[rdiff-backup-users] Re: An idea

[Morten Werner Olsen]

On Thu, Oct 30, 2003 at 09:11:13AM -0600, Dave Kelly wrote:

...
> My idea consists of writing some sort of config file where I can have
> standard config items, like a servername, server IP, username, password,
> mount point (for the novell & windows shares), etc.  Maybe one config file
> per server.  Then an outside python script that parses all the config files,
> and runs the backups.  This would make it much easier to add and remove
> servers, because all you'd have to do is add a config for the server, and
> the script would pick it up.
...
> Thoughts on this?
> 
> In conjunction with this, I'm hacking together (and hacking is definitely
> the best description here) a Webmin module (http://www.webmin.com/) that
> would allow me to add and remove servers via editing the conf files.  Right
> now, all it does is lists all the servers that I have configured under the
> conf directory, but it shows the last time of backup, what type of server it
> is (according to my conf file), and I can view the summary files for any
> backup I've done.  I'm almost to a point where I can download a file, so I'm
> going to work on an interface where you can browse the list of backed up
> files, choose an archive date, and it'll restore that file to a temp file or
> something and download it to your local drive for restores.
> 
> Basically, my ultimate goal would be to have a graphical interface to
> rdiff-backup, eventually with permissions handling so foolish users could
> restore that Word document they just deleted without having to call me.  :)
> 
> Looking for thoughts and comments on all of this.  Thanks!

Hi!

Sorry about not telling you about my project earlier, but I think it's
about time now... :)

This fall I'm doing a project for the Skolelinux[1] project, which is
to put together a backup system for the Skolelinux distribution. My
design is quite equal to Dave Kelly's. I have one package which
consist of a configuration file, a cron job, and a script run by the
cron job to do the backups. My config file looks like this:

"""
server_address  backupserver.domain
server_destdir  /backup
server_type     local
server_user     root

<client>
    <ltspserver00>
        address         ltspserver00.domain
        location        /etc/dhcpd.conf
        location        /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf
        type            extern
        user            root
    </ltspserver00>
    <tjener>
        address         tjener.domain
        location        /skole/tjener/home0
        location        /etc/dhcpd.conf
        location        /var/backups
        type            local
        user            root
    </tjener>
</client>
"""

The script that runs the backup is written in Perl and uses
Config::General to parse the configuration file.

I am also writing a Webmin module to handle the configuration, doing
some simple restoring, deleting old backups, and handeling SSH keys
(having some problems here at the moment). The reason I'm writing
everything in Perl, is that a requirement from Skolelinux was a
Webmin-module for configuring the system. And, as some of you might
know, Webmin is written in Perl (Config::General is also very handy).

(As I'm writing to this list, rdiff-backup is of course the backup
software I use :) ).

I would be glad if my project could be the start of a GPL project with
other than me contributing with usage, ideas and code! If any of you
want to take a look at the things I'm working with, all my code is
living in Skolelinux's CVS-tree (skolelinux/src/slbackup-client and
skolelinux/src/webmin-slbackup) at the server developer.skolelinux.no
(which runs the cvs pserver for anonymous logins[2]). (A webinterface
to the CVS-tree is also available[3].)

If someone respons positive on this, we can take my project files
(maybe merge them with Dave Kelly's stuff) and put them on a
sourceforge-like site, and start working together...? :)

[1] http://www.skolelinux.no
[2] http://developer.skolelinux.no/cvsusage.html.en
[3] http://developer.skolelinux.no/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/


Best regards,
Morten Werner Olsen.