Re: [cobalt-users] Re: Backups and Restore for Raq

["Carrie Bartkowiak" <ravencarrie@xxxxxxxx>]

> Is there a specific set of Cobalt shell tools that I don't
> know about?  If so, how would I have learned about them
> and not had to bother you lot?

Yes. Jeff Bilicki's Shell Tools. They've been included in the latest
OS updates, so you should have them.
If not, do a search through the archives and you can download and
install them by themselves.

> If you are referring to cmuImport/cmuExport, the two command
> line Cobalt tools I'm aware of, then there are critical
> bugs in these tools.

Good lord, no. I wouldn't touch that screwed-up import/export thing
with a ten foot pole.
The instant I heard that it put in sites willy-nilly and didn't even
bother to put them where they originally were (as in it used to be in
site35, now it's in site1 thanks to the cmu thing) - I decided I
wasn't *ever* going to use it.

> there are specific shell tools for this (as opposed to
> emacs and /etc/* files)?  I want these!

Yes yes! Isn't it cool??
If you've got them, thanks to an update/patch, they'll be in
/usr/sbin/cobalt/
Just man or pico the files and you'll get all of the parameters you
need to do everything I said.

> >As with writing HTML, I am convinced that doing it by hand is the
best
> >way to make sure it gets done correctly.
>
> True, but only because the tools are lame.

What is everyone looking for in a backup tool?
- Are you looking to backup to some place like FreeDrive?
- Are you looking to backup to an FTP server where you could drop in
the username/password and the RaQ would automatically upload the
backup there?
- Are you looking to make a backup that you can then download to your
own hard drive?
- Are you looking to make a backup to sit somewhere like /home/Backup
so it's just there if you need it?

And...
- Would you want one big tarballed/gzipped file of everything...
critical files and sites?
- Would you want two backups - one for critical files and one for
sites?
- Would you want multiple backups - one for critical files and an
additional one for each site?

- Would you want to offer your clients a *real* backup solution of
their sites via web-browser... or does no one care because the client
should have their sites on their hard drive anyway?

If we can answer these questions, maybe we can give Cobalt more of an
idea of what "backup" really means to *US*.

I mean truly, does anyone use the Legato and (whatever that other one
is) backups? I took one look at the price for those things and decided
the little linux box sitting under my desk was a far better solution.
;)

> I don't see why it's unreasonable to want to be able
> to "push a button" and transfer an entire site from
> one Raq to another.  It's a purely mechanical task,
> there should be no decision-making involved except
> for name conflicts, I'd rather do something else
> with my time.

It's not unreasonable at all; it's just that no one has done it...
yet. *grin*

CarrieB