[Server-devel] XS backup/restore feature

[Martin Langhoff]

On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:17 PM, Daniel Drake<dsd at laptop.org> wrote:
> Any interest in adding functionality to the XS to back up and restore user data?

Yes!

> Including:
>  - stuff that has been posted on moodle
>  - XO backups
>  - registration information

Yes...

> but *not* stuff where deployments should always have a master copy elsewhere:
>  - activities from activity server
>  - OS images in xs-rsync
>  - system files
>  - ...

Makes sense.

> Here's an initial implementation, which can be used to create a
> single-file compressed backup which can then be copied to an external
> storage device.

Where do you want to back it up to? I really like the idea of having a
"standard" single file backup that we can use over various modes of
storage (as your patch implements), but some storage "backends" would
be better served with an rsync-friendly format (and tgz ain't).

And the difference is not small.

> Backup part has been tested, but not restore just yet. Needs a patch
> to idmgr create_user too. What do you think?

Initially I thought that the UID/user mapping would have to be saved
and restored, but tar defaults to username rather than numberic
uid/gid.

You _will_ want to restore the ACLs in the backup (they're trivial,
don't bother to save them). They are set in the script we trigger
post-backup-completion.

cheers,



m
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 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
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