[kwlug-disc] GUI Backup Software

Wed Jun 11 17:12:46 EDT 2014

Nah.

Nothing at this level doesn't involve clients on the machines. (Which 
usually push, or server polls. [vs pulls])

This will be imaging of machines back to central server.

I immediately thought of Amanda (as others have said, Open Source, 
always has been - John presented on it at one point) - think of Linux / 
OpenSource equivalent to Seagate Backup Exec Enterprise. I think I 
mentioned it earlier, including the non-trivial setup necessary. 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Maryland_Automatic_Network_Disk_Archiver 
, http://www.amanda.org/

For this, you're never really going to have a gui. (But a web interface 
probably, at least with Seagate). e.g. As mentioned, webmin. (Seems to 
me you could customize a webmin page, much like an mmc snap-in, for a 
backup status page the boss could go to at will.)

Nor do you really want one - if a backup isn't working, your boss isn't 
going to do anything about it. Except know that something went wrong, 
and call you (to fix, remotely).

In essence, barring other additional personnel requirements you haven't 
told us about yet, all you really want is a dashboard - all is well with 
world - if not, which one isn't. Phone Joe to go fix - vacation be darned.

mondo-archive is also a candidate for you, here. (Images to iso's store 
on filesystem. e.g. Central store at site, if not on each local 
machine.) http://www.mondorescue.org/ 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_Rescue

I think, however, you're not really talking backups - you're talking vm 
snapshots. Snap to local storage. rsync (or backup) from that storage 
back home. Perhaps even remote btrfs file system snapshots of the local 
store is in play here.

I'm guessing you're in this boat because you're looking for high uptime 
/ recovery time, just in case. Something goes kaflooey, restore last 
known good snapshot, get on with your day. Note - not good for e-mail or 
sql servers, they'll be very unhappy if you don't have an up to the 
second restore. You need separate sql and/or e-mail dumps for that - 
processes usually built in with the server software itself. Possiby same 
for file stores, but users typically have copies squirrelled away 
somewhere themselves, too. Mirroring / live replication file systems 
could be in play for that.

Backups back home would only come in to play / be useful if their entire 
building went up, in which case you have many other problems on your 
plate first. Like acquiring hardware, and a home for it, to have 
something to restore to in the first place.

Local storage would also put the onus for backups / hardware on the 
client, not you.

Under this scenario, it would also suggest local archival backups, 
probably to a removable HD, that you periodically courier from them to 
you. i.e. In the scenario with the building gone, whether the backup is 
a week old or not, they'll be happy to have it back at all.

If they're not, then they're looking at a different beastie, and would 
be their problem, not yours, to effect some sort of live backup/restore 
to cloud.

In the mean time, I know get that you are probably really intending a 
last ditch (vendor - to customer) CYA solution.

Probably worth a heart to heart with your boss / client - this can get 
very expensive very quickly, hardware wise. Software may be free. Add in 
your own learning curve time, too.

And don't forget ... test your solution once in place. The only thing 
worse than the backup not made is the broken backup - at least with the 
former you don't do backflips trying to get back the unrecoverable. Nor 
do you lose the contract for failure to deliver.

On 14-06-11 04:01 PM, CrankyOldBugger wrote:
> So you're looking for more of a pull solution as opposed to a push?  i.e.
> you want something on the server that reaches out to the headless Dells and
> requests the changed files, as opposed to installing a backup client on
> each Dell that pushes files up to the server.
>
> In the Windows world I would recommend a NAS such as the Synology
> DiskStation (which goes around each night and polls each client), but that
> device depends on rsync for Linux client backups.
>
> I'm not sure what to recommend for this now..
>
>
>
> On 11 June 2014 15:50, Joe Wennechuk <youcanreachmehere at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Maybe Duplicati is not what I need.
>>
>> I have about 90+ headless Dell T-420's at our customer locations running
>> ProxmoxOpenVZ 1.9-2.3. I need to back them all up to a server that I host
>> here. I want  nice dashboard so my boss can look at it and see all of the
>> backups are fine.
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2014 15:37:12 -0400
>> From: crankyoldbugger at gmail.com
>> To: kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
>> Subject: Re: [kwlug-disc] GUI Backup Software
>>
>> Please do keep us posted, I might look at this myself as well.
>>
>>
>> On 11 June 2014 15:10, Joe Wennechuk <youcanreachmehere at hotmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> I'm going to try the duplicati for now, I will keep you posted.
>>
>>
>>
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