[Server-devel] Backup And Restore Feature Documentation

[Greg Smith]

Hi Guys,

I'm cleaning up the 8.2 release notes and filling in the Backup and 
Restore feature description (its #3 on the list of major new features in 
the release!).
See: 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/8.2.0#Backup_and_restore_to_school_server

I'm still not clear about three areas:

1 - Does the backup attempt every 30 minutes and run successfully no 
more than 1 per 24 hours? (there's mention of cron job but its not clear 
to me if its in or not)? Is this turned on by default in 8.2 and is 
there anyway to turn it off (pretty sure that's a default is on and you 
can't turn it off but wanted to check one last time)? What happens if 
there is no school server? What happens if there is a school server 
listed in the networks control panel but its unreachable? What happens 
if you are not registered will it still try to backup (maybe just open 
and close every 30 minutes)?

2 - Does it backup everything in the journal? I think the answer last 
time I asked was "everything in the datastore" which I believe = 
journal, but wanted to check one last time.

3 - What is the quota and can it be changed? What is the maximum 
snapshot age and can it be changed? Also, I don't fully understand what 
"snapshot" means.
Here's an example:
day 1 it backs up my journal which has 100 items
day 2 it backs up again and I have 5 new items.
day 3 it backs up again and I have 10 more items, but now I exceeded my 
quota so it goes and deletes the old snapshot.

Does that mean it removes the first 100 items I had in the journal from 
the backup? If not what does it remove?

4 - If you restore a single item, does it get placed in the journal back 
where it originally came from or is it moved to the top? In either case 
does it overwrite the previous instance if it still exists? Should be OK 
to overwrite as I think they should be the same file, just want to be 
sure I understand.

I apologize if I asked all this before. I think the last time was before 
the feature was complete. I want to get it right for the documentation. 
Feel free to update this 
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/XS_Blueprints:Datastore_Simple_Backup_and_Restore 
with the answers or you reply to me I'll update it then ask for a final ack.

Thanks,

Greg S

FYI I wasn't always such a documentation pest :-( Somehow that's been my 
role on this list lately, but in the past I was more interested in 
designing workflow and SW.

If you want to see some hardcore documentation see the manual for one of 
my previous products (a CDN)
Replication Status section seems tangentially related to this XS 
feature: 
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/app_ntwk_services/waas/acns/v55/configuration/central/guide/9136rep.html

Not the prettiest interface I ever worked on. You would not believe how 
many hours we debated before we reached agreement on when to set those 
little lights to Red, Green or Yellow! On the upside we built a system 
that managed files, configurations and interbox communication on up to 
2,000 servers. Last I heard, there's a content engine in every school in 
Scotland, Catalonia Spain, Broward county, FL and others not to mention 
every Citibank, Costco, Walmart, St George's Bank branch etc.