code managemet systems like Subversion (SVN) and CVS might also be of interest.
subversion
The free subversion book is at: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/
The homepage is: http://subversion.tigris.org/
There is a perl interface for subversion at: http://search.cpan.org/dist/SVN-Web/.
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.webdav.html is interesting.
We want autoversioning as described for svn at: http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.webdav.autoversioning.html
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8596 Subversion: Not Just for Code Anymore (talks about autoversioning)
WebDAV
WebDAV (see http://WebDAV.org) may be what we want. Maybe all we need to do is create the automated client?
http://linuxgazette.net/131/cressatti.html is a detailed HOWTO for the server side of things.
PerlDAV -- A WebDAV client library for Perl5 http://www.webdav.org/perldav/
http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn.webdav.basic.html says that WebDAV doesn't actually do versioning.
freshmeat.net
Mondo rescue http://freshmeat.net/projects/mondorescue/
bacula http://freshmeat.net/projects/bacula/
Linbox Rescue Server http://freshmeat.net/projects/lrs/
hdup http://freshmeat.net/projects/hdup/
rdiff-backup http://freshmeat.net/browse/137/
Simplebackup is written in perl http://freshmeat.net/projects/simplebackupmigas/
BackupPC
BackupPC is a high-performance, enterprise-grade backup system for backing up Linux, Win32, and laptops to a server's disk. Features include clever pooling of identical files, no client-side software, and a powerful Apache/CGI user interface. See: http://freshmeat.net/projects/backuppc/
filewatcher
filewatcher is a Perl program that uses RCS to maintain a local file archive repository. A configuration file details which files and directories to monitor and to whom reports should be delivered. See: http://freshmeat.net/projects/filewatcher/
FileBunker
FileBunker backs up local files to one or more GMail accounts. The files are encrypted and compressed for security and efficiency, and can be restored on demand. Written in Java. See: http://freshmeat.net/projects/filebunker/
docarc
http://docarc.sourceforge.net/ is written in perl and seems to be targeted at the bio-medical community.
