[TriLUG] Slightly Off Topic - personal NAS or Cloud Service?

[Alan Porter]

> 1)      Backup Video files!!!!
>
> 2)      Multi-client us (windows, linux, and mac compatible)
>
> 3)      Remote connectivity - being able to access the home based NAS while away at the office or on vacation

If your priorities are to save money and to do continuously unattended 
backups, and you are not so concerned with a nice configuration or 
restoration GUI, then you might consider "flashback", a simple python 
script/package that I wrote a couple of years ago.

https://github.com/sudoer/flashback

I run it on a $20 Pogo Plug, with a 3TB external USB drive.

http://blog.alanporter.com/2014-02-28/pogo-plug-v4-flashback


It's pretty simple, but very effective.  I have used it to recover the 
contents of my MacBook's $HOME after the HDD died.  And I've used it to 
grab individual files when I am out of the house... sometimes from 
computers that are currently powered off.

Basically, it's a python daemon that runs on the Pogo Plug (or any Linux 
machine).  It wakes up every 10 minutes, goes through its list of backup 
volumes and sees which ones on the list are due for a backup.  Then it 
runs rsync, using rsync's clever hardlinking option to deduplicate files 
that are the same from day to day.  It stores the backups in directories 
named "daily.1", "daily.2" and so on. You can also have "weekly.X" 
files, too.  Really, the word "daily" or "weekly" is just a label, and 
you tell how many copies you want to keep and how often you want to run.

If I look at my pogo plug via a web browser, I see this status (I hope 
mailman does not wrap these lines).  NOT FOUND means the machine is not 
pingable.  WAIT means the next backup is not yet due.  You'll see other 
things like BACKING UP and ROTATING.  I also have one that is DISABLED.

2015-01-31 17:24:38 : sleeping 5 min

        INDEX               LAST BACKUP         AGE   /CYCLE STATUS
enigma-home-weekly     2014-05-07 16:19:11   23245527/604800   NOT FOUND
mini-usbaudrey-daily   2015-01-12 02:13:43    1696255/86400    NOT FOUND
digit-usbalan-daily    2015-01-26 10:59:45     455093/86400    NOT FOUND
xps-usbsydney-daily    2015-01-26 12:20:03     450275/86400    NOT FOUND
aspire-home-daily      2015-01-29 20:52:27     160330/86400    NOT FOUND
aspire-etc-daily       2015-01-29 20:57:40     160018/86400    NOT FOUND
aspire-boot-daily      2015-01-29 20:57:44     160014/86400    NOT FOUND
bender-backup-daily    2015-01-30 20:39:19      74719/86400    WAIT 
0d+3:14:41
bender-home-daily      2015-01-30 21:01:16      73402/86400    WAIT 
0d+3:36:38
bender-boot-daily      2015-01-30 21:01:43      73375/86400    WAIT 
0d+3:37:05
mini-users-daily       2015-01-30 21:15:50      72528/86400    WAIT 
0d+3:51:12
bender-pub-daily       2015-01-30 21:17:37      72421/86400    WAIT 
0d+3:52:59
bender-copy-daily      2015-01-30 21:18:17      72381/86400    WAIT 
0d+3:53:39
bender-root-daily      2015-01-30 21:34:44      71394/86400    WAIT 
0d+4:10:06
digit-users-daily      2015-01-30 23:04:56      65982/86400    WAIT 
0d+5:40:18
xps-etc-daily          2015-01-31 09:20:27      29051/86400    WAIT 
0d+15:55:49
xps-home-daily         2015-01-31 09:21:02      29016/86400    WAIT 
0d+15:56:24
xps-boot-daily         2015-01-31 09:21:15      29003/86400    WAIT 
0d+15:56:37
hedwig-users-daily     2015-01-31 11:16:13      22104/86400    WAIT 
0d+17:51:36
hedwig-users-weekly    2015-01-25 14:36:00     528518/604800   WAIT 
0d+21:11:22
pogo-root-weekly       2015-01-26 16:23:51     435646/604800   WAIT 
1d+22:59:14
pogo-boot-weekly       2015-01-26 16:24:01     435637/604800   WAIT 
1d+22:59:23
bender-backup-weekly   2015-01-29 15:01:50     181368/604800   WAIT 
4d+21:37:12
digit-x-weekly         2015-01-29 18:41:06     168212/604800   WAIT 
5d+1:16:28
digit-users-weekly     2015-01-31 13:04:01      15637/604800   WAIT 
6d+19:39:23
mirage-home-daily      2014-06-22 16:15:08   19271370/86400 DISABLED

You might also notice that I use it to back up our USB sticks, when they 
happen to be plugged in.  My kids have been known to lose their USB 
sticks at school, and so I back them up every time they are plugged in 
(no more often than every 24 hours).

Flashback does not have a GUI.  IF you want a file or a directory from 
flashback, you just rsync the files back.  It's not a GUI for your 
granny to get her files back, but it's OK for any card-carrying TriLUG 
member.

I back up Ubuntu machines and Macs, but I have also backed up Windows 
boxes using this same system (you have to install an rsync client on the 
Windows box).

If you'd like more info on flashback, let me know.  The docs on my 
github site are a little weak, but I have at least one friend who has 
set it up with just a little prodding.


Alan